Tamaulipas, another PRI-led state run into the ditch

Tamaulipas recently "celebrated" the first 100 days of government of Egidio Torre Cantú, who became the PRI candidate following the murder of his brother Rodolfo.

According to detractors of the government, there is little to celebrate: Apparently, the government cannot present one single achievement to boast of, and is even struggling to pay its employees back pay, some back to January

The blame cannot exactly be put on the shoulders of Torre Cantú alone. According to the state's secretary of finance, Alfredo González Fernández, the previous government of Eugenio Hernández Flores, also of PRI, left the state with a debt of at least 14 billion pesos (!), while reportedly cashing in on lucrative building contracts awarded to Tohesa, a company of which Hernández Flores is a partner.

Yet while its politicians line their pockets, Tamaulipas is teetering on being a "failed state," following the decades of misrule by the PRI.

PRI and the Great Lie: Guillermo Sánchez Nava, near death, faked it!

The PRI is certainly on a roll these days: Just when you think its standards couldn't sink any further, Senator Fernando Castro Trenti demanded evidence that Guillermo Sánchez Nava, who went in a coma after being attacked by most likely PRI supporters, claiming amazingly that the PRD campaign "put up a farce," meaning that the PRD somehow arranged for the attack on Sánchez Nava themselves. Wow.

Note that the PRI senator demanded "evidence" that the PRD activist was actually hurt; yesterday, his sons responded to this pathetic call by presenting his medical diagnosis from the hospital: traumatic head injury.

Will that suffice, Castro?

Jésus Ortega, national PRD president, condemned Senator Castro for his "absolute insensitivity and total loss of humanity." I think Ortega is too kind.

Ortega also denounced governors Enrique Peña (Mexico State), Egidio Torre (Tamaulipas), Ivonne Ortega (Yucatán) and Ney González (Nayarit) for interfering in the election.

Even ambulances are politics: Egidio Torre, brother of murdered candidate Rodolfo, assumes as governor:

Egidio Torre Cantú, who took over as PRI candidate for governor in Tamaulipas when his brother Rodolfo Torre Cantú was murdered, also assumed as governor today - a whopping six months after the election.

During his election campaign, before his murder, Rodolfo had promised to provide a range of new ambulances to various municipalities in Tamaulipas, and Egidio made this a key event of his assumption, displaying on huge screens a caravan of 42 brand new units.

New ambulances - all well and good, to be sure, but did the actual ambulances really have to be painted in the far from subtle PRI colors?

In Mexico, I was early bemused over how one can quite easily tell the political party in power in each state due to the design of car license plates, who almost invariably are designed in the colors of the respective parties holding power. But really, did Egidio Torre Cantú really need to politicize even ambulances?