Don Samuel Ruíz, continued

Another excellent obituary of Don Samuel Ruíz Garcia, entitled, "The Inconvenient Bishop," by Salvador García Soto of El Universal:

"Inconvenient to the Mexican Catholic curia, with whom he disagreed in order to lead a life not full of luxury or excess, like most bishops, but by opting for the disadvantaged and not the rich and powerful, to which almost all the Catholic leader are so inclineds. Also uncomfortable to the Vatican and the Roman curia, who tried and was about to remove him from the diocese of San Cristobal in 1993, when Girolamo Prigione, in his crusade against the "rebel or social" bishops, " he poisoned the hierarchies of Roma, who opened a trial and accused him of "excessive politicization."

As the Vatican rushes to lavish praise on  Samuel Ruíz, let's not forget that the upper clergy, in particular in Mexico, absolutely loathed him. What a badge of honor

Love and arrogance: Salvador García Soto's take on Amalia García and her daugher:

A withering critique of Amalia García and her senator daughter Claudia Corichi in Salvador García Soto's column today: They were felled by "love and arrogance":

"But what was the sin of a politician known for her career as a fighter on the left? There were two: Love and arrogance. Overprotection of her daughter, who was made senator with little political experience, and acquiescing to her many excesses, impudences, and interferences in her administration led to many of the problems it faces.

And arrogant pride, because even in defeat, after a mistake of choosing a bad candidate for the PRD that was disregarded by the likes of Marcelo Ebrard and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who advised her to reconsider and to support an alliance PRD-PT-Convergencia  when faces with the risk of losing, Amalia never had the humility to accept that she lost and that behind her defeat was not only a young politician and current governor Miguel Alonso Reyes, but her nemesis, whom she confronted but whose upper strength knocked her down, former Governor Ricardo Monreal Avila."

Ouch.

"The disastrous Juan": Salvador García Soto rips Juan Molinar Horcasitas apart

Juan Molinar Horcasitas is decidedly one of the most controversial members of Felipe Calderón's government; the current Secretary of Communications and Transportation has most recently been pummeled for his appointment of the seemingly utterly unqualfied Mony de Swaan as head of COFETEL, the Federal Commission of Telecommunications, and of the granting of media spectrum licenses far below market value to Televisa and Nextel. Yet as commentator Salvador García Soto in El Universal points out, there is much more:

"There are people who should never opt for public service. They neither have a vocation for service nor provide any benefit to society they should serve. One graphic case, judging by this results as a functionary and public servant, is Juan Molinar Horcasitas. His tenure in different public institutions over the past 10 years has left a trail of errors, problems, disasters and inefficiencies that have had high political, social and even economic costs."

Ouch. Yet he is absolutely right: Juan Molinar Horcasitas is a case of a man who was a great academic, yet who has left a trail of destruction in his wake wherever he has gone. The time for his retirement from government "service" is long overdue.