Surreal development in Guerrero campaign: PRI admits attack, then backtracks

A most extraordinary development in the Guerrero gubernatorial campaign:

Ernesto Vélez Memije is a member of Manuel Añorve Baños' campaign to be governor of Guerrero. Following the brutal attack that left a key PRD member of the opposing campaign of Ángel Aguirre Rivero in a coma, Vélez appeared on television and admitted that the attackers were priístas, but alleged that the PRD member, Guillermo Sánchez Nava, had actually "provoked" the attackers.

(PRD's campaign manager, Jesús Zambrano, has presented what he argues is a leaked PRI plan to use violence to destabilize Guerrero and suppress vote participation ahead of the elections)

Sánchez Nava, to recall, caught a group of apparent PRI sympathizers tearing down election material for Aguirre; when he photographed them, they beat him unconscious.

The interview as such was extremely important, even though Vélez' main point was in essence "Yes, but he made us do it, and it is really his fault."

Then happened the strangest thing. Vélez later the same day obviously regretted what he said, and now argued that Mario Moreno Arcos, a PRD federal deputy, had enticed him to admit the PRI attack, offering him a position in a future Aguirre cabinet. Beatriz Paredes Rangel, the national PRI leader, to her discredit also went on the offensive to deny that the attackers were from the PRI.

This case stinks to heaven. It seems so utterly clear that Vélez is lying - the gist of the interview was an attack on the PRD - with his claim that he was pressured/bribed to say what he did. At the very least, it would mean that he accepted the bribe, then regretted - hardly something that speaks well of him.
But again: The interview was above all an attack on the PRD, and it seems clear that higher ups pushed him to come up with this pretty crazy and absolutely unbelievable cover story.

The worst part:

How can Beatriz Paredes Rangel, of whom one might expect more dignified behavior, subscribe to what is obviously an outright lie, and a poor one at that? Note that new PRI president Humberto Moreira has kept his mouth pretty much tightly shut; his handling of this, his first crisis as PRD national leader, speaks very poorly of his judgment, while his failure to clearly and immediately condemn the political violence speaks ill of his moral backbone.