Michoacán politics: Human Rights Commissions goes youtubing

Todos están youtubeando:

The human rights commission in the state of Michoacán uploaded a youtube video entitled "Presumed guilty means innocent until the opposite is proven," in clear allusion to the super documentary of the same name, yet also adding a local element: The michoacanazo, where scores of state functionaries were arrested on anonymous accusations and released without evidence. Several of these make appearances as "victims of the
michoacanazo," behind faked prison bars.

The video Presunto Culpable es inocente hasta que se demuestre lo contrario" can be seen here.

Standoff in Michoacán: Calderón is no Morelos

History is alive and well in Michoacán. President Felipe Calderón appeared in the state to celebrate the Constitution of Apatzingán, which was signed in this municipality on Oct. 22, 1814, and was much the work of the great michoacano José María Morelos.  Apatzingán, notably, is on the frontlines of the "drug war," located in the Tierra Caliente, a zone in the state where the gangster outfit La Familia Michoacana has a very strong presence. Calderón, as might be expected, tried to draw a line from Morelos' heroism to his own "cause":

"Morelos signed the Constitution and gave his life to protect it and safeguard and the Congress that made it possible. He never made a pact with the enemies of Mexicans"

The forced attempt to latch on to Morelos' legacy is a bit of stretch: Morelos was a radical anti-slavery priest who fought and died for Mexico's independence from Spain, displaying an immense courage putting his personal safety at risk at each point along the way.

Yet there is more: The Constitution, while it never really entered into force, served as an important example for later liberal reforms in Mexico. While Morelos was originally a priest - and, to be sure, the Mexican catholic church excommunicated him and has never reversed the decision - the Constitution clearly called for the subordination of the church to the state. Calderón, through his interior minister, has kept a shameful silence the past months as the most ultrareactionary elements of the Mexican Catholic church has blatantly interfered in domestic politics, accusing Supreme Court judges of being corrupt, calling the democratically elected mayor of Mexico City a "dictator," denouncing his party as "fascist," and so forth. 


Yet there is even more: Among the articles of the Constitution were:

19. The law must be equal for all

30. Every citizen is deemed innocent until declared guilty

The elephant in the room is of course the Michoacanazo, where 34 out of 35 state functionaries, arrested for alleged links with the drug gangs, were recently set free due to the complete lack of any evidence. 

In a not-too-veiled reference to the case, local PRD deputy Raúl Morón, addressing Calderón in name of the local state congress, demanded the right "to elect our popular representative without fear of the politicization of justice": Morón dixit:

"It does not escape the judgement of citizens that it is entirely contradictory to demand the strict application of the law for some and to give others the privelige of impunity. It does not escape the judgement of citizens to declare in a speech that the government defendes federalism as a system of government and, at the same time, decide to intrude on local powers that the Constitution sets aside for other orders."

Ouch. Beyond the impropriety or not of the politicization of the memory of Morelos and the Constitution of Apatzingán, I find it to be quite a tribute nonetheless that both Calderón and the local congress, from opposite sides, try to attach themselves to these icons of Michoacán. 
And whatever will come out of the case of the Michoacanazo I am for sure convinced of one thing: Felipe Calderón, you are no Morelos. 

Broad backlash to Calderón's comments on AMLO. Why did he do it?

Calderón's petty attack on AMLO is receiving quite a backlash from broad swaths of Mexico's political elite. While the ruling PAN at first supported the president's statements, some key PAN cadres such as Senator Santiago Creel and  Manuel Espino, no less - the latter head of PAN during the 2006 electoral debacle - more than implied that Calderón's remarks were unbefitting of a president. Creel dixit: "There are times to compete, and others to coincide and govern" 

Other reactions:

- Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín, PRI deputy and president of the Chamber of deputies, said the remarks were "inopportune and unnecessary."

- The key priísta Emilio Gamboa Patrón, head of the Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares (CNOP) and a contender for the PRI party presidency, said:

"What Mexico needs is unity and peace, not opening old wellsprings, and Calderón shouldn't return to talk about 2006. I think his statement was very untimely." 

Notably, various IFE councilors berated Calderón, and even the president of IFE's council, Leonardo Valdés, weighed in:

"I cannot share any indications that could cast doubt on the professional activities of the institute [IFE] to organize and aribrate elections"

IFE councilor Francisco Guerrero as well sought to foreshadow implications for 2012:

"We want an election that, although competitive, takes place within the margins of the law, and while the President as a citizen can well offer his point of view, it is important to remember that because of his office he is obligated to create conditions of unity and governability for the country."

Ouch. Given these harsh reactions, which Calderón surely must have foreseen, why did he do it? Only he could answer that question, but it is a quite ominous signal that Calderón, like Fox in 2006, will not stand on the sidelines when it comes to electing his successor as president. Will he similarly intervene against the likely candidates of Ebrard and Peña Nieto in 2012?


For now, a more pertinent worry is likely to be Michoacán, where his sister María Luisa Calderón Hinojosa is very keen on succeeding Leonel Godoy as governor in 2011: Fears exist among the state PRD that Calderón will go to considerate lengths to ensure her victory. To the perredistas, the now-infamous Michoacanazo was merely the first of more political attacks to come.  


On a side note: Chucho Ortega, PRD president, for the nth time used the occasion of Calderón's comments to reiterate there will be no PAN-PRD common presidential candidate in 2012. Ahí está.

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.