Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard, passing by a stand at a food industry fair, couldn't resist the temptation when he saw a pack of eggs: He lifted up the huevos (functionally equivalent to cojones), joking, "So that Sandoval can see them."
(Front page picture in La Jornada here)
The joke aside, it appears the church is backtracking somewhat from its very strident language and belligerent postures; church spokesman Hugo Valdemar, a sheep in a rabid wolf's clothing if there ever was one, recently declared Ebrard would not be expelled from the church. Ebrard had threatened, should this happen, to take his case to the Vatican.
Even Juan Sandoval, cardinal of Guadalajara and a main protagonist in the church-Ebrard confrontation, has toned down his rhetoric.
Sandoval has over the years many times been exposed as a coward: He barks loudly, but as soon as anyone stands up to him, this clerical equivalent of the schoolyard bully tends to back down. It could simply be that as a judge accepted the slander suit launched by Ebrard, Sandoval realizes that Ebrard is not intimidated.
Yet I am suspecting that what may be an attempt by the church to calm the rhetoric is also the product of having realized they may have stumbled into a trap set up by themselves, where the spat with the church, which has appeared extremely intolerant, may strike a chord with voters, most of who may remain catholic but also quite anti-clerical. The Ebrard-church confrontation, finally, has also helped raise Ebrard's international profile, as the international press has given the conflict much attention.
He went into this battle swinging, and may well come out on top.
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