PRI candidate murders PAN opponent

Given a vast array of shenanigans when they were "elected" in dirty primaries, the federal electoral tribunal has recently ordered PRI to redo much of their candidate selection process in especially southern Mexico.

But nothing comes close to this: In Chiapas, the local electoral board approved the substitution of Ulises Alberto Grajales Niño by Bulmaro Castillejos Calvo as a candidate to be mayor of Villaflores.

What's the reason this time? Ulises Alberto Grajales is accused of having murdered an activist from the PAN party who was apparently tearing down some electoral material on June 11. Gunned down, in cold blood. Grajales has at least been arrested.

Chiapas will elect, on July 1, a new governor, 118 municipal preisdents, and 40 local deputies for the state congress, as well as, of course, votes for national president, senators, and deputies.

May there be no more political murders until then.

Source:

Acusan a aspirante de PRI de matar a panista. El Universal, June 12, 2012.

Designan nuevo candidato en Chiapas. El Universal, June 16, 2012.

Chiapas: Senator Orantes left's governor candidate

It's a classic story: María Elena Orantes López is a senator, and was until recently a prominent member of the PRI - until that party denied her the nomination to be its gubernatorial candidate in Chiapas.

The left stepped in, negotiated, and Manuel Camacho Solís, coordinator of the PRD-PT-MC-MORENA electoral alliance, just announced her candidacy for the left coalition to be 2012-18 governor of Chiapas..

The mayor of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Yassir Vázquez (PRD) is not happy. He was also the delfín of current governor Juan Sabines (also an ex-PRI member recruited by the left when, you got it, he, too, was denied its nomination in 2006), and need to be awarded some kind of consolation price.

Given that the PRI is also in turmoil in Chiapas for much of the same reasons, Orantes stands a good chance of winning, and was also strongly backed by AMLO, who noted her alleged progressive record as Senator.

We'll see.

Moments in poor photo shopping exposed - check out on youtube

This is almost worthy of Stalin's photo shopping himself in (and Trotsky out of) old Russian photos:

Look at this quick video.

Yes, that is Marco Antonio Morales Liévano, a nephew of Elba Esther Gordillo, seemingly photoshopping himself into a picture next to PRI presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, in order to boost his chances of winning the nomination for PRI candidate for mayor of Comitán, Chiapas.

Would you want this guy to be your mayor?

The original picture from El Universal

Political drama: Break PRI-Gordillo

Front page in all main Mexican newspapers: PRI president Pedro Joaquín Coldwell announced the PRI's electoral alliance with PANAL is over.

This is very dramatic political news: It has been known for a while that grassroots discontent in PRI surged given the extremely generous terms in favor of PANAL, the party controlled by teacher union head Elba Esther Gordillo, and the PVEM, the misnamed "Green party." As for the latter, there was much criticism of the blatant nepotism from Gordillo, who wanted both her daughter and son-in-law as candidates for the senate- as well as a disproportionate number of other senate and legislative seats.

Yet crucially, as far as I can see, this means that any alliance for a common candidate for presidential election - that Gordillo would back Peña Nieto - is also over.

Coldwell, who confirmed the alliance with the PVEM (for now?), said of Gordillo and PANAL: "It is not a rupture, it is an amicable separation." That is simply not true: This is a huge political rupture.

Just a few days ago, we also learned that PRI Chiapas Senator María Elena Orantes López renounced from the PRI, after weeks of wavering, wreaking havoc on the local as well as the national party organization.

I can't wait to learn more about the background for this. Did Gordillo get a better offer from PAN? Did she push it simply too far, and PRI realized her support just cost it too much?

But the good news is, from my point of view: The 2012 race just got a lot more competitive. A lot.

Misiones de Shaddai: Yet another charlatan sect comes apart in Chiapas

Southern Mexico and Chiapas in particular is notorious for the many religious sects preying on the poor. Misiones de Shaddai is one of them. Its leader Darinel López Toledo was arrested this weekend for exploitation, including minors, after having recruited them to work at the mission's banana plantation for a pittance:

The detainee is accused of "hooking" those poor and of low income with the promise of jobs, housing and food, and forced them to do exhausting days in exchange for a payments of 25 pesos a day. In his ministerial statements, one of the victims who escaped the building in the ejido Congregación Reforma de Tapachula said that López Toledo approached low-income families with the idea of ​​"reaching the word of God."

