Mexico's New No.2:

As is often noted, given that Mexico does not have a vice president, the equivalent "no. 2" has often been the interior secretary. Following the recent death of José Francisco Blake Mora, it was announced yesterday that new Secretario de Gobernación will be Alejandro Poiré Romero - the fifth of the sexenio.

Notably, Poiré has only served two months or so as head of CISEN, the federal intelligence agency. That should tell you something of what, not unexpected, the priorities are for the new secretary.

On the other hand, he is also a pretty well-respected political scientist, and knows a lot about elections matters and parties. That will come handy as well. 

No evidence yet of foul play in death of interior secretary

The Mexican Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT) said preliminary investigations have uncovered no evidence or indications of a fire or explosion in the helicopter crash that claimed the life of Interior Secretary José Francisco Blake Mora and seven others Friday.

MEXICO'S INTERIOR MINISTER REPORTED DEAD

José Francisco Blake Mora, Mexico's interior minister, is reported dead in a helicopter crash.

If confirmed, Blake Mora is the second interior secretary to perish on the job, after the 2008 death of Juan Juan Camilo Mouriño.

This is truly terrible news.

Michoacán PAN mayor murdered

A tragic and sad event just 11 days or so ahead of Michoacán's gubernatorial election:

Ricardo Guzmán Romero, a PAN mayor in La Piedad, was gunned down this evening.

This, only hours after interior secretary  José Francisco Blake Mora and Michoacán governor Leonel Godoy declared the elections would not be affected by the organized crime groups of the state.

Blake Mora: "Not a single casino more" rings pathetically hollow

Mexico's dour and virtually non-existent Interior Secretary José Francisco Blake Mora, came out loudly yesterday against casinos, declaring that "not one more" will be allowed.

It begs the question: Why did the PAN for the last ten years allow the establishment of these semi-criminal dens, which bring nothing but misery to the areas where they are established, and, it has again and again be proven, lead to more crime in the area?

These thoroughly immoral - in the true sense of the word - establishments should never have allowed in the first place.

I very strongly recommend Denise Dresser's recent anti-casino column in Proceso in this regard.

Finally, a purge in Mexico's national institute of migration, INM

Last week, news broke that 7 regional bosses of the Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) are under investigation for corruption. This is certainly good news, and organizations such as Amnesty International also backed  the process, though it called for a far more thorough investigation.

The measure come very late. The INM has long been commonly regarded as heavily infiltrated by organized crime, and recent horror stories where INM agents handed over captured undocumented migrants to the murderous Zetas are likely only the tip of the iceberg.

The suspended INM bosses: Tamaulipas, Aurelio Gerardo Alamán Bueno; in Veracruz, Humberto Alessandrini; in Tabasco, Luis Alberto Molina Ríos; in Mexico State, Jorge Octavio Armijo, and in San Luis Potosí, Elodia Gutiérrez Estrada. In Oaxaca, Omar Adrián Heredia had already stepped down, and is also under investigation.

Critics of the INM such as PRD Senator Carlos Naverrete, has called for a far more thorough purge, and Salvador Beltrán del Río, head of INM after the disgraced Cecilia Romero stepped down following the Tamaulipas mass grave discovery, has signaled a willingness to carry this out.

Yesterday, Beltrán del Río revealed that from August 2010-April 2011, more than 200 INM employees have been fired, with a penal process open against 40 of them for the graveness of their alleged offense. Special exams, including lie detectors, will be used on 1,500 employees in Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Chiapas, and agents will be periodically rotated in order to avoid collusion with organized crime.

For whatever it's worth, it is a start.

Mexico's interior ministry incapable or unwilling to stand up to church violations

Mexico's electoral institute IFE earlier found that Hugo Valdemar, the attack-dog spokesperson of the Archdiocese of Mexico, had violated Mexican law by calling for catholics not to vote for the PRD.
IFE then sent the case to the Minstry of the Interior for it to decide sanction. It is worth noting here that IFE had first refused to touch the case, but was ordered to do so by the TEPJF, the electoral tribunal.

Yet what does the Interior Ministry, headed by José Francisco Blake Mora, do? It sends the case back to IFE again! In other words, it cowardly refuses to do its job and actually apply a sanction to Valdemar, who it has already been established broke the law.

This case, serious as it is - should the church use its state-funded organization in favor or against certain political parties? - is becoming a true joke. As 2012 is approaching quickly, it is really urgent that this obvious impunity of the church to break the law must end.

Ángel Aguirre, governor

Ángel Aguirre assumed as governor of Guerrero Friday, an event, which was attended by range of PRD and aliancista governors, and Interior Secretary José Francisco Blake Mora.

