Disturbing violence against political actors in Oaxaca

In Juchitán de Zaragoza municipality in Oaxaca, a disturbing episode of violence against legitimate political actors: The party headquarters of the Partido del Trabajo or Workers Party (PT) wee attacked by two masked gunmen just as the party leadership held a meeting with the campesino/peasant organization Unión Campesina de Oaxaca. One attendee was murdered and another injured in the hail of bullets

None have been apprehended for this atrocity, which is moreover an attack on democracy.

Source:
Deja ataque al PT en Oaxaca un muerto. El Universal, Aug. 26, 2012

Solalinde's back, with bodyguards

Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, target of much intimidation and death threats due to his work in Oaxaca for migrants, above all in his shelter "Hemanos en el Camino," returned recently to Mexico after credible and concrete plans of his assassination were revealed.

The federal PGR announced he will from now on have four bodyguards.

Solalinde notably called on the church he belongs to - the Catholic Church - to assume a more active role in defense of migrants. If only the church had more men like Solalinde, and less thugs like Juan Sandoval Iñiguez and Noberto Rivera.

He also came out against all of Mexico's parties, for their lack of any proposals on migration, though he noted that "the worst of them all, it is clear to me, comes from the PRI: It doesn't have any." Make sure to read his interview with Animal Político here.


Source:
Solalinde contará con cuatro escoltas. El Universal, July 11, 2012
La propuesta más pobre en migración es la del PRI: Solalinde. Animal Político, July 11, 2012
Regresa hoy Solalinde a Ixtepec, sin más seguridad, pero con mucho entusiasmo. La Jornada, July 11, 2012

Brad Will's killer caught?

Oaxaca police reported the arrest of a man known as Lenin N, presumed guilty of the killing of U.S independent journalist Brad Will on Oct. 23, 2006, while covering social protest in the state against then governor Ulises Ruiz.

He is accused of shooting the Indymedia journalist from a distance of 43 meter, from a height of 4 meters, with a 38 special revolver - in other words, cowardly gunning down Will from a long distance on top of a building.

Fantastic news if the true killer is indeed caught this time.

Source:

Presentan a presunto asesino de Brad Will. El Universal, May 24, 2012.

Ex collaborators of Ulises Ruiz' government wanted by Interpol

If this is not a damning indictment of your government, I don't know what is: Interpol is instructing its organization (in 188 countries) to apprehend five former members five members of Ulises Ruiz' disastrous government in Oaxaca.

International warrants against your close collaborators - when are they finally going after Ruiz? Unfortunately, not very soon, it seems.

A defeat for Elba Esther Gordillo in Oaxaca: Piñeyro is out

After much pressure, governor Gabino Cué of Oaxaca fired his Government Secretary, essentially his second-in-command, Irma Piñeyro Arias. A former gubernatorial candidate for the PANAL party who dropped out in favor of Cué, she is an ally of the powerful SNTE head Elba Esther Gordillo. Her resignation is as such a defeat for Gordillo, and a victory in particular for the "dissident" wing of SNTE in Oaxaca, Section 22, which has long demanded her resignation. New Government secretary is Jesús Martínez Álvarez, who was notably governor briefly in the mid-1980s.

Ulises Ruiz's government: 13 key cabinet officials stole 4 billion pesos

A couple of days ago, Perla Woorlichs Fernández, the state comptroller of Oaxaca, announced that a whopping 32 public servants of Ulises Ruiz's government, including 13 in key cabinet positions, are implicated in the stealing of almost four billion pesos.

This is only a partial result of the ongoing investigation into Ruiz' disastrous rule of Oaxaca, 2004-2010.

It is important to note that just a month before leaving power, Ruiz' PRI-controlled congress trumped through a law that depenalized embezzlement. It is probably the only far-sighted measure taken by the priístas.

Now, current governor Gabino Cué calls on Ruiz himself for an explanation, and pointedly noted, "he is not exempt."

Here is a great PDF graphic that outlines where the money was allegedly - very probably - stolen from.

Los Zetas - the only drug cartel that kidnaps?

Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, a a very, very brave man who does invaluable work for migrants in Oaxaca, in a meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that Los Zetas now carry out kidnappings in twenty of Mexico's states, yet that, "as far as I know," they are the only of the drug gangs to do so.

This is of course only the testimony of one man, yet it is likely wise to listen to the opinions of someone who really works on the ground, helping migrants at shelters and along the dangerous travel routes of Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, and the southern region of Mexico.

Oaxaca: The first arrest in Cué's corruption probe. Who's next?

The first arrest: Gonzalo Ruiz Cerón, coordinator of transportation under Ulises Ruiz' brutal and corrupt rule of Oaxaca (2005-2011), was arrested by Oaxaca police, following an arrest warrant where he is accused of trafficking in licensing and permits for public transportation.

Governor  Gabino Cué, to recall, is following up on his campaign promises by performing a thorough audit of the previous PRI government, and said there are pending processes against a dozen other ex-functionaries of Ruiz' government.

All good and well, to be sure, but will Cué have the guts - and strength - to in the end finally go after Ulises Ruiz himself?

