Ernesto Cordero Arroyo has not held a single elective office in his life. No municipal presidency, mayorship, governorship, and no legislative office - not even as a state legislator, let alone federal deputy. He was nonetheless put on the first spot on the proportional representation list for the Senate, which guaranteed him a spot in Mexico's highest legislative chamber without having to campaign for his seat. It was clearly a pay-off from Calderón, who had promoted him as his successor for president, though that primary was in the end won by the hapless Josefina Vázquez Mota.
Yet to simply award an ultra-loyalist with zero legislative experience a senatorship is one thing; to make him head of the Senate(!) is another. Yes, amazingly enough, Cordero - who was one of the most arrogant, venomous, and politically tone-deaf members of Calderón's cabinet - will now preside the Senate the coming year,in addition to heading the PAN's senate group.
His inexperience and record of personal unsuitability bodes ill for legislative compromises. More immediately, his appointment is simply pathetic and embarrassing.
Source:
Se instala la 62 Legislatura en el Senado; Cordero rinde protesta. La Jornada, Aug. 30, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Saturday, September 1, 2012
PRI mayor leaves Acapulco in shambles
Manuel Añorve Baños was PRI mayor of Acapulco from 2009 until March 2012, when he stepped down to compete for a seat in the national Chamber of Deputies. He also competed unsuccessfully for the Guerrero governorship, and judging by his disastrous administration in the city of Acapulco, Guerrero residents can be quite happy that Añorve is not their leader.
The left won Acapulco in the July elections, but already now it has been revealed they will inherit a debt of at least 1.5 billion pesos. Worse still in the short run, already now 5,000 city employees are left without pay, as Añorve spent all the money set aside for them.
It's a strange world where an utterly incompetent mayor manages to be rewarded with a seat at the national congress, when his incompetence should instead have served to remove him from politics and public administration altogether. Yet within the PRI, he was in practice promoted.
Hopefully he will do less damage as a federal deputy for the PRI than as mayor of Acacpulco.
Source:
Acapulco: crisis de deuda mantiene sin salarios a 5 mil empleados municipales. La Jornada, Sept. 1, 2012.
The left won Acapulco in the July elections, but already now it has been revealed they will inherit a debt of at least 1.5 billion pesos. Worse still in the short run, already now 5,000 city employees are left without pay, as Añorve spent all the money set aside for them.
It's a strange world where an utterly incompetent mayor manages to be rewarded with a seat at the national congress, when his incompetence should instead have served to remove him from politics and public administration altogether. Yet within the PRI, he was in practice promoted.
Hopefully he will do less damage as a federal deputy for the PRI than as mayor of Acacpulco.
Source:
Acapulco: crisis de deuda mantiene sin salarios a 5 mil empleados municipales. La Jornada, Sept. 1, 2012.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Why athletes should perhaps not be made senators
I admit I know little about Ana Gabriela Guevara Espinoza, a retired Mexican athlete who was made a candidate for senator for the PT. She may have had some political experience, but a recent faux pax certainly suggests that she knows little of the functioning of politics - and that maybe making famous athlete into national politicians overnight may not always be such a bright idea in general:
When the senator-elect was to appear in the Senate for her swearing in, she was nowhere to be found: Instead, Guevara wandered around confused in San Lázaro, seat of the Chamber of Deputies. When someone alerted her to her mistaken location, she made a run for the exit and in the end apparently made it to the Senate.
Is an athlete who doesn't seem to know which of Mexico's two legislative chambers she belongs to really suited to be one of Mexico's 128 Senators? Could not even one of her staffers, advisers, friends, party comrades, anyone, find out about the procedure beforehand?
Truly embarrassing.
Source:
Focos rojos con Washington. El Universal, Aug. 31, 2012
When the senator-elect was to appear in the Senate for her swearing in, she was nowhere to be found: Instead, Guevara wandered around confused in San Lázaro, seat of the Chamber of Deputies. When someone alerted her to her mistaken location, she made a run for the exit and in the end apparently made it to the Senate.
Is an athlete who doesn't seem to know which of Mexico's two legislative chambers she belongs to really suited to be one of Mexico's 128 Senators? Could not even one of her staffers, advisers, friends, party comrades, anyone, find out about the procedure beforehand?
Truly embarrassing.
Source:
Focos rojos con Washington. El Universal, Aug. 31, 2012
Where in the world is Tomás Yarrington?
He is wanted not just in Mexico, but in 190 countries across the globe: The Mexican government has asked Interpol to arrest former PRI governor of Tamaulipas (1999-2005), Tomás Yarrington Ruvalcaba, for his alleged involvement with the Gulf Cartel in the state.
No one has seen the fugitive governor since a Mexican judge yesterday issued the arrest warrant. Don't expect him to appear in person voluntarily to answer the charges. What I find even more interesting is if - or when - another likely next arrest warrant for another ex-PRI governor will be issued: Yarrington's successor, Eugenio Hernández Flores.
Source:
“Firme, indagatoria contra Yarrington”. El Universal, Aug. 30, 2012
Mexico judge orders arrest of ex-Governor Yarrington. BBC News, Aug. 29, 2012
No one has seen the fugitive governor since a Mexican judge yesterday issued the arrest warrant. Don't expect him to appear in person voluntarily to answer the charges. What I find even more interesting is if - or when - another likely next arrest warrant for another ex-PRI governor will be issued: Yarrington's successor, Eugenio Hernández Flores.
