Remarkable column on Juan Sandoval Iñiguez

Columnist and journalist Carlos Marín usually points his guns at the left. Not this time: His column "A conspirator hangs up his sandals" on Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, the disgraced soon-to-be ex cardinal of Guadalajara, is a heavy barrage of fire against Sandoval's legacy ("No matter how obvious his slanders, the Cardinal leaves impunity."

It really is worth reading in its entirety here.

Historic Mexican Supreme Court decision: Civilian trials for military accused of human rights abuses

A historic decision by Mexico's Supreme Court: Military personnel that commit human rights abuses are now to be tried in civilian courts, and not military, as has been the practice until now, known as fuero militar.

Organizations such as Human Rights Watch already praised the decision by the Supreme Court, which was moreover unanimous. It reverses the practice of the past 70 years, and follows the recent ruling against Mexico by the Inter-American Human Rights Court, which dealt with Rosendo Radilla, a decaparecida social leader in Guerrero in 1974, which found Mexico's practice incompatible with its human rights charter and international obligations.

Senators and deputies from all major parties - PAN, PRI, PRD - hailed the decision. That is great news.

Yet there were also negative voices. Probably the most hysterical response to the court's ruling comes from Carlos Marín, who in his column suggests  that recent successful operations by the army, such as liberating 20 or so hostages in Monterrey a few days back, will no longer be possible. Does he truly believe his own reactionary nonsense?

Calderón rails against narco-criminal-backing bishops, "brood of vipers"

In Calderón's meeting with Javier Sicilia - which I cannot see was anything but a very positive event - the Mexican president, from the centre-right quite christian-democrat PAN party, notably railed against unnamed Mexican bishops of the catholic high clergy who expressed their support for the criminal thug Jorge Hank Rhon, rightly referring to them as "vipers."

He didn't mention any names, but it was an obvious allusion to e.g. the bishop of Mexicali, José Isidro Guerrero Macías, and Mexico State's bishop Onésimo Cepeda, who both expressed support for the briefly incarcerated Hank, whose values should go against anything the church claim to stand for - e.g. 19 children, multiple divorces, likely ties to drug trafficking, etc, yet whom several bishops have said they are praying for - literally.

Calderón, a quite fervent catholic, said there are "certain characters who serve as models of holiness" yet are a "brood of vipers."

I am with Felipe on this one.

On a related note: I wonder what columnist-journalist Carlos Marín, who has ridiculed critics of Onésimo Cepeda, thinks of his embrace of Hank, who lost his US visa and is accused of involvement in the drug trade. Not problematic in the slightest?

Carlos Marín calls on Moreira to condemn attack on PRD

Carlos Marín, senior columnist of Milenio, calls upon PRI president Humberto Moreira to condemn the vicious attack that left PRD's representative to the state electoral institute in Guerrero in a coma.

Here's a chance to try to demonstrate that the "New PRI" is a lot different than the "old PRI."
Will Moreira use it?