Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Amalia's story

A straightalker she is not: Far from it. Amalia Garcìa sat down in a full-lenght interview with El Universal to give her side of the story, yet it is pretty disappointing given how circumspect she is on many topics.

 Her main line: What Governor Miguel Alonso is doing is regressing to the "dark eras" of the PRI, persecuting her politically. Among the specific points:
- The millions of pesos spent on popular artists was an investment, to drive tourism to the state and generate employment.
- The current governor, in any regard,  was her secretary of tourism, and approved of it
- The comptroller and the government is using the media to judge her, without summoning anyone for questioning
- Debt contracted and left was only 600 million pesos, not 2 billion pesos
- The current governor is a monrealista, and as such it is also an attack by Ricardo Monreal.

Then, and rather astoundingly, Amalia García hints that she is being targeted in order to prevent her from running for mayor of Mexico City - as it were, also a goal expressed by her arch-enemy Monreal. That Amalia, given the recent battering, but also from the fact that she can´t even legally run - she is not a resident of the Federal District, having left Zacatecas merely weeks ago - already talks of a Mexico City run in the midst of what may or may not be a major corruption scandal, to me appears more than a bit presumptuous.

She does, in any event, certainly have a point when it comes to Ricardo Monreal, whose ghost hovers over the new Zacatecas government. As Bajo Reserva notes:
- The new comptroller, Guillermo Huizar, was head of the state branch of the Partido del Trabajo, which Monreal and his brothers joined after ditching the PRD
- The new attorney general Arturo Nahle was Monreal's Government Secretary
- His chief administrative officer Le Roy Barraga is Monreal's suplente in the Senate

Even Arturo Ramírez  Bucio a federal deputy for PAN from Zacatecas, told the new PRI governor to "cut the umbilical cord," which may be taken almost literally: Governor Alonso was at one point even Monreal's personal secretary.

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