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.

Gabino Cué will not go after Ulises Ruiz

Governor of Oaxaca Gabino Cué said yesterday he would not go after his predecessor Ulises Ruiz:

"When we have an element that can establish that he has committed an irregularity,  we will proceed, but to date we cannot act."

How disappointing. After his six years of criminal misrule, no evidence cannot be found? I find that extremely hard to believe.

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.

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?

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?

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.

Mariano González Zarur becomes Tlaxcala governor; the worst of PRI resurfaces from the sewer

Mariano González Zarur's assumption as governor of Tlaxcala Saturday truly brought out the best and the worst of the PRI - representatives of the latter included highly discredited ex-governors Roberto Madrazo and Ulises Ruiz, as well as soon-to-be former governor, the ill-famed protector of pederasts, Mario Marín of Puebla - a man who belongs in a federal prison rather than as an invited (presumably) guest to a gubernatorial inauguration ceremon

The state was wrested from the PAN, following the six-year rule of Héctor Israel Ortiz Ortiz. González Zarur promised a thorough house cleaning of the former state administration; notably, in the inauguration ceremony, the eight chairs set aside for PAN's state deputies were empty.

Oaxaca's Gabino Cué again standing up for change: Against SNTE "aviators"

More good news that Governor Gabino Cué is serious about taking on the old powers-that-be in Oaxaca: His government  declared a purge of the state institute of public education, in the hands of Elba Esther Gordillo's SNTE teachers union (the largest in Latin America), with the goal to rid it of the aviadores, literally "aviators," or hundreds or even thousands of "teachers" who appear on the public payroll, yet have never set a foot in a classroom, and are often rather used as shock troops for Gordillo's SNTE and her PANAL party, during election time.

More good news from Oaxaca; may more be on its way.

Ulises Ruiz under investigation in Oaxaca

It has been long said that Ulises Ruiz greatest fear is to wind up in jail. Long in running but ever more realistic, given the determination of the new Oaxaca state administration, led by Governor Gabino Cué, to investigate the administration (2004-2010) of the former governor.

This, given "inconsistencies demonstrated in the state of accounts presented, as well as operations and items that must be clarified," according to Perla Woorlich Fernández, new head of Oaxaca's office of the Comptroller and government Transparency (Secretaría de la Contraloría y Transparencia Gubernamental). 

As La Jornada reports, Ruiz leaves a state in shambles, where patients are dying in Oaxaca's hospitals due to lack of personnel and equipment.

Woorlich Fernández, now heading what appears a quite exhaustive investigation of said accounds,  told El Universal that the previous government handed out no information on its spending, payrolls, contracts for long-term services for infrastructure and equipment, and so forth. In this regard, Ruiz at least remained consistent with the way he governed.

My favorite quotes regarding the information the former government did claim to provide, according to the former PAN legislator-turned-auditor: "it does not explain clearly the situation of the entity at the beginning of its government, nor relevant details of the actions undertaken during the period 2004-2001 government administration..." and "the different sources of information differ substantially from each other, where it is impossible to know exactly of any public works for the period 2004-2010, both those carried out as well as those currently underway, and their actual cost."

In short, Ruiz left information about... absolutely nothing!

Gabino Cué certainly has a daunting task ahead of him. For the sake of seeking to address one of Mexico's absolute worst ills - impunity - I hope we can take his comptroller's words at face value: "We will apply the law in case of detecting irregularities"

At last: Governor Gabino Cué of Oaxaca - how sweet it sounds

A big, big day for Oaxaca, and Mexico: The end of the despotic caciquismo of Ulises Ruiz came to an end with the assumption of Gabino Cué as governor of Oaxaca, 2010-2016.

Before the event, Ulises Ruiz had already informed that he would not attend the swearing-in of his successor, conveniently if pathetically using the excuse that he had to addend rather the ceremony of
Carlos Lozano de la Torre, new governor of Aguascalientes also sworn in today.

He might as well: In his speech, in the company of Interior Minister José Francisco Blake Mora, Cué declared,

"I will not allow impunity and there is no protection for those who by their actions betrayed the trust and the will of the people, and who tore apart the social fabric of the people of Oaxaca. But it will be only the law who can identify and punish the guilty, not personal or partisan political interests."

The all-but-direct reference to Ruiz ups the ante; the now former governor has more than enough reason to fear that he might be thrown in jail for his 6-year misrule of Oaxaca. Taking Cué at his words hardly leaves other alternatives than prison for Ulises Ruiz.

PRD: Ulises Ruiz Ortiz leaves 26 dead and a 10-fold rise in public debt

Oaxaca state legislator Carol Antonio Altamirano, coordinator of the PRD group in the Oaxaca legislature, said that Ulises Ruiz Ortiz will leave a debt of at least 26 murders, and a public debt that skyrocketed from half a million pesos to five billion pesos.