Source:
“Firme, indagatoria contra Yarrington”. El Universal, Aug. 30, 2012
Mexico judge orders arrest of ex-Governor Yarrington. BBC News, Aug. 29, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Electoral court rejects annulling Mexico 2012 election
A commission of Mexico's TEPJF electoral court tasked with qualifying the 2012 presidential election announced that it proposes to reject as unfounded the complaints of Movimiento Progresista, the electoral coalition behind Andrés Manuel López Obrador's candidacy, where it demanded the annulment of the election, alleging overspending, undue media coverage, custom-made fake polling, and other irregularities
Next, the TEPJF will actually vote on the recommendation tomorrow, and next the court will actually vote to ratify (and theoretically, to not) the PRI's victory, but in essence this all but ensures that Enrique Peña Nieto will sometime in the next few days be declared president-elect of Mexico.
Source:
Rechazan magistrados todas las quejas de la izquierda. La Jornada, Aug. 29, 2012
Desecha Trife impugnación. El Universal, Aug. 29, 2012
Next, the TEPJF will actually vote on the recommendation tomorrow, and next the court will actually vote to ratify (and theoretically, to not) the PRI's victory, but in essence this all but ensures that Enrique Peña Nieto will sometime in the next few days be declared president-elect of Mexico.
Source:
Rechazan magistrados todas las quejas de la izquierda. La Jornada, Aug. 29, 2012
Desecha Trife impugnación. El Universal, Aug. 29, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
World attention for christian cult psychopaths in Michoacán
The psychopathic and criminal thugs of Nueva Jerusalén, in Turicato municpality in Michoacán, are finally getting international attention:
A video from CNN here.
From the BBC, here.
The gutless PRI governor of the state, Fausto Vallejo Figueroa, calls for dialogue with the violent cultists, who destroy schools and pelt children with rocks, and have in the past been involved in rape and abuse scandals of their own brainwashed flock. There seems to be little point in dialogue at this point, yet one likely reason why Vallejo is not moving to arrest the leaders, as he should, is that the town has faithfully, with irony intended, voted PRI since it gained control in the 1970s.
Source:
Mexico cult eyes 'evil' secular schools. CNN, Aug. 23, 2012
Mexico row as religious sect blocks schooling access. BBC World News, Aug. 23, 2012
A video from CNN here.
From the BBC, here.
The gutless PRI governor of the state, Fausto Vallejo Figueroa, calls for dialogue with the violent cultists, who destroy schools and pelt children with rocks, and have in the past been involved in rape and abuse scandals of their own brainwashed flock. There seems to be little point in dialogue at this point, yet one likely reason why Vallejo is not moving to arrest the leaders, as he should, is that the town has faithfully, with irony intended, voted PRI since it gained control in the 1970s.
Source:
Mexico cult eyes 'evil' secular schools. CNN, Aug. 23, 2012
Mexico row as religious sect blocks schooling access. BBC World News, Aug. 23, 2012
AMLO's increasingly bizarre denunciations
I admit I am predisposed to more than a small dose of skepticim to many of the claims of Movimiento Progresista over fraud or other irregularities in the 2012 elections, given that a lot of strong words and denunciations have been hurled the past weeks but very little substantive evidence has appeared.
The behavior of AMLO's campaign coordinator Ricardo Monreal leaves much to be desired in this regard, and I am putting this mildly. He has been shooting off very serious allegations that for sure could be true, but for which he has presented not an iota of concrete evidence.
His recent antics is his most spectacular so far - a law of diminishing returns also applies to fraud accusations, to be sure:
That Agustín Carstens, head of Mexico's central bank, has falsified a document in order to cover up illegal transfer of money to a bank account Monreal claims was used by the PRI campaign. He also has charged him with money laundering and other financial crimes, and said he would go to SIEDO, or the organized crime unit of the attorney general, in order to denounce all this, tomorrow.
I would be very surprised if he has anything at all substantive. Despite supposedly being a lawyer by training, Monreal has at times demonstrated a lack of knowledge of even basic legal and political concepts, in the process discrediting the left's cause even further.
AMLO, however, seems fully convinced of the charges, claiming in his Twitter account that "The Bank of Mexico altered the electronic receipt of a transfer of money to protect Videgaray," a reference to Peña Nieto's campaign manager Luis Videgaray.
Monreal, whom AMLO recruited from the PRI to become PRD governor (he since switched to PT and then MC), is a man who has AMLO's full confidence. Monreal better have something substantive this time, as both he and his boss face complete ridicule if their charge will also be left unsubstantiated.
Source:
Monreal va contra Banxico. El Universal, Aug. 26, 2012
The behavior of AMLO's campaign coordinator Ricardo Monreal leaves much to be desired in this regard, and I am putting this mildly. He has been shooting off very serious allegations that for sure could be true, but for which he has presented not an iota of concrete evidence.
His recent antics is his most spectacular so far - a law of diminishing returns also applies to fraud accusations, to be sure:
That Agustín Carstens, head of Mexico's central bank, has falsified a document in order to cover up illegal transfer of money to a bank account Monreal claims was used by the PRI campaign. He also has charged him with money laundering and other financial crimes, and said he would go to SIEDO, or the organized crime unit of the attorney general, in order to denounce all this, tomorrow.
I would be very surprised if he has anything at all substantive. Despite supposedly being a lawyer by training, Monreal has at times demonstrated a lack of knowledge of even basic legal and political concepts, in the process discrediting the left's cause even further.
AMLO, however, seems fully convinced of the charges, claiming in his Twitter account that "The Bank of Mexico altered the electronic receipt of a transfer of money to protect Videgaray," a reference to Peña Nieto's campaign manager Luis Videgaray.
Monreal, whom AMLO recruited from the PRI to become PRD governor (he since switched to PT and then MC), is a man who has AMLO's full confidence. Monreal better have something substantive this time, as both he and his boss face complete ridicule if their charge will also be left unsubstantiated.
Source:
Monreal va contra Banxico. El Universal, Aug. 26, 2012
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