Will arrest of UBISORT leader quell Oaxaca violence?

Amnesty International praised the recent arrest of UBISORT leader Rufino Juárez Hernández in Oaxaca. UBISORT, or the Unión de Bienestar Social de la Región Triqui, is a paramilitary organization reportedly set up by the PRI in 1994 and protected by the state government, and has been involved in much violence and assassinations, including the high-profile murder of the Finnish activist Jyri Jaakkola.

UBISORT has also faced resistance from Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui Independiente (MULTI-I), of the Triqui indigenous people, many of which have been victim of UBISORT and of MULT, or Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui, also affiliated with the PRI.

Just what Oaxaca needs: Yet another homophobic archbishop

José Luis Chávez Botello, archbishop of Oaxaca, was kind enough to provide us with his profound insights into the issue of homosexuality in his Sunday homily: "If a man and a woman are clean and honest, they would never become gay and lesbian."

One billion pesos' worth of "irregularities" in one year: Ulises Ruiz audit

In just the last year of  Ulises Ruiz's disastrous administration in Oaxaca, the state comptroller has found more than a billion pesos of "anomalies" and "irregularities," indicating a strong likelihood of government corruption and embezzlement. The audit continues for the entirety of Ruiz's government, but to repeat: One billion pesos in just 2010 alone.

Quite likely, given the determination of Governor Gabino Cué, some former state officials and administrators will end up behind the bars. Will Cué have the strength to go after Ruiz himself?

One legacy of PRI's disastrous rule of Oaxaca: 96 percent of funds federal

These figures, revealed by Oaxaca's new secretary of finance Gerardo Cajiga Estrada, are truly dramatic: The state manages only to contribute 3.75 percent of its total spending, meaning 96.25 percent of funds spent by the state government are transfers from the federal government.

PRI, which governed the state for 81 years, almost completely failed in two very basic state functions: To provide a monopoly of the legitimate use of violence, and to produce a functioning state bureaucracy capable of taxing its citizens.

As the new Gabino Cué government is taking stock, here's part of the PRI legacy on the latter function:

- More than 55 percent of commercial business do not pay taxes
- Only a third of impuesto sobre nómina or payroll taxes are paid
- Only 30 percent pay the required tenencia or car tax
- The average predial or property tax payment is 35 pesos, against ideally 220, according to Cajiga Estrada.

Gabino Cué follows through on promise to replicate Mexico City's social programs

Oaxaca governor Gabino Cué announced that the state has so far set aside 2.4 billion pesos for social programs similar to those in Mexico City championed first by Andrés Manuel López Obrador and then expanded by Marcelo Ebrard:

* 500 pesos paid monthly to 35,000 seniors
* 1,500 pesos paid to single mothers who have lost their jobs, for a maximum of three months
* Health and social insurance to 25,000 persons suffering from some kind of disability.

SNTE section 22 exposed: "Aviators"

The Auditoría Superior de la Federación (ASF) or the Mexican federal auditor, found that in Oaxaca in 2010, under then-Gover Ulises Ruiz, an "indeterminate" numbers of "teachers" affiliated with  dissident Section 22 of the national teachers union SNTE are so-called aviadores, literally aviators or fliers, a term referring to those who draw a state salary yet never set a foot in the classroom, only "flying" in to pick up the check (the term in Argentina, if I recall correctly, is ñoquis, after the Italian dish traditionally eaten on the 29th)

Three hundred "commissioners" of the SNTE section 22 was also on the state pay roll, paid to perform administrative tasks for the state yet working for the union instead.

AFI reports that the inflated/bloated/faked employee rolls cost the state at least 40 million pesos last year, a sum that could have been spent on the Oaxaca education system, among the absolute worst performing in the country, rather on propping up the teachers union.

Carlos Marín, writing in Milenio, claims at least 10,000 out of the 70,000 employed as teachers in Oaxaca, are aviadores. The real cost of this nefarious practice thus remains to be seen.

Lesson from the teacher? Kick him while he's down

From Milenio, the following photo of a teacher in action:

That's Sigfrido Olmedo,  subdirector of the Technical Secondary School No. 1 in the capital of Oaxaca. He is seen here kicking the Oaxaca secretary of public security, Marco Tulio López Escamilla, while he's already down. López Escamilla had walked over to Olmedo and other demonstrators to try to have a dialogue with them, clearly with little success. Olmedo, the teacher, was recognized by his own students.on Facebook.

More on Oaxaca disturbances: Who's the aggressor, Cué or SNTE section 22?

In Oaxaca, the "dissident" Sección 22 of the SNTE teachers union, which was engaged in violent clashes with the police, arranged a march through the streets of Oaxaca city that according to its own reports drew 70,000 (according to police 20,000), and demanded an apology from governor Gabino Cué, and the resignation of three members of his cabinet.

The demands were ostensibly due to the violent attack on Section 22 during President Felipe Calderón's visit here two days ago, where 20 people were injured, including 15 police.

Repeat: Out of 20 injured, three quarters were police, which were violently attacked by the "teachers.

