Ex governors are not arrested everyday in Mexico - though quite a few are prime candidates for being thrown behind bars - so the arrest of former Chiapas governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchí (2000-2006) is quite a big deal.
A comparison with the recent arrest of Jorge Hank Rhon is inevitable, though it must be noted that Salazar was arrested in the Cancún airport on orders of the Chiapas government, not the federal authorities. He is accused, among other things, of embezzlement and the abuse of authority, and several civil lawsuits are apparently also pending.
His attorney general, Mariano Herrán, was arrested in January 2009, and Salazar has now joined him in the El Amate prison, where both are now held.
Just like in the case of Hank Rhon one may ask, why now? Clearly the arrest of Salazar marks the definitive break with the current governor, Juan Sabines. Like Sabines, Salazar was a PRI member until he ditched the party to become an alliance candidate for a very wide coalition of parties - every single one, in fact, except from the PRI - that managed to kick out the PRI in 2000 in Chiapas
(the very same thing happened with Sabines; after losing the PRI nomination he was recruited by the PRD, though quickly broke with the party).
What is certainly clear the timing was right, with attention focused on Hank; likely there is as well much more here the eye, as last Friday, Salazar denounced in an interview a break in in his office where armed men apparently stole 50,000 flyers he had planned to hand out to defend himself.
Much dirty laundry remains to be aired.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Setback for Marcelo Ebrard: Supreme Court overturns new electoral code
The Mexican Supreme Court overturned a recent change to the Mexico City electoral code that sought to impose new restrictions on the creation of political parties. The overturned law stipulated that a new party would require a membership of 2 percent of the official voting list in every delegation in order to be able to register as a new party; the Supreme Court found this to be too restrictive.
I understand the Supreme Court's reasoning: It particularly pointed out that the population of Mexico's delegaciones or boroughs varies greatly, so if it achieved say 5 percent in one borough of 2 million, why would it need 2 percent in a borough of only 150,000?
Yet the law - voted unanimously by all parties in the Mexico City legislature (who of course have their own incentive of avoiding new electoral threats) also in my opinion also addressed a very legitimate concern: it sought to prevent new small "strongman" parties of which there may now unfortunately be several - parties organized around say a former secretary of the government, a current senator, etc, who has used his or her position to build up a very personal power base in a typically very clientelistic manner.
Also, it may lead to new political fragmentation - with simply an unmanageable number of new small parties that will make it extremely hard to achieve a majority in the legislature and actually get anything done.
And a setback it is as well for Marcelo Ebrard, who will now likely face new "leftwing" parties that seek to chip off support from the PRD in favor of new and likely highly pragmatic electoral outfits that couldn't care less about any programmatic content.
I understand the Supreme Court's reasoning: It particularly pointed out that the population of Mexico's delegaciones or boroughs varies greatly, so if it achieved say 5 percent in one borough of 2 million, why would it need 2 percent in a borough of only 150,000?
Yet the law - voted unanimously by all parties in the Mexico City legislature (who of course have their own incentive of avoiding new electoral threats) also in my opinion also addressed a very legitimate concern: it sought to prevent new small "strongman" parties of which there may now unfortunately be several - parties organized around say a former secretary of the government, a current senator, etc, who has used his or her position to build up a very personal power base in a typically very clientelistic manner.
Also, it may lead to new political fragmentation - with simply an unmanageable number of new small parties that will make it extremely hard to achieve a majority in the legislature and actually get anything done.
And a setback it is as well for Marcelo Ebrard, who will now likely face new "leftwing" parties that seek to chip off support from the PRD in favor of new and likely highly pragmatic electoral outfits that couldn't care less about any programmatic content.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)