Mexican army praises and awards a governor - is this its role?

I find recent spectacle in Veracruz downright bizarre, and quite disturbing:

"René Carlos Aguilar Páez, commander of the Sixth Military Region, gave governor Ochoa Javier Duarte two swords with embossed lettering, one with the word Veracruz and the other Forward, in recognition of the social commitment and the fight undertaken for the welfare of the people of Veracruz" (La Jornada)

Where I am from, it is the civilian political authorities that rewards the military for its deeds - not the other way around. This seems to me a very unfortunate mixing of roles, and politicization of the military - or, militarization of politics. Why on earth should the military "decorate" a governor, who has moreover been in office for less than nine months, for his "social commitments"?

From La Jornada

The caption from the above picture includes the line, "The veracruzano governor reaffirmed that his government's alliance with the armed forces is inseparable, not only to ensure the safety of the population, but to consolidate the prosperity we yearn for."

To declare a military-political alliance as "inseparable" rings very poorly in my ear, especially for a PRI-elected governor.

PRI split over to seek an alliance with Elba Esther Gordillo for 2012

While some, like Veracruz Governor  Javier Duarte, sing her praise, other big-shot priistas openly come out against the powerful  Elba Esther Gordillo and her SNTE teacher union and PANAL party-for-hire, and reject an alliance with her for 2012. A couple of days ago, former presidential candidate  Francisco Labastida Ochoa spoke out against negotiating with Gordillo.

Now, former PRI president (the first-ever woman party president in Mexico) and current senator, María de los Ángeles Moreno, similarly said PRI shouldn't ally with Gordillo.

(PAN senator Santiago Creel, for his part, said that furthering "the human well being does not mean being allied with Elba Esther Gordillo.")


Given the mutual embrace of Gordillo and Enrique Peña Nieto, are we seeing a PRI split over the Gordillo alliance?

PRI governor Javier Duarte grovels for Elba Esther Gordillo

Governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa of Veracruz made his feelings toward Elba Esther Gordillo - and his disregard for the education of his state's youth - very clear:

"Here in Veracruz, we regard the president of the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE), la maestra Elba Esther Gordillo, as a friend and an ally of the veracruzanos."

TEPJF rejects Veracruz election complaints, despite dirty phone talk

The Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) on Tuesday finally rejected the official complaints lodged by PAN against the July 4 gubernatorial elections in Veracruz, as well as a separate complaint by PRD-Convergencia, and thus finally validated the victory of PRI's Javier Duarte de Ochoa. The opposition parties had protested against alleged infractions such as the theft of electoral ballots, illegal diffusion of a poll, promotion of electoral propaganda outside of the allotted time period, and failure to transmit a debate between the main candidates. Yet perhaps gravest were the charges that outgoing governor had used public resources to promote Duarte and other PRI candidates. Ahead of the elections, tapes were released by PAN where Governor Fidel Herrera seemingly ordered the state apparatus to work for PRI's victory. Herrera notably responded by rejecting the tapes' authenticity, yet at the same time accusing PAN and the PGR, the attorney general's office, of illegal wiretapping. 


Yet TEPJF rejected all the arguments, including those based on the tapes, as the electoral court found this apparent strong evidence to be "inadmissible" as it had been obtained illegally. 


Moreover, in an echo of 2006, the court did accept the argument from PAN's Miguel Angel Yunes that the Veracruz electoral authorities had refused to accept various complaints from the candidate, such as dirty campaigns that linked Yunes to corruption and pederasty- yes, no joke! - yet the TEPJF concluded there was no evidence that this filthy "swift-boating" was linked to the ruling PRI. 


It is the law, and Miguel Angel Yunes is not exactly a saint when it comes to electoral transgressions himself, yet it pains me to see that Herrera got off completely scot free with his one, handing this important state to PRI ahead of the 2012 presidential election.