Death in apartment B19 ruled "suicide": Galina Chankova Chaneva and Niño Verde

25-year old Galina Chankova Chaneva was a young Bulgarian female who came to Mexico from Amsterdam on April 1, 2011. 24 hours Twelve hours later, she apparently decided to commit suicide from the 19th floor of a luxury apartment connected to the Mexican Green party and above all the "Niño Verde," Jorge Emilio González Martínez.

This, according to the state prosecutor of Quintana Roo, who just ruled that González had nothing to do with her death.

While plenty of reports suggested the apartment belonged to "Niño Verde," Elizabeth Regina Díaz appared as the presumed owner. She just happens to be the wife of his private secretary. As Reforma dryly summarizes,

"The Attorney stated that it was investigated whether  Díaz  was the "Niño Verde's prestanombres [strawman] strawmen, because this aspect was not part of the investigations."

Here is her picture, via Animal Político. A report from Terra.com strongly hints at human trafficking.

PAN "social worker" probably gets Dick-of-the-Year award

A last-minute dark-horse candidate in Mexico's Dick of the Year award: Carlos Talavera Leal, head of the important social program Oportunidades in Uruapan, Michoacán, who in public Facebook posts referred to poor indigenous women as "smelly" and that "hygiene is not for them."

Talavera is a member of PAN and was a supporter of the bid of president Calderón's sister to be governor of Michoacán a few weeks ago.

His contract with Oportunidades will not be renewed in January. That's something.

Update: He was also just fired for what remains of the year. And here, a screen shot of part of the Facebook page - it speaks for itself:

Guess which Mexican party laments the death of Kim Jong Il?

From the obituary:

The Workers' Party of Mexico regrets the death of our comrade Kim Jong Il, leader of the North Korean people, who with great wisdom who led the North Koreans on the path of peace and economic, political, social and cultural development.

A comrade of wisdom, indeed. This is truly preposterous.

Who murdered PRI's federal deputy?

Imagine the scenario: A U.S. congressman is abducted along with an assistant. They are found dead by farmers two weeks later, their bodies decomposing.

Two men are arrested and confess to the murder; they are are also in possession of a huge amount of cash that they declare was the payment for the hit job, and also provide them with cars. Their contractor, they say, was a mayor from the dead congressman's party.

How hard should it be to prove or disprove their story? How likely is it that the mayor would simply continue in office and that the investigation would pretty much come to a standstill?

This appears sadly to be the case in Guerrero, where PRI mayor Willy Reyes Ramos is signaled as the man behind the murder of PRI federal deputy Moisés Villanueva de la Luz. As El Universal reports, the murder remains unresolved, almost four months later.

AMLO documentary: "0.56% ¿Qué le pasó a México?"

The documentary "0.56% ¿Que le paso a México?" deals specifically with the 2006 elections, and was recently showed on Milenio TV. You can now see the the entire movie here on Youtube.

It's definitely more on the pro-AMLO side, but far less so than the ultra-propagandistic "Fraude," and therefore worth a watch. Quality is not superb, but more than decent.

PRD to choose 2012 Mexico City mayor candidate by poll - of sorts

The PRD will decide its 2012 candidate for Mexico City mayor by a poll, like it decided its 2012 presidential candidate. The poll will have efectos vinculantes or loosely "binding effects" on the PRD state council, which still holds the final word - which sounds a bit of a catch.

"External candidacies" will also be allowed - so as not to leave out Miguel Ángel Mancera, the attorney general and  increasingly rumored to be the favorite to succeed Ebrard, as well as the rather unlikely candidacy of Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, who left/was kicked out of the PRD more than a decade ago.

The candidate will be officially ratified Feb. 11 or 12, when the council is scheduled to meet to digest the result of the poll.


Now, off to filet migñon and copious amounts of tequila - happy christmas!

Unemployment in Mexico, 4.97 percent

President Calderón boasts on Twitter that unemployment in Mexico is 4.79 percent, "the lowest of the OECD countries." Well, as El Universal points out, and represented by this graph, that's still quite a bit more than when he came into power.