Baja California, the miliary, and drunk public servants

This short new piece from La Jornada is simply worth translating in its entirety. Enjoy:

Mexicali, BC. Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mujica, commander of the Second Military Region, asked Governor José Guadalupe Osuna Millán Cardona that Secretary of Government Cuauhtémoc Benavides not be present at any military ceremony, and because of this he was absent from the ceremony to honor the Niños Héroes on September 13. Cardona Benavides said he arrived late and therefore did not step up to the podium. When the formal ceremony ended he went off without saying goodbye.

Jorge Hank Rhon, gobernador?

It's hard to imagine a worse nightmare scenario for his opponents, of which there are many: But Jorge Hank Rhon suggested he may run for governor of Baja California State "if the party obliges me."

The PRI avoided any substantial comment; given its president Humberto Moreira's decision to keep a very low profile these days, it was left to his secretary general to note that it was "not an opportune moment" for the party to discuss any Hank Rhon candidacy now. Alternatively, PRI could have answered: 'There is no way in hell we will let an obvious criminal linked by the United States to drugtrafficking, to become our gubernatorial candidate.' But no.

A new low: Bishop of Mexicali backs his "friend" Jorge Hank Rhon

It almost defies belief (no pun intended):

The Bishop of Mexicali, José Isidro Guerrero Macías, in a letter to the highly unchrist-like character Jorge Hank Rhon (who has 19 children and refers to women as "animals,") expressed his support for what he calls his "friend," and the "lamentable situation that you and your family is living through."

And, to be sure, he let Hank knows he is praying for him.

What an extraordinary job the Mexican high clergy does to undermine what little remains of its credibility.

Baja California: 22 years in prison for miscarriage, yet finally released

In Baja California, a woman was in 2008 sentenced to 22 years in prison for infanticide, or the killing of her baby, despite all evidence indicating that she suffered a miscarriage.

Now, after suffering three years in prison, it was finally announced by the state supreme court that she should be let go, following massive pressure from her legal representatives and civil organizations: No evidence whatsoever existed that she had killed her baby, yet the poor woman, now 22, had to languish for three years.

How many more share a similar fate in Mexico's prisons, in particular the states run by the PAN and PRI?