His predecessor, Zeferino Torreblanca, didn't even bother showing up for the ceremony

First order of the new government: Signing an agreement with Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard to set up the Metrobus system in Guerrero. Expect more to follow soon: During his campaign, Aguirre often spoke of copying Mexico City's very successful social programs, some set up by AMLO, others developed by Ebrard. He may in the end prove some of his critics wrong and do govern from the center-left.

At last: Governor Gabino Cué of Oaxaca - how sweet it sounds

A big, big day for Oaxaca, and Mexico: The end of the despotic caciquismo of Ulises Ruiz came to an end with the assumption of Gabino Cué as governor of Oaxaca, 2010-2016.

Before the event, Ulises Ruiz had already informed that he would not attend the swearing-in of his successor, conveniently if pathetically using the excuse that he had to addend rather the ceremony of
Carlos Lozano de la Torre, new governor of Aguascalientes also sworn in today.

He might as well: In his speech, in the company of Interior Minister José Francisco Blake Mora, Cué declared,

"I will not allow impunity and there is no protection for those who by their actions betrayed the trust and the will of the people, and who tore apart the social fabric of the people of Oaxaca. But it will be only the law who can identify and punish the guilty, not personal or partisan political interests."

The all-but-direct reference to Ruiz ups the ante; the now former governor has more than enough reason to fear that he might be thrown in jail for his 6-year misrule of Oaxaca. Taking Cué at his words hardly leaves other alternatives than prison for Ulises Ruiz.

Sad day for IFE: Federal Electoral Institute disappoints greatly by refusing to deal with church

It's a disgrace: The Mexican Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) voted 7-1 to simply pass on the compliant it received from the PRD regarding the extreme interference by leading members of the Mexican catholic high cleargy, above all the Mexico City Archdiocese spokesman Hugo Valdemar, and Guadalajara cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, who on many occasions have called on voters not to vote for the PRD, a party they smeared as "fascist." Rather than giving an opinion on the matter, IFE voted to simply pass the case on to the Interior Ministry. Yet by doing so - by refusing to take responsibility on a matter that, given the church blatant violation of the constitution, may have a crucial impact on the 2012 elections - the case is effectively dead: Interior Minister José Francisco Blake Mora has the entire time been utterly passive and deferent to the church's extremist declarations, refusing to to his job of defending the Mexican Constitution and democracy. 


IFE Coincilor Alfredo Figueroa was a lone voice that spoke up for IFE's autonomy, arguing it shouldn't merely defer to SeGob, or the Interior Ministry

"We can call on the President of the Republic, but not on Sandoval; we can call on different actors, but not on the church....why did we create an autonomous organ for later to abdicate [responsibility]?"

Others like Marco Antonio Baños, who in the end voted for passing on the case to SeGob, nonetheless argued IFE should still take a stance again Sandoval Iñiguez and Hugo Valdemar. Yet the IFE refused to to so. One may consequently expect the most extremist and falangist elements of the Mexican Church to feel emboldened and merely step up their attacks. 
Qué vergüenza.

Cecilia Romero: When will this inept official be relived of the "duties" she failed to perform?

When will Cecilia Romero be relived of the"duties" that she certainly has failed to perform as head of the National Institute of Migration? Very soon, it seems: Interior Minister Blake Mora refuses to confirm that she will remain in her post.  


Proceso reports in this week's print edition that the National Human Rights Commission and the national ombudsman for years have asked that INM take preventive measures to stop the veritable industry of kidnapping immigrants. Romero has never even bothered to send them a reply, let alone take any serious measures. The slaughtered 72 immigrants, dramatic as it is on its own, is unfortunately only the tip of the iceberg. Yet while Romero has weathered scandals in the past, I am hard pressed to believe she'll survive this one. 

Broad condemnation of Onésimo Cepeda's attack on the state

While so far only the PRD, represented most visibly by Mexico City Chief of Government Marcelo Ebrard's lawsuit, has taken on the responsibility of defending the Mexican constitution and democracy itself from vicious attacks by a highly reactionary church, more legislators from PAN and PRI finally step in the ring to answer bishop Onésimo Cepeda's outright rejection of the secular state.

PRI national deputy Rubén Moreira, head of the Human Rights Commission in the lower house, accuses the bishop of undermining the secular through his actions and declarations. Senator María de los Ángeles Moreno, also of the PRI, found the need to remind the bishop of the supremacy of the Mexican state over the church, while Gustavo Madero, PAN Senator and possibly its next party president, reminds the bishop of the separation of church and state.
As if he ever forgot it.

