PT Mayor kidnapped in Mexico State, likely by narco

José Eduviges Nava, municipal president of Zacualpan, Mexico State, for the Workers Party (PT) was kidnapped Friday. His bodyguard was killed.

He had apparently received threats from La Familia Michoacana at earlier occasions.

PRI's win: It hurts, and especially because of the "why"

I readily admits it hurts to see the smirking face of PRI president Humberto Moreira all over the Mexican media, following the PRI's demolishing carro completo - and, as I believe Manuel Camacho has noted a few times, not chiefly for the PRI's victory, but because of how they win: They contract as much public and private debt they can, go on a wild spending free, and leave the problems for the future, for the people to pick up the bill.

It is an irresponsibility and cynicism that angers.

Eruviel Ávila's win, with 41 percent more votes than his closes adversary, is the highest in Mexico State's history, according to Milenio.

Yes, and when  Enrique Peña Nieto became governor of Mexico State, the state debt was 1.5 billion pesos.
By 2010, it was 37 billion.

A stunning graphic from Mexico State election

A screenshot I tried to capture from El Universal's flash presentation of the Mexico State election, with apologies for the quality.

In red, the districts won by the PRI.

The cost of every single vote in Mexico State? About 60 dollars

This is a quite stunning fact: According to Coparmex, a rough estimated cost of each vote in Mexico State today - including organizing the elections, party funding, etc - will be a whopping $60 - U.S. dollars, that is.

Total cost of the election: 3.6 billion Mexican pesos.

That's about a 100 percent increase from the last elections in 2005. And irony of ironies: The electoral code was modified in 2008 with the explicit purpose of reducing the cost of elections.

Keep in mind that this figure does not include any extra-official - illegal - resources spent on the election. The PRD and PAN have accused and denounced PRI of showering state money on their candidate, and surpassing any legal spending limit.

Mexico State electoral institute finally acts, of sorts

The electoral institute of Mexico State, Instituto Electoral del Estado de México (IEEM), responsible for organizing the upcoming elections in the state, finally reacted to complaints from the opposition that the ruling PRI is maintaining hundreds of billboards and other propaganda in favor of the party, when they should have been torn down before the election in the name of equity.

Yet mind you, no rush - the Mexico State government of Enrique Peña Nieto has three days to do so - even though the election is barely a week away.

Bishop Onésimo Cepeda, with his 130+ million loan, off the hook for now

Onésimo Cepeda, one of the absolute most dubious members of the Mexican clergy and bishop of Ecatepec, got an amparo or injunction that puts an end to a long investigation where Cepade was accused of defrauding an old woman for a collection of highly valuable paintings. The investigation is now officially closed, following a 2-1 decision by the 8th Appellate Court.

To recall, Cepeda was accused of snatching the collection of paintings by faking a 130 million dollars(!) loan to Olga Azcárraga Madero, now deceased. Cepeda claimed he lent the money; his opponents, that it was all a simulation. Nor does Cepeda have to prove where the hell he got the 130 million dollars that he claimed to have lent Azcárraga, the aunt of Televisa president Emilio Azcárraga Jean.

Xavier Olea Peláez, lawyer of the company accusing Cepeda of fraud, claimed trafficking of influences, as two of the judges of the 8th Appellate Court as well as Supreme Court Minister Sergio Valls recently attended Cepeda's birthday party. Cepeda, to be sure, is a very powerful man, and very close to the PRI.

Yet even if no fraud took place, what is there to say of a bishop that is apparently capable of producing 130 million dollars in cash, and refuses to state where the money come from?

(in on of his most truly pathetic columns to date, Carlos Marìn ridicules the charges, yet does not find it worthwhile to even take note of the bishop´s immense wealth)

I am convinced that it is indeed easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than it is for Bishop Cepeda to enter the paradise he claims to believe in.

88 guns of Jorge Hank Rhon: Like arresting Al Capone for tax evasion

Forty long-barrel rifles, 48 guns, 70 ammo clips, 9,298 bullets, and a tear gas grenade, all stored in his house. That is the official reason former Tijuana mayor Jorge Hank Rhon, and ten others,  was apprehended by the Mexican army.

Even Shakira was a casualty, it appears; she was slated to give a private concert to the "businessman" Jorge Hank Rhon, whose corruption and shady dealings are likely only surpassed by that of his father, Carlos Hank González, former Mexico State governor and a key member of the Grupo Atlacomulco that for decades have dominated politics in Mexico State.

The arrest of Hank Rhon certainly made an impact on the current campaign to become the next governor of Mexico State; campaign staff of Eruviel Ávila Villegas, the PRI's candidate, was quick to distance himself from Hank. The most vacuous comment I've seen so far came from current Edomex governor Enrique Peña Nieto: "I have no more facts to give any different view than the invariable position of the party."

So was it politically motivated, or simply triggered by what appears to be a criminal offense? Clearly these are not mutually exclusive. As an El Universal editorial notes, "It is difficult to find anyone with a darker past." The obvious parallel to his arrest, ostensibly for illegal weapons, is nailing Al Capone for tax evasion. Regardless: As a strike against the perennial impunit plaguing Mexico, the arrest of Jorge Hank Rhon is truly wonderful news.

Mexican church rallies behind Enrique Peña Nieto

The Mexican Episcopal Conference (Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano) which is not a conference at all but the official leadership organization of the Mexican Catholic church, deemed the government of Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico State to have been "successful" and one of the best state administrations of Mexico, according to "statistics."

What statistics? Mexico State is an absolute an utter disaster, and the few gains made under Peña Nieto's administration pale compared to to brutal rises in vital statistics such as crime, murders, and unemployment, as detailed recently by e.g. IMCO and COPARMEX.

Yet since when has the top hierarchy of the Mexican catholic church ever been interested in facts?

PRI candidate Eruviel Ávila offers rewards for vote promotion in Mexico State

Eruviel Ávila, PRI's candidate for governor in Mexico State, openly offers rewards for vote promotion: Those in his campaign who "promote" the vote most efficiently, will be rewarded with public office, cars, household appliances, or positions in the party.

Luis Videgaray, head of the Mexico State PRI branch, defended the practice as "legitimate."

What more evidence does one need that the "New PRI" of Enrique Peña Nieto is exactly the same as the old PRI? The PRI governed Mexico for 71 years and has governed the miserable Mexico State for 82.