Mexican church's "Narco donations" and ties to drug lords causes friction and calls for investigations

The issue of narcolimosnas or donations from the drug gangs to the church, as well as the church's ties to the narcos more generally, is causing increasing friction within the Mexican Catholic Church. It has long been an open secret - or no secret at all - that the church has happily accepted massive donations from organized crime to fund its programs, maintain its buildings, or, in the extreme case of Hidalgo, erecting temples in their honor: There, it was recently revealed that Heriberto "El Lazca" Lazcano, head of the vicious Los Zetas mafia, had practically financed the building of the chapel El Tezontle, in Pachuca.

Monseñor Diego Monroy Ponce, rector of the Basílica de Guadalupe, rejects that any donations to the basilica came from the narcos, but called upon Archbishop of Durango Héctor González to reveal whatever he might know regarding the whereabouts of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, Mexico's most famous drug lord.

Senator Carlos Navarrete of the PRD, recently called upon the Attorney General (PGR) to investigate the Mexican Catholic Church for its ties to the drug lords, as did PRI's Jesús Murillo Karam, who demanded the church reveal what it knows. From the ruling PAN? Not a peep.

As long as PAN remains in power, don't expect the PGR to lift a finger against the church no matter its offenses: illegal interference in politics, libel, protecting pederasts, promoting hate crimes, and now, colluding with the narco criminals.

Baja California Sur, continued: PAN's faustian bargain J

The state branch of Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) in Baja California Sur, backed by national PAN leader César Nava, likely thought it had made an absolute bargain when it took in and made Marcos Covarrubias its candidate for governor. Covarrubias was until recently with the PRD, yet dumped the party when he failed to become its nominee for the upcoming gubernatorial elections - an all-too-common story throughout Mexico. Covarrubias also brought scores of his supporters with him.


Yet the PAN loyalists are not amused. The party had already chosen the businessman José Germán Castro as its candidate, yet he was quickly set aside, with other PAN candidates, to make room for Covarrubias  and some other high-profile candidates. Now a PAN rebellion in the state seems likely, adding on to the massive infighting within the PRD in Baja California Sur, which has held the state since 1999.
The likelihood that PRI will retake Baja California Sur is increasing day by day.

A warning tale against an "AMLO candidate" in Mexico State: Juanito

El Universal has a story in today's print edition on Rafael Ponfilio Acosta Ángeles, far better known as Juanito, who now know wants to - drumroll - run for mayor of Mexico City. Given that AMLO has vowed to present his "own" candidate in the upcoming Mexico State elections, the  charade of Juanito, who was AMLO's candidate in Iztapalapa last year, is briefly worth considering. 


To recall, when AMLO's favored candidate Carla Brugada failed to win the PRD's nomination to be the party's candidate for borough chief in the Mexican delegation of Iztapalapa, AMLO engineered the candidacy of Juanito to run on as an AMLO-backed candidate against the official PRD candidate, and called upon the local PRD voters to cast their vote for Juanito, who ran on the label of the Partido del Trabajo (PT) against the PRD candidate. While splitting the vote of the left, the gamble paid off, as Juanito came in first, the PT winning its first-ever delegation in Mexico City, and costing the PRD local representation as well as federal party funding. If there ever was a case of betrayal and "treason," accusations that AMLO like to hurl at the current PRD leadership, it was AMLO's betrayal of the PRD Iztapalapa. In the process he also demonstrated his modus operandi when it comes to respecting outcomes unfavorable to him. 


While Juanito won, after heavy campaigning by AMLO, the case became a huge embarrassment to the left and to AMLO in particular, as Juanito didn't stick to his part of the bargain: He was to step down and allow for Brugada to assume as head of Iztapalapa. Months of wrangling, protests, and disturbances followed, until Juanito, who displayed clear signs of medical schizophrenia, eventually relented, then stood firm, then relented again, then refused to step down... etc etc. 


Juanito today walks the streets of Mexico City, accusing both AMLO and Marcelo Ebrard, and the PRD as well as the PT, of being "traitors." 


AMLO's choice of Juanito as a candidate to short-curcuit PRD's candidate selection in 2009 should stand as a warning, for several reasons. It again demonstrated that AMLO will respect other actors and parties as long as they bend to his will. But even more so, the Juanito debacle displayed a remarkable lack of judgment on part of AMLO and his willingness to engage in complete scorched-earth tactics even against the party that had backed him thick and thin after 2006, having incurred millions of dollars in fines for following his edicts to shut down Mexico City. While the gamble eventually did paid off - Brugada did assume as delegation chief in the end - who is to say that whomever AMLO convinces to run as "his" candidate, will not equally turn his back on AMLO? 


And Juanito? He now rents an apartment in the Roma district and has become a die hard... priísta!