No evidence yet of foul play in death of interior secretary

The Mexican Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT) said preliminary investigations have uncovered no evidence or indications of a fire or explosion in the helicopter crash that claimed the life of Interior Secretary José Francisco Blake Mora and seven others Friday.

WOLA on the Mérida Initiative

Two recent views on the Mérida Initiative:

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico claims the Mérida Initiative has been a great success, having contributed to the arrest of drug traffickers, actions against money laundering and arms traffickers, and of the training of police and security forces.

Washington Office of Latin America (WOLA): the Mérida Initiative has led to an increase in violence in Mexico.
Read the WOLA report here, and is very much worth a read. It also includes a very useful graphic comparing the Plan Colombia with Mérida:

From WOLA 

Michoacán votes: President's sister is favorite

Luisa María Calderón Hinojosa, the sister's president, is the favorite ahead of today's gubernatorial election in Michoacán. Accusations have been flying of illegal interventions from the PAN-led federal government to back Cocoa.

1,639 election observers, a record high, will guard election, which will also see a heavy security presence by the army and federal police - reportedly 10,000 in total, to guard the 3.4 million voters, of which around 50 percent are expected to participate. Notably, michoacanos in the United States could also vote, via postal ballot, and around 600 or so such votes were registered and approved - or around 0.002 percent of the around a quarter of a million living abroad, meaning above all United States.

In Cherán, there will not be any ballot boxes installed, however, as its citizens have refused the holding of elections in the predominantly indigenous municipality, instead claiming their right to do so through the traditional usos y costumbres method used in indigenous areas particularly in Oaxaca.

The new governor will only sit three years and seven months, given earlier reforms in the state to gradually seek to synchronize the elections with the national

In addition, 40 state legislators and heads of 113 municipalities will be elected today. Polls close at 7 pm U.S. eastern time, and the preliminary results can be seen on www.iem.org.mx and www.prep.org.mx.

The company behind this PREP, PoderNet, assured voters these results were safe from any cyber attacks and manipulation.

MEXICO'S INTERIOR MINISTER REPORTED DEAD

José Francisco Blake Mora, Mexico's interior minister, is reported dead in a helicopter crash.

If confirmed, Blake Mora is the second interior secretary to perish on the job, after the 2008 death of Juan Juan Camilo Mouriño.

This is truly terrible news.

The brand-new Human Rights Watch Report on Mexico

Human Rights Watch's latest report on Mexico (available here), is drawing much attention. Here is, for example, The Economist's very even-handed story on it.

Bottom line, from the HRW report's Executive Summary:

Human Rights Watch found evidence of a significant increase in human rights violations since Calderón launched his “war on organized crime.” In the five states examined, members of security forces systematically use torture to obtain forced confessions and information about criminal groups. And evidence points to the involvement of soldiers and police in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances around the country.

HRW looked at five states, and found, as is now close to the common wisdom, that sending the army has not caused a drop in violence - quite the contrary. In addition, it has resulted in massive human rights abuses from the armed forces:

What we have found is a public security policy that is badly failing on two fronts. It has not succeeded in reducing violence. Instead, it has resulted in a dramatic increase in grave human rights violations, virtually none of which appear to be adequately investigated. In sum, rather than strengthening public security in Mexico, Calderón’s “war” has exacerbated a climate of violence, lawlessness, and fear in many parts of the country.

UNAM professor murdered in Morelos

UNAM professor Ernesto Méndez Salinas, a biotechnology researcher, was murdered Tuesday night in Cuernavaca, Morelos.  UNAM dean José Narro Robles repudiated the murder and demanded it be solved.

IFE's Leonardo Valdés criticizes PRD's method for selecting its 2012 candidate

IFE's Leonardo Valdés has done and said many things as head of IFE's general council (often referred to as IFE's "president") that I can't quite figure the logic behind.

Another recent example: Two days ago he declared that PRD's method of selecting its 2012 presidential candidate was "not included in its statutes" and appeared very critical of this.

Yet it should be well known, as PRD president  Jesús Zambrano points out in today's papers, that PRD's National Congress - its highest organ, which meets around every three years - decided just a few weeks ago to accept this method - and anyone can duly go to the PRD's home page (http://www.prd.org.mx/portal/) and find the party's basic documents and congress proceedings for themselves.

Hence, I don't quite get Valdés' opposition. To recall, Valdés was elected a councilor and then IFE president with the PRD's blessing - I am not so sure he enjoys the same level of support today. That is not a good thing ahead of the 2012 election season.