Juventino Castro y Castro, former Supreme Court minister (judge) and now president of the Commission of Constitutional Affairs, calls on the government to "put [Cepeda] in his place". One shouldn't hold one's breath: Shamelessly, Interior Minister José Francisco Blake Mora still refuses to do his job and defend the constitution and the institutions of the Mexican state by not uttering one word of criticism against the church.

Moreira gets the final word on Cepeda:  "This little father is not going to heaven for being so vulgar"

Cecilia Romero, the National Institute for Migration, and Amnesty International

Cecilia Romero, head of the National  Institute for Migration (Instituto Nacional de Migración, INM), has much in common with other Calderón appointees: She is close personally to the president, yet appears highly ineffectual at her job. Following the recent discovery of the 72 migrants in Tamaulipas murdered by the Zetas, who are the main traffickers in immigrants, attention has again shone on the incompetent head of INM, an institute she has led for four years. Romero felt compelled to publicly reject that she was not leaving the INM - again hardly the first time - though reportedly she has lost the confidence of Interior Minister José Francisco Blake Mora. Given that Blake Mora is also very close to Calderón, things might be different this time. 


On the subject of immigration, and particular in light of the gruesome events of the past week, I want to draw attention to a superb investigation by London-based Amnesty International, called "Invisible Victims: Migrants on the Move in Mexico." (direct PDF download here). It offers a tremendous amount of insights into the migrant situation in Mexico, as well as the role of Mexican state institutions. The INM certainly does not come across in too glowing a light, as it appears far more occupied deporting illegal immigrants rather than helping the victims of human trafficking, of rapes, of beatings, of abuse. INM comes across every bit as brutal and abusive as its U.S. counterpart.


Given the venomous poison spewed by the catholic clergy the past weeks (or years), it is worth pointing out, as the Amnesty report does, the tremendously important and good work carried out by local catholic priests in states such as Tabasco, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Veracruz, where priest-run shelters, as well as those of private individuals, not only give rest and comfort to exhausted migrants, but very often protect their very lives. 


While I personally believe most of these people are motivated by the kindness of their heart rather than by their faith, given the disconnect between these valiant individuals and their ultra reactionary high clergy leaders, the saying comes to mind that "christianity is that good, that even the catholic church has not managed to destroy it in two thousand years."

El Universal editorial denounces Interior Minister Blake Mora's cowardice

An El Universal editorial rightly takes on José Francisco Blake Mora's failure to simply do his job, which as ministry of the interior includes protecting the constitution. El Universal has been at the forefront in the defense of the secular state following the recent outrageous attacks of the catholic church on key provisions of the Mexican constitution. Yet Blake has not uttered a single word of criticism in public against the church and in defense of the constitution, despite having the occasion as recently as yesterday, when he met with church representatives. The editorial concludes: 

"If the federal government wants to give more freedom to the religious sector, it will have to push for a change in the Constitution. It is in the meantime obliged to enforce existing regulations rather than to deal with the subject according to the whims or personal beliefs of its staff."

Where the hell is Blake? Valdés: IFE has "full authority" to investigate complaints.

Head of the Federal Electoral Institute, Leonardo Valdés, after receiving a legal complaint from the national branch of the PRD, notably declared that the institute has "full authority" to investigate the claims that the church is breaking the COFIPE, or federal electoral law of constitutional rank, as well as constitutional articles regarding the role of religious organizations in Mexico. As such, IFE has the authority to pass on the case to the interior ministry, should it find the church guilty of constitutional transgressions. 


Yet the million-peso question is: Where the hell is José Francisco Blake Mora?
We must not lose sight of the fact that it was the PGR, or the national Attorney General-Prosecutor, that complained the alleged unconstitutionality of the gay weddings to the Supreme Court in the first place. As is now well known, the Supreme Court dismissed the Calderón-instigated complaint, and the issue is now blowing up in the president's face, chiefly due to the virulent and very public reactions of the church. While it is likely too much to ask that the president would take responsibility and ask the church to cool its tempers, one would certainly expect that the interior minister would make some kind of statement. 


Yet Blake's silence on this hugely important issue, which involves the defense of the constitution, the secular state, and Mexico's legal and democratic institutions, is, if a cliché is allowed, absolutely deafening. 

Bit step forward in SME/Luz y Fuerza conflict

Legislators from all over the political spectrum rightly hailed the resumption of direct dialogue between the Mexican Syndicate of Electricians, SME, and the recently appointed interior minister, José Francisco Blake Mora. It is a big step forward from the intransigent and utterly unproductive line of former interior minister Fernando Gómez Mont. Good riddance, again.