Church interferences breach the Constitution, yet may also have legal consequences.

Juan Sandoval íñiguez, the arch conservative cardinal of Guadalajara, yesterday repeated his outrageous claims that the Supreme Court was "bribed" by Mexico City Chief of Government Marcelo Ebrard in order to accept the constitutionality of gay marriages and, it was declared yesterday afternoon, gay adoptions. 

This may now have legal consequences. Ebrard deemed it "reprehensible and unacceptable" that a man with the rank of cardinal would so easily hurl around such grave accusations.:

"What Sandoval íñiguez has said, accusing ministers [of the court] of receiving gifts and other things, he will have to provove, because it is that serious that a bishop of the church, or anyone, discredits the courts in such a manner.... what I would say to the cardinal is: Prove it, or retract it."

The Supreme Court is understandably upset by these claims of corruption, and responded on its own with a unanimous declaration (the earlier vote was a whopping 9-2) that criticized the church claims, and backed Supreme Court Judge Sergio A. Valls Hernández calls for legal repercussions. 
Don't expect this anytime soon. The hierarchy of the church, so out of touch with reality on a host of different levels, has always responded to criticism by playing the role of the victim, arguing it is only commenting on moral or religious affairs, not political ones, which has more often than not been a blatant lie. 

Article 130 of the Constitution states that the clergy "cannot, in public acts, or through religious propaganda, oppose the laws of the country or its institutions."

The church's highest spokesperson, Hugo Valdemar, in an interview in the church organ Desde el Fe, recently clamored that "God free us from a fascist party like the PRD."

It gets worse. The archdioceses in a communique said that "those who are baptized have the moral obligation to exercise in the next elections a serious an responsible vote" - that is, explicitly telling catholics not to vote for the PRD. 

Clearly the church has no absolute respect for the spirit of the law, yet if Ebrard and the Supreme Court respond to their irresponsible claims of corruption, which denigrates and undermines the institutions of Mexican democracy, with legal moves, the church may be forced to show respect for the letter of the law. It is well overdue. 

Ceser Nava, President of PAN, stupidly and utterly illogically noted that the Supreme Court decision is contrary to the Mexican constitution - which is absurd, as the very ruling of the Court just stated that gay marriages are not unconstitutional - yet that one has the obligation to comply with the ruling. 

On the subject of Guanajuato : Teen pregnancy explodes due to sex ed prohibition

On the subject of Guanajuato and the catholic church, La Jornada reports that in the last four years, teen pregnancies have increased by a massive 40 percent. This is a state where the catholic church has massive influence on the PAN state government and on social policy: Guanajuato's yunquista governor, Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez, has prohibited nearly any sexual education in school and attempts at family planning. Reports La Jornada: "The secretary of educaiton, Alberto Diosdado... recommends students that they conserve their virginity until marriage, practice abstinence, avoid contraceptives, and reject homosexuality."
In addition, the state government sends the police to harass family planning organizations.


The church, for its part continues to fight tooth and nail against condoms and birth control pills. And sadly, here is the direct result of these irresponsible and utterly irrational policies, namely a massive and highly predictable rise in teen pregnancies. How in the world is this consistent with "family values," nominally held so dear by the church?

"Would you like to be adopted by a pair of lesbians or fags?"

These hateful words were not voiced by a nominally extremist rightwing organization, but by the cardinal of Guadalajara, Juan Sandoval Íñiguez - of an organization that claims to preach the love for the other and for mankind, in all its forms, yet that displays a level of obstinate intolerance and bigotry that is simply stunning to hear in the year 2010. The statement clearly is intended to put pressure on the Mexican Supreme Court ahead of its ruling whether gay adoptions are constitutional or not. As Mexfiles cleverly notes, it is of no little irony that the cardinal accuses some powerful "international interest" to be behind a supposed conspiratorial campaign to destroy the Mexican family. The high clergy of the Mexican church, part of one quite influential international organizaiton, are doing plenty of their own to destroy family values. 

The falangist Colegio de Abogados Católicos de México followed suit, arguing the Supreme Court is going against the "superior interest" of the children, threatening a future political trial against the court and clamoring, oh-so-maturely, for "legislators who wear pants," meaning, if you don't support CACM, your very masculinity is questioned. 

While on the gay adoption issue, I defer to a more authoritative source on the issue than the catholic church or catholic lawyers of Mexico, namely the American Psychological Association:

"... beliefs that lesbian and gay adults are not fit parents have no empirical foundation (Patterson, 2000, 2004a; Perrin, 2002). Lesbian and heterosexual women have not been found to differ markedly in their approaches to child rearing (Patterson, 2000; Tasker, 1999). Members of gay and lesbian couples with children have been found to divide the work involved in childcare evenly, and to be satisfied with their relationships with their partners (Patterson, 2000, 2004a). The results of some studies suggest that lesbian mothers' and gay fathers' parenting skills may be superior to those of matched heterosexual parents. There is no scientific basis for concluding that lesbian mothers or gay fathers are unfit parents on the basis of their sexual orientation (Armesto, 2002; Patterson, 2000; Tasker & Golombok, 1997). On the contrary, results of research suggest that lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children.

Yet sadly, and tragically, the church has only very rarely, and reluctantly, allowed empirical facts to hold any sway on its beliefs and opinions. 


