The case of Basilia Ucan Nah stinks. The Mayan woman, who understands no Spanish and does not read or write in her own language, was arrested in 2007 for pimping, and received 12 years. Yet there seems to be absolutely no evidence tying her to any crime, and every witness has come forward to reject their earlier testimonies, which they claim were forced after heavy intimidation by the state police. Rather, Ucan Nah might have been fingered and locked up for not paying a bribe to the judge of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Ramón Jesús Aldaz Bencomo.
Now, finally, the governor of the state, Félix González Canto (whose own children are magically lucky), have requested more details from the case from the state attorney general, Francisco Alor Quezada. In the meantime, Ucan Nah is in her fourth year in prison.
Here is a press kit in English from the human rights center PRODH Miguel Agustín PRO Juárez.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
AMLO and democracy, follow-up
AMLO's increasingly shrill rhetoric against the planned consultation among PRD and PAN members whether to accept an electoral alliance or not, is a clear sign that he is far from sure the alliance will be rejected.
It also exposes AMLO as a man who despite his protestations of listening to "the people," has very little regard for the opinions for the popular will when they contradict his own:
Yet this is not AMLO's modus operandi. Rather, he simply discredits the poll beforehand, to be on the safe side, in case the outcome wouldn't favor him. If it does favor him, it is simply a win-win situation.
There are very legitimate reasons to oppose the alliances, as there are legitimate reasons to back them. One may laud AMLO for his steadfast opposition to them (after 2006, that is), or castigate him. Yet deserving of the label "democrat," he certainly is not.
It also exposes AMLO as a man who despite his protestations of listening to "the people," has very little regard for the opinions for the popular will when they contradict his own:
We will not participate (in the consultation) because it is a farce. I have information that Calderón himself is organizing it. Yes, the same who stole the Presidency of the Republic!He also accused one of the organizations behind the poll (PRD asked impartial external NGOs to arrange so as to avoid any accusations of a fixed vote), Alianza Cìvica, of being tied to PAN, offering no evidence. Also:
"We are not going to participate Why? To make it easy for them? No way. We don't want anymore pretense."Why participate? Well, AMLO could prove that he really is true to his word in terms of listening to "the people": If the PRD and PAN primary voters want an alliance, or if they don't, he could simply state, "I'll respect whatever the outcome is."
Yet this is not AMLO's modus operandi. Rather, he simply discredits the poll beforehand, to be on the safe side, in case the outcome wouldn't favor him. If it does favor him, it is simply a win-win situation.
There are very legitimate reasons to oppose the alliances, as there are legitimate reasons to back them. One may laud AMLO for his steadfast opposition to them (after 2006, that is), or castigate him. Yet deserving of the label "democrat," he certainly is not.
Forty members of SME attack a single CFE worker
In the Cuauhtémoc borough in Mexico City, a worker for the CFE, the state-owned company supplying most of Mexico with electricity , was attacked by around 40 members of the SME, the Mexican electrician union. The offense of the CFE worker? Being a CFE worker.
The SME contingent first hurled objects at his truck, then beat the poor man as he sought to flee, until he found refuge at a fire station, where he firemen protected him.
Forty men on one fellow state worker. I don't know what annoys me the most: Reading all the stories about how these SME thugs constantly attack people and property, or how the "radical" left keep praising them as if they were the heroes of the working class.
And the irony of ironies: Despite having been courted in particular by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the SME now seem ready to cast their lot with Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico State; AMLO even had to exhort them "not to get confused" by Peña Nieto's apparent offer to back the creation of a new company for them.
The SME contingent first hurled objects at his truck, then beat the poor man as he sought to flee, until he found refuge at a fire station, where he firemen protected him.
Forty men on one fellow state worker. I don't know what annoys me the most: Reading all the stories about how these SME thugs constantly attack people and property, or how the "radical" left keep praising them as if they were the heroes of the working class.
And the irony of ironies: Despite having been courted in particular by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the SME now seem ready to cast their lot with Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico State; AMLO even had to exhort them "not to get confused" by Peña Nieto's apparent offer to back the creation of a new company for them.
Lesson from the teacher? Kick him while he's down
From Milenio, the following photo of a teacher in action:
That's Sigfrido Olmedo, subdirector of the Technical Secondary School No. 1 in the capital of Oaxaca. He is seen here kicking the Oaxaca secretary of public security, Marco Tulio López Escamilla, while he's already down. López Escamilla had walked over to Olmedo and other demonstrators to try to have a dialogue with them, clearly with little success. Olmedo, the teacher, was recognized by his own students.on Facebook.
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