Ruiz, for his part, has warned against any "witch hunt" of his outgoing administration by the new one headed by Gabino Cué.

I say let the witch hunt begin.

Echoes of 1997: New Oaxaca legislature first-ever without PRI majority

At last, half a year (!) after the July 5 state elections, the 61st Oaxaca state legislature was finally installed.
Just like what happened on the national level in 1997, for the first time in Oaxaca's history, PRI will not have a majority in the state congress: PRI will have 16, while the united opposition will total 26 seats. Of those, 11 will be from PAN, 9 from PRD, 3 from Convergencia, 2 from PT, and one for a local party.
The legislature already made history: With a 40-to-2 vote, the deputies made Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza head of the legislature. It was only in 2007 that Cruz Mendoza, an indigenous Zapotec just like the great Benito Juárez, was denied assuming as president of the Santa María Quielogani municipality for being a woman.

One can only hope the PRI deputies will act more responsibly than the outgoing deputies, many of whom were loudly denounced by protesters as they terminated their mandate. Just two weeks ago, the outgoing 25-strong PRI delegation sought to again pass modifications to the charter regulating the operation of congress that would in practice have allowed the incoming largest single - PRI - the control of the most important of the legislature's organ, even if it only had a plurality and not a majority. The Supreme Court struck down this blatant attempt at institutional engineering, but the PRI deputies held a session without the opposition present where they basically passed the same proposed "reform." It is truly in this party's DNA to seek to bend, twist, shape, or brake any law or rule in their favor: You can take the PRI out of power, but never the hunger for power at all cost out of the PRI.

It should therefore hardly come as a surprise that the Supreme Court's @lex, a judicial statistics portal, recently revealed that from 2004-2008, the Oaxaca government headed by outgoing priísta Governor Ulises Ruiz, was the Mexican state that was involved in the highest number of constitutional controversies with the Supreme Court: Ruiz himself was denounced 19 times by different municipalities in the state, as well as 20 times by the Federal government, accused of having violated the constitution.

Already legislators such as Flavio Sosa, former head of Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO) and earlier imprisoned by Ruiz, has called for a truth commission,  a demand backed by at least PAN and PRD. Let's hope that incoming governor Gabino Cué will not renege on his promises to thoroughly investigate any and all aspect of the extremely controversial Ruiz years.

Mexico Supreme Court squashes Ulises Ruis' attempt to evade auditing

While Ulises Ruiz is still enjoys impunity as governor of Oaxaca (given the ridiculously long transition period in this and other states), a ruling by Mexican Supreme Court suggests that he might be in trouble soon after leaving office.


In July, the state congress steamrolled through, among other "covering-the-back-of-an-outgoing-governor legislation," a change to state law that in essence declared that major aspects of Ruiz' government could not be audited. The Supreme Court finally threw out the ruling yesterday, given that the PRI-dominated legislature broke a series of legal procedures in the process, and declared it unconstitutional.

Ulises Ruiz is one step closer to finally answering for the mismanagement during his 2004-2010 disastrous government. 

Ulises Ruiz still has 100 days left of plundering and covering his tracks

More than seven weeks(!) after winning the election, governor-elect Gabino Cué was finally able to convince outgoing governor Ulises Ruiz of sitting down for a meeting. Ruiz' failure to meet his successor, as well as a rash of legislative initiative to secure his impunity, is another testimony to the absurdity of having to wait six months from election day until assumption of power. A little over a week ago, the local PRI-dominated congress om its "own initiative" decided to exonerate Ruiz for the massive human rights violations - the gunning down of protesters - on his watch; just recently, the same state congress approved Ruiz' cuenta pública, or public expenditure, despite reports of a budget deficit of a billion pesos. 


What remains to be seen is exactly to what lengths Cué will go to in order to end Ruiz impunity and launch his own investigations of Ruiz' many institutional transgressions and what is likely to be uncovered as massive corruption. In the meantime, Ruiz' will have 100 days more in office to cover his tracks: This, unfortunately, is what the "transition period" entails. 

Lame-duck Oaxaca legislature exonerates Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. For now.

The PRI-dominated state legislature of Oaxaca on its "own" initiative absolved governor Ulises Ruiz for having violated the state constitution when he ordered the gunning down of protesters in the summer and fall of 2006.

Note that that Mexican Supreme Court last October found Ruis guilty of grave violations of citizen rights. 

The vote by the Oaxaca legislature, strictly along party lines, is clearly a preemptive strike, part  of Ruis' efforts to avoid legal persecution as he leaves his position. 

The last word is not said in this case; expect the incoming state legislature to look into this and many other issues concerning Ruis' conduct. They will have their hands full.