Peña Nieto's transition team - where's the change?

Here's a graphic of Enrique Peña Nieto's transition team:

Forty-six men, 8 women. A couple of analysts have noted the "surprises" of Rosario Robles and Roberto Campa, but I see absolutely nothing either new or interesting or noteworthy of this team, many of whom are likely to join his government. Campa belongs to Elba Esther Gordillo, and Robles is an utter opportunist, a former "radical" leftwing maoist who even became head of the PRD until kicked out after nearly destroying the party by contracting a huge amount of debt, and then allowing her lover to try to blackmail the party. She was part of the plot to block AMLO from running in 2006 with the videoscandals, and has done nothing of importance since then.

The others are standard-fare priístas, most of them representative of the "old" PRI as much as the "new" to which Peña Nieto claimed to belong.

Where's the promised change, plurality, innovation, bold signals? Nothing of that kind discerned at least in Peña Nieto's transition team; let's see how the eventual government will look like in December.


Peña Nieto nombra equipo de transición. El Universal, Sept. 6, 2012.
Sorprende equipo de Peña: expertos. El Universal,  Sept. 6, 2012.
Robles entra al primer círculo. El Universal,  Sept. 5, 2012.

Cowardice in Michocán religious conflict

There seems to be no end to the cowardice, incompetence, and partiality of the PRI government of Michoacán. Nominally lead by Governor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa but given his rapidly deteriorating health (rumors of his coming death are likely not exaggerated) in practice in the hands of secretary Jesús Reyna García, the government is doing the bare minimum to avoid violating the federal constitution while not touching a hair on the head of the Taliban-like cult psychopaths of Nueva Jerusalén, who attack formal schooling, modern music, radio, TV, and internet - and to boot predicted, falsely as it were, that the world would end in 2000.

Instead of arresting the thugs - they've raped children, pelted opponents with rocks, and trashed a school - the PRI government is relocating those who oppose them, that is, those who want their children to attend a secular government school.

Reyna García is truly a man of no shame, instead attacking their victims: Against the recommendation of the state's human rights commission, he is instead forging ahead with a plan to force those opposed to the cult to leave, including forcing the children to attend school elsewhere. When the parents objected that this would mean their children would cross a dangerous river current just to get to school - their previous one was burnt down right before the start of the school year - Reyna García called them "liars," suggesting it was just a little creek and that they had demanded themselves to be relocated. That is a complete, fabricated lie.

Given the state government's incapacity and clear lack of will to do anything -  Reyna García notoriously designated the conflict as one between "power factions" - the children of parents opposed to the cult have now gone three weeks without school


What support from their elected officials!

Prevén clases el lunes en Nueva Jerusalén. El Universal, Sept. 6, 2012
Proponen reubicar en Nueva Jerusalén. El Universal, Sept. 5, 2012