Genovevo Figueroa seeks mayorship of Morelia. And La Tuta and Godoy?

Genovevo Figueroa Zamudio was governor of Michoacán for PRI, switched parties, and was until recently secretary of tourism in beautiful Morelia; he just announced he will seek the mayorship of the city in the upcoming November elections, for the PRD. Morelia is now run by the PRI; its mayor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa also stepped down a while ago to run on as PRI's candidate for governor. 


He is hardly an uncontroversial figure: As governor of Michoacán, 1988-1992, he was accused of repressing perredistas in the past.


National PRD leader Jesús Zambrano expressed worry for the upcoming election, given the level of violence in the state. Zambrano said that current Governor Leonel Gody was not informed of the recent massive surge of federal police sent to the state, ostensibly to catch the mafia leader Servando Gómez, "La Tuta." Zambrano earlier demanded the withdrawal of federal forces before the election. 

I suspected the real goal was to catch Godoy's half-brother Julio César Godoy Toscano, but according to SIEDO, the case is already closed. This appears quite unbelievable given that he went underground just half a year ago when he lost his immunity as federal legislator, after tapes surfaced of him chatting friendly with said La Tuta. 

The Inconvenient Brother: Julio Godoy Toscano loses congressional immunity

The Mexican lower house of congress voted to remove the fuero or immunity from legal persecution from the "inconvenient" (half)brother of Governor Leonel Gody, Julio Godoy Toscano, national deputy for the PRD. The vote was massive: 384-2, with 21 abstentions. Godoy, who reportedly has already removed his things from his office in San Lázaro, thus lost his legislative immunity and can face the criminal charges against him presented by the PGR, the attorney general's office. Most of the PRD deputies voted as well in favor: The party wants to get this case over as soon as possible, to avoid the negative publicity ahead of the upcoming gubernatorial elections in Michoacán last year. With the fuero removed, hopefully Mexicans will know eventually whether Godoy Toscano is indeed guilty, or if this is, as Godoy himself has argued, a political persection.

Julio César Godoy Toscano is out of PRD. Guilty until proven innocent?

Godoy Toscano claimed he renounced from the PRD in order to avoid the party being a "scapegoat."  Yet it isclear the PRD leadership, first and foremost its national president Jesús Ortega, but also andresmanuelistas such as Alejandro Encinas, and, to be sure, Michoacán governor and half-brother of Godoy Toscano, Leonel Godoy, in unison demanded that the federal deputy leave the party, following the leak to the media of audio recordings where Godoy Toscano is apparently engaging in jovial conversation with a capo from the La Familia Michoacana gangster outfit.

How much the case has damaged the PRD is clearly far too early to tell, though I  take issue with the implications drawn from today's editorial in El Universal. Entited "The Naivety of the PRD," it argues,

"the PRD committed a very grave error in politics: To put their hands in the fire for a person whose incorruptibility was not guaranteed"

So because the PRD was not 100% sure of its innocence, it should not have backed Godoy's legal right to assume his seat as a federal deputy? This seems to me to turning the principle of presumption of innocence thoroughly on its head. Why on earth should the party not have backed the deputy until this point, when his corruptibility was far from guaranteed, not his incorruptibility? Following the release of the tapes, the PRD acted pretty swiftly to detach themselves from Godoy Toscano; to have done so earlier to me would have been to abdicate the very principle of presumption of innocence.

Is it Godoy or not on the tape?

The tape recording allegedly of PRD Federal Deputy Julio César Godoy Toscano and Servando Gómez "La Tuta" of the criminal drug gang La Familia Michoacana is very well worth listening to, which can be done here. If it is accurate, it is certainly damning, as it portrays a very cozy relationship between the Michoacano and the criminal capo. Is it real?

Godoy responded in a press communique, which include the following statements:
(it can be found in PRD's homepage)

- The recording was leaked by the PGR (attorney general's office) to the press, an illegal act.
- The recording was rejected as evidence by Michoacán and Tamaulipas and by Zacatecas magistrates
- PGR wants to win in public opinion what it has not been able to win in tribunal.
-The Federal government is trying to achieve a lynching of Godoy in public opinion.

All of the above seems true to me: It is a media lynching, as PGR has not achieved arresting Godoy yet by legal means, and the federal government is certainly trying to have public opinion judge him, likely in part also as a revenge or expression of frustration as their incompetent investigation has so far rendered little fruit.

Yet at the same time: Why didn't Godoy simply write, "the person in the recording is not me"?
Is it because it is really him?

Where in the world is Julio César Godoy? The case, and the Michoacanazo, stinks to high heaven

Where in the world is Julio César Godoy Toscano? The half brother of Michoacán Governor Leonel Godoy Rangel has not been seen since June 28 2009, days before he was elected a national deputy from Michocán's First electoral district in the city of Lázaro Cárdenas, in Mexico's federal (midterm) elections.


Yet in a rather comic show of force, more than 200 police officers from the Federal Police (PF) and the Attorney General's Office (PGR) laid siege, of sorts, of San Lázaro, the Mexican Chamber of Deputies,  to prevent Godoy Toscano from being sworn in as a member of Congress, which he is rumoured to do in near future. The police are constitutionally prohibited from entering the building, yet are apparently keen on preventing the deputy-elect from swearing in an thus achieving a constitutional fuero, or procedural immunity from prosecution.  

The case stinks to high heaven, as does the now-infamous Michoacanazo from June 2009. To recall, Godoy Toscano, together with a range of other functionaries and politicians, was accused of links to organized crime, specifically La Familia Michoacana, and more than 30 state functionaries, municipal presidents, and police were arrested in a military operation ordered by federal authorities that caught governor Godoy completely by surprise and of which he was not informed.

The problem: The evidence against most of the apprehended, as well against the fugitive Godoy Toscano, was very flimsy, to put it mildly. One by one the arrested have been released and charges dropped. Almost all the functionaries have been let go, as have 11 out of 12 arrested mayors, and governor Godoy let it be known that shortly Miguel García Hurtado, who was notably his state attorney general/prosecutor and the top man to be accused of aiding La Familia, will be released as well 

Yet back to Godoy Toscano. On Monday, a Michoacán judge granted him the restoration of his full political rights, meaning that the governor's brother may now technically be sworn in as a national deputy. However, one arrest warrant for the alleged ties to organized crime in Michoacán is still valid, so the PGR/PF therefore is attempting to snatch Godoy Toscano before this swearing in. 

Governor Godoy, argued "there is a persecution, there is an unusual harasssment" of Godoy Toscanao. It is, to be sure, quite noteworthy that the accused has sought and successfully obtained, on three occasions, an amparo, or injunction, against being apprehended, yet for every stay a new arrest warrant has been issued by different judges. So far, one was issued in Nayarit, two in Tamaulipas, and a one Jalisco.

PRD considers it a political plot;  PRD president Jesús Ortega denounced the now fourth (and counting) order of apprehension a "a persecution that has no legal reasons and only political-electoral motives," calling for Attorney General-Federal Prosecutor Arturo Chávez Chávez to step down. The case is murky. If Godoy Toscano is sworn in, the public may indeed perceive this quite negatively as a possible move simply to obtain legal immunity. Yet at the same time, while it would be a terrible scenario if Godoy Toscanao and the 30-odd other functionaries and politicians were guilty yet are freed due to police incompetence, it is a far more serious scenario if, as both Ortega and governor Godoy has suggested, this is indeed a political persecution, ahead of upcoming elections in Michoacán, where Felipe Calderón's sister is a veyr likely PAN candidate. Hopefully, time will tell. In the meantime, Godoy Toscano should follow his brother's advice to turn himself in.