(More from La Jornada here)

Marcelo Ebrard (re) launches his own party current

Milenio and La Jornada report on the launching of a "new" internal party current of the PRD, namely the Izquierda Renovadora en Movimiento. Their short-term memory fails them a tad here; led by Mexico City Secretary of Civil Protection Elías Miguel Moreno Brizuela, this is simply a relaunch of what was until recently called Izquierda en Movimiento, mimicking Ebrard's slogan for Mexico City, "Ciudad en Movimiento," which has been around since at least 2007 - it was launched officially during the PRD's 10th conference - and has periodically resurfaced with declarations that its main purpose is not promoting Ebrard's candidacy for 2012, which of course it always was and so remains. And just like Moreno Brizuela predicted in 2007 that the corriente would dethrone Nueva Izquierda as the principal party faction within the PRD, this new formation has similar pretensions, claiming that it already is the third largest within the PRD. 


This "new" corriente, or official party faction, attracted key perredistas such as Martha Dalia Gastélum, formerly of Foro Nuevo Sol (another corriente squarely behind Ebrard, though Gastélum left it - or, alternatively, was kicked out, according to her FNS detractors) in order to back Ortega for PRD president over Encinas in 2008), José Antonio Rueda, formerly of Red Izquierda Revolucionaria (REDIR), and notably Horacio Duarte, who wants to be PRD's gubernatorial candidate in Mexico State in 2011. I've read earlier reports that Duarte's GAP faction of the PRD has already lined up behind AMLO's candidacy, which I found dubious. Rather, Duarte's presence may seem as a backing for Ebrard, in return for Ebrard backing Duarte's gubernatorial bid. 

More responses to Castro's declarations - and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo makes a fool out of himself

While the content of Castro's recent declarations are on their own dramatic - they confirm AMLO and PRD's old  claim of a conspiracy in 2004 to destroy his standing among the electorate, hatched by leading politicians of PRI-PAN and the Attorney General of the Republic - PRD secretary general Hortensia Aragón notes the obvious, in that Castro's declarations:

"Unfortunately it is a belated declaration; it was delayed a bit in his memoirs and only serve to ratify what we knew from the beginning: Yes, they constructed a path to derail the candidacy of Andrés Manuel.”

As noted earlier, PRD's relationship with Castro is far from harmonious, for a range of reasons, yet a key one, as PRD Federal Deputy Jesús Zambrano also pointed out, was Castro's betrayal of the Mexican Left in 1988 when he immediately accepted the results of the 1988 elections that brought to power Carlos Salinas, validating what was an obvious fraud. 


Others are more concerned with responding to the Mexican Foreign Secretariat's sharp reply to Castro's revelations, which decided the best response would be to go on the attack, dismissing the substance of his comments outright and going on the offensive by attacking the right to a free vote in Cuba. 

PRD Senator Arturo Núñez calls the SRE's response "grotesque, ridiculous, and childish," rightly pointing out that SRE refused to deal with the contents of the comments. 


PT Federal Deputy Porfiro Muñoz Ledo -  a político saltimbanqui if there ever was one - noted that the foreign secretariat's declarations broke with its historic diplomacy to Cuba, not only by conflating Castro with the Cuban government, but also by interfering in Cuban internal affairs, observations that have elements of truth. Yet Muñoz Ledo, seemingly eager to build on the AMLO-Castro connection, amazingly states that the secretariat "cannot walk around with bravado" and claim there are no free elections in Cuba.

Really, Muñoz Ledo? This is the level of analysis to be expected from a man who has held virtually any high office in Mexico apart from the Presidency? 

Progressive tones from Juan Ramón de la Fuente. What office will he run for?

Juan Ramón de la Fuente, former rector of UNAM, is increasing his media protagonism these days, a sign he might finally run for elected office. Though whether it will be as Governor of Mexico State, Chief of Government of Mexico City or - why not? - the presidency remains to be seen.


De la Fuente recently expressed admiration for Obama, who a few months ago stated he wanted to refocus the "drug war" strategy toward one where drugs are principally regarded an issue of public health/ De la Fuente, former secretary of health in the government of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) reiterated his preference for "prevention, education, treatment and rehabilitation," and pointedly noted that putting the subject of legalization up for discussion was a great step forward. 

De la Fuente, a surgeon, is not affiliated with the PRI nor any other party, though he is regarded as close to the social-democratic wing of the PRD. Will he be a dark-horse presidential candidate for 2012, as a "citizen candidate"? 

Mexican Secretariat of foreign relations denies Castro's claims

The news that broke yesterday where Castro confirms the complot against AMLO in 2004 gets full front-page treatment in El Universal today - indeed, it is the main story, as well as in La Jornada. 
The foreign relations secretariat rather vehemently rejects Castro's claims, and uses the occasion to blast Cuba for its lack of democracy - that is, to try to distract from an issue that is, when all is said and done, still quite explosive. 


The relations between Cuba and Mexico are hardly the greatest -though far from as terrible as they were under Fox' government - and this issue is only likely to worsen them. 


A good summary from La Jornada on recent history of Cuban-Mexican relations here


Mexico City Chief of Government Marcelo Ebrard, for his part, noted that Castro's declarations  confirm the 2004 conspiracy.