Standoff in Michoacán: Calderón is no Morelos

History is alive and well in Michoacán. President Felipe Calderón appeared in the state to celebrate the Constitution of Apatzingán, which was signed in this municipality on Oct. 22, 1814, and was much the work of the great michoacano José María Morelos.  Apatzingán, notably, is on the frontlines of the "drug war," located in the Tierra Caliente, a zone in the state where the gangster outfit La Familia Michoacana has a very strong presence. Calderón, as might be expected, tried to draw a line from Morelos' heroism to his own "cause":

"Morelos signed the Constitution and gave his life to protect it and safeguard and the Congress that made it possible. He never made a pact with the enemies of Mexicans"

The forced attempt to latch on to Morelos' legacy is a bit of stretch: Morelos was a radical anti-slavery priest who fought and died for Mexico's independence from Spain, displaying an immense courage putting his personal safety at risk at each point along the way.

Yet there is more: The Constitution, while it never really entered into force, served as an important example for later liberal reforms in Mexico. While Morelos was originally a priest - and, to be sure, the Mexican catholic church excommunicated him and has never reversed the decision - the Constitution clearly called for the subordination of the church to the state. Calderón, through his interior minister, has kept a shameful silence the past months as the most ultrareactionary elements of the Mexican Catholic church has blatantly interfered in domestic politics, accusing Supreme Court judges of being corrupt, calling the democratically elected mayor of Mexico City a "dictator," denouncing his party as "fascist," and so forth. 


Yet there is even more: Among the articles of the Constitution were:

19. The law must be equal for all

30. Every citizen is deemed innocent until declared guilty

The elephant in the room is of course the Michoacanazo, where 34 out of 35 state functionaries, arrested for alleged links with the drug gangs, were recently set free due to the complete lack of any evidence. 

In a not-too-veiled reference to the case, local PRD deputy Raúl Morón, addressing Calderón in name of the local state congress, demanded the right "to elect our popular representative without fear of the politicization of justice": Morón dixit:

"It does not escape the judgement of citizens that it is entirely contradictory to demand the strict application of the law for some and to give others the privelige of impunity. It does not escape the judgement of citizens to declare in a speech that the government defendes federalism as a system of government and, at the same time, decide to intrude on local powers that the Constitution sets aside for other orders."

Ouch. Beyond the impropriety or not of the politicization of the memory of Morelos and the Constitution of Apatzingán, I find it to be quite a tribute nonetheless that both Calderón and the local congress, from opposite sides, try to attach themselves to these icons of Michoacán. 
And whatever will come out of the case of the Michoacanazo I am for sure convinced of one thing: Felipe Calderón, you are no Morelos.