May this criminal charlatan spend a long time behind bars.

Guns for laptops in Chiapas

Citizens of Chiapas had the opportunity the past days to hand in their weapons in return for laptops, and military and state authorities received a total of 871 firearms the past couple of days.

Part of a drive to reduce the number of weapons in the state, the guns were destroyed in a public ceremony attended by Governor Juan Sabines and a military commander.

What a wonderful idea.

Is Juan Sabines a dark-horse PAN-PRD candidate for 2012?

Yesterday, Felipe Calderón went to the pro-business Council of the Americas yesterday, where he received the Gold Insigne award, its highest distinction.

Who accompanied him? His wife, his secretary of tourism - and Juan Sabines.

Juan Sabines, the governor of Chiapas, continues to baffle me. He is greatly criticized by many social organizations on the left, and has a rocky relationship with the party that had him elected (PRD), though he continues to rake in on a range of international awards for poverty fighting and environmental protection.

(he broke with his party in 2006 to immediately recognize Calderón's July 2 electoral victory)

In particular his backing of the UN's flagship emissions reduction/forest preservation program has attracted lots of attention internationally. I confess I still am withholding judgment on Sabines' government, as I am simply not familiar enough with them, and have not yet fully heard the other side.

But I have noted that mainstream Mexican newspapers have the last months continuously printed the press releases of the Chiapas government as if they were "news" stories - in particular Milenio, but notably also La Jornada. Their decision I think can be ascribed to, well, at times failing judgment on part of some copy editors. But for his part, Sabines is making a tremendous effort, albeit low level, to spread the achievements, real or not, of the Chiapas state government.

Sabines' term as governor is set to expire in 2012. I wonder if he has any higher ambitions, and even more if he has any friends in high places.

Chiapas becomes first Mexican state to end the "arraigo"

Following the ratification of 78 municipalities, the state legislature in Chiapas declared an end to the legal arraigo,  where citizens may be held without any charges in what is perhaps best translated as "preventive detention," in all its Orwellian glory.

Many human rights organizations have pushed for this, and for it to be extended to other states as well, and with good cause: It completely eliminates the presumption of innocence. The United Nations have also called on Mexico to end this legal practice. Now Chiapas became the first state to do so.

Pablo Salazar Mendiguchí, a political prisoner?

Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa, writing in Proceso, offers an impassioned defense of former Chiapas governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchí, now under arrest on embezzlement and other charges, arguing essentially that Sabines and the old PRI machinery of Chiapas is exacting its revenge on someone who dared to defy them.

He also deems Salazar a political prisoner.

Pablo Salazar, a Mexican Mandela?

With virtually no one leaping to his defense, former governor (2000-2006) Pablo Salazar Mendiguchí declared he would launch a hunger strike, and leave prison either dead or freed of charges, in response to his arrest on corruption and embezzlement charges.

Not only that: His choice of reading material in prison, according to his attorney, was Nelson Mandela's autobiography.

Now that's a bit rich, señor gobernador.


Worth reading is also Carlos Loret de Mola´s column, which suggests that Los Pinos was well informed of the alleged "danger" of Salazar to current Governor Juan Sabines, in a letter attributed to Sabines himself, who, to recall, was Salazar´s one-time protégé.

Ex Governor Pablo Salazar of Chiapas arrested

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.

Chiapas: Indigenous elected head of new state human rights council

Lorenzo López Méndez, a tzotzil, was elected head of Chiapas human rights council, which replaces its earlier commission. López Méndez is a long-time defender of indigenous rights, has a master in penal science, and is a doctorand in law.

The creation of a human rights council, replacing a commission, at least nominally signals the elevation of important of human rights, in particular indigenous rights, in Chiapas.
Let's hope it will also mean as much en lo practico.