 Corruption is also widespread in Veracruz; investigators have been slow and reluctant to link the Martínez Pérez murder to organized crime.According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Veracruz is by "general consensus one of the most politically corrupt [states in Mexico]".Mexico was ruled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for 71 years until it lost the presidential seat to the conservative National Action Party (PAN) in 2000.