Jalisco congress summons Governor Emilio González Márquez to explain budget

Governor Emilio González Márquez has some explaining to do. The Jalisco state congress voted 20-0, with 15 abstentions, to summon the governor to appear in congress to explain his projected budget for 2011. 


The case is this: Last year's final budget had an extra sum of 10 billion pesos of income that had not been linked to concrete budgeted expenditures. That means in practice that the governor had a bunch of extra money available that nobody knows how or where was spent, according to PRD legislator Raúl Vargas López. 


This is quite troubling. The governor has been known in the past to have tried on several occasion to shower public money on the church and dubious private interests, with little accountability or even in direct breach of the law. Moreover, Jalisco is struggling with funds shortages for everything from underfunded education to medical facilities, and it now appears the governor for the previous year drastically underestimated the state's income, which allowed him to use the surplus as he saw fit. 


Emilio González Márquez, a foul-mouthed alcoholic, is a gift that keeps on giving, and I predict his government will come tumbling down far before his term is due, either due to his impeachment, or through new scandals yet to see the light of day. He will now legally have to appear before the state congress to explain this discrepancy, which quite likely is only the tip of the iceberg regarding the financial irregularities of his administration that will eventually be uncovered. 

Jalisco gov denies sponsoring "gay conversion" - yet attacks opponent as "intolerant"

The state government of Jalisco, far too often the laughingstock of the nation, in a statement denies sponsoring the "gay conversion" event to be held there in November, arguing that the use of the official logo of the government in material promoting the event was due to it being used without permission, as the conference will be attended by Jesús Manuel Fonseca, of the state General Coordination of Social Affairs. In the same, however, the state government offers no explanation why Fonseca should attend such a quack event in the first place, but rather lauds him as an internationally "accredited psychologist." Instead, the government, rather than acknowledging the local PRD deputy Raúl Vargas López for having discovered what suuuuurely must be the unauthorized use of the state logo, denounce him as an "intolerant" - for standing up to the charlatan fearmongers that promote the nonsense of "gay conversion" through prayer and snake oil.