I put this in quotation marks as it is well known, as Carlos Marín also notes today, a big chunk of them have never set foot in a classroom yet remain on the payrolls of the state of Oaxaca - a state that, to be sure, ranks near the bottom in terms of educational achievement. Yesterday's march certainly didn't help in this regard: Given that their teachers were busy marching, school was canceled yesterday for Oaxaca's 1.2 million students.

Be that as it may: I also noted another story on the violent clashes demonstrators-police, from Milenio. In a rough translation, here is a section of it that I found particularly telling:

The event that was scheduled with President Calderón at the Government Palace lasted barely half an hour. At that time, the head of state public security, Marco Tulio Lopez, tried to mediate, but was attacked. He carried a shield and tried to get close to have a dialogue, but he was disarmed and beaten. Protesters covered with scarves seized and held him. His bodyguards tried to rescue him, which started a second clash that left more injured, including the former member of APPO, Marcelino Coache. During the clash the teachers took three policewomen hostage, who were moved to one of their union headquarters. Later they were rescued by police. Some police cars were destroyed, and a bus was burned. 

Azael Santiago Chepi, head of Section 22, argued that their demonstration on Tuesday was pacific, but that  they were attacked by the police. With three police hurt to every wounded teacher, for being school teachers, they sure knew how to defend themselves.

New Oaxaca disturbances: The smell of a rat

Something doesn't add up in Oaxaca.

Yesterday, teachers of the dissident Section 22 of the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE), clashed with federal and state police in Oaxaca city, site of a visit by President Felipe Calderón. Notably, the teachers (if that is what they are) loudly attacked the government of Gabino Cué for its "aggression," and declared it would launch a strike, blockades, "take" and occupy the government house, and so forth.

This just doesn't make sense. This rush to denounce Gabino Cué smells of a rat. For one, most of the police were federal, and were there due to Calderón's visit. To pin the tag of "depressor" on Cué seems really out of place.

Second, yesterday I watched Milenio TV, a very decent canal of live Mexican television news (if you can stand the usual sexism of Mexican TV: Weather ladies dressed like prostitutes). From these images, rather than a group of peaceful demonstrators being attacked by cruel police, the picture actually looked quite the opposite: The police were cowering behind shields, while very aggressive demonstrators were attacking them, hurling objects, and setting police and other cars on fire, and including a huge bus.

I don't mean in any way to downplay the very serious and recurrent issue of police brutality, especially from the Federal police and the EMP, the presidential guard, which has been on display far too often. In this case, the demonstrators might, for instance, well have been angered by previous police actions. But from what I saw in the televised images from Milenio, SNTE Sección 22 simply looked ready for a fight.

While their anger against Calderón would seem to stem from the recent decree that allows tax deduction for tuition for private schools - in effect, a subsidy of the middle and upper class - it seems to me the teacher union was simply too eager to take on the state government, which, as it were, only weeks ago declared it would eliminate the so-called aviadores from the state's pay rolls, or "teachers" who are teachers in name only yet still draw a salary from the state.

In Oaxaca, then, I think I smell a rat.

Oaxaca to plant 30 million trees. Gabino Cué delivers.

Via The Mexico Institute, here's finally some English-language of Oaxaca's progressive governor Gabino Cué, published in the Miami Herald:

"There were no computers," he recalled. "We found that the staff payroll didn't match who actually was working. ... The bank statements were out of balance. The state automotive fleet was in terrible shape."On his way out the door, outgoing PRI Gov. Ulises Ruiz installed dozens of loyalists in state jobs with union protection even though they had no jobs to perform, Cue said. Ruiz also offered gifts to key allies, among them the head of the state electoral commission, for unexplained "services rendered."

On the topic of Cué, whose government so far has seem notably intent on delivering on his campaign promises, the governor launched the state's Comité Estatal de Prevención y Combate de Incendios Forestales, or committee to prevent and fight forest fires, and declared that Oaxaca would plant 10 million trees in 2011 - Cué attributed the low figure to unexpected adminsitrative difficulties (see above) - yet that a notable 30 million trees would be planted in 2012. Change to believe in? Hopefully these news will be picked up in English-language media; the state-level initiatives to combat deforestation remains an untold tale (and something I hope to work on the coming fall).

In Oaxaca, Governor Gabino Cué sticks to his promise and proposes constitutional changes

Gabino Cué appears to be a man of his word as newly installed governor of Oaxaca: It was just announced that he has sent 75 proposed changes to the state constitution, which notably includes the mechanism of a recall referendum, as well as allowing for referendums. These will need 28 votes to pass; as his broad PAN-PRD-PT-Convergencia coalition only has 23 seats, some opposition support is necessary.

Chiapas: Indigenous elected head of new state human rights council

Lorenzo López Méndez, a tzotzil, was elected head of Chiapas human rights council, which replaces its earlier commission. López Méndez is a long-time defender of indigenous rights, has a master in penal science, and is a doctorand in law.

The creation of a human rights council, replacing a commission, at least nominally signals the elevation of important of human rights, in particular indigenous rights, in Chiapas.
Let's hope it will also mean as much en lo practico.