In Calderón's meeting with Javier Sicilia - which I cannot see was anything but a very positive event - the Mexican president, from the centre-right quite christian-democrat PAN party, notably railed against unnamed Mexican bishops of the catholic high clergy who expressed their support for the criminal thug Jorge Hank Rhon, rightly referring to them as "vipers."
He didn't mention any names, but it was an obvious allusion to e.g. the bishop of Mexicali, José Isidro Guerrero Macías, and Mexico State's bishop Onésimo Cepeda, who both expressed support for the briefly incarcerated Hank, whose values should go against anything the church claim to stand for - e.g. 19 children, multiple divorces, likely ties to drug trafficking, etc, yet whom several bishops have said they are praying for - literally.
Calderón, a quite fervent catholic, said there are "certain characters who serve as models of holiness" yet are a "brood of vipers."
I am with Felipe on this one.
On a related note: I wonder what columnist-journalist Carlos Marín, who has ridiculed critics of Onésimo Cepeda, thinks of his embrace of Hank, who lost his US visa and is accused of involvement in the drug trade. Not problematic in the slightest?
Friday, June 24, 2011
Queretaro: PAN Deputy Salvador Martínez Ortiz, a cold wind from the dark ages
Salvador Martínez Ortiz, a PAN deputy in the Queretaro state congress and head of its Family Commission, declared, basking in his moral superiority, that gays cannot be legislators - from any party, mind you - or hold any public office because they undermine family values and the "natural law of cohabitation."
To boot, Martínez Ortiz was interviewed during the international day of sexual diversity.
I don't think someone who believe a gay person is unfit for office is... well, fit for office. May his political career be a short lived one.
To boot, Martínez Ortiz was interviewed during the international day of sexual diversity.
I don't think someone who believe a gay person is unfit for office is... well, fit for office. May his political career be a short lived one.
Ebrard suggests PEMEX-PETROBRAS partnership
Lula da Silva is in Mexico, and he met with both Marcelo Ebrard, where Ebrard notably proposed a strategic partnership between the Mexican oil company PEMEX and the Mexican Petrobras:
Lula also met with Alejandro Encinas in a separate meeting, expressing support for his run for the Mexico State governorship.
"I would find it very interesting to make a strategic alliance with them, for they have developed technology for deepwater exploration. I do not see why we can not make a strategic alliance with them; this would suit Mexico and other countries a lot."Indeed!
Lula also met with Alejandro Encinas in a separate meeting, expressing support for his run for the Mexico State governorship.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Pablo Salazar Mendiguchí, a political prisoner?
Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa, writing in Proceso, offers an impassioned defense of former Chiapas governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchí, now under arrest on embezzlement and other charges, arguing essentially that Sabines and the old PRI machinery of Chiapas is exacting its revenge on someone who dared to defy them.
He also deems Salazar a political prisoner.
He also deems Salazar a political prisoner.
The June 22 Encinas-Bravo Mena-Ávila Mexico State debate
Yesterday's debate can be found here in its entirety. There is from my point of view no doubt who commands the debate: Alejandro Encinas.
Devastating analysis of presidential hopeful Alonso Lujambio, by Denise Dresser
Denise Dresser, writing in Proceso (which appears to have opened up access to its articles), has a devastating analysis of education secretary Alonso Lujambio that is well worth a read.
Essentially, she argues Lujambio has not achieved much at all, and does not have the required "fire in the belly" to become president, and simply does not have a full understanding of Mexico's current difficult situation or indeed, political reality.
Essentially, she argues Lujambio has not achieved much at all, and does not have the required "fire in the belly" to become president, and simply does not have a full understanding of Mexico's current difficult situation or indeed, political reality.
How subsidies benefit the rich in Mexico: United Nations report
The new United Nations Report Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano México 2011: equidad del gasto público: derechos sociales universales con subsidios focalizados, highlights how so many of the Mexican government's programs "in redistributive terms are probably very questionable": They do not serve to lessen income differences, but rather benefit the rich more than the poor. I haven't gotten to read the report yet, but El Universal highlights a few examples:
- Farm subsidies going to richer farmers
- Health spending benefits not going to the poorest
- Education spending, ditto
(One excellent earlier study that demonstrate what programs in fact to improve equality, and which lead to more inequality, is A Decade of Falling. Inequality in Mexico: Market Forces or State Action? by Gerardo Esquivel, Nora Lustig and John Scott. One earlier version available for free here)
Another case in point: Ending the tenencia, or roughly the sales tax for new cars, has been a populist mantra for particularly PRI candidates for governor, who foolishly (from a financial, not electoral point of view) have championed taking away a tax that not only has provided much-needed income to cash-strapped state governments, but whose elimination will be a blatant hand-out to the more wealthy of Mexicans.
Who wants to pay car sales taxes voluntarily? Of course few, but fact remains that the ones most likely to pay the highest tenencia are from the upper economic layers of Mexican society.
Credit then, of sorts, to Veracruz Governor César Duarte, who despite irresponsibly calling for the elimination of the tenencia in his election campaign, is now backtracking and want to keep it, realizing that its elimination would break the state's finances.
What a belated "discovery" - after the election has been one, of course.
Guess who else is proposing its elimination, and ranking high in polls? PRI candidate Eruviel Ávila in Mexico State. When the time comes to pick up the bill... well, that's another story.
- Farm subsidies going to richer farmers
- Health spending benefits not going to the poorest
- Education spending, ditto
(One excellent earlier study that demonstrate what programs in fact to improve equality, and which lead to more inequality, is A Decade of Falling. Inequality in Mexico: Market Forces or State Action? by Gerardo Esquivel, Nora Lustig and John Scott. One earlier version available for free here)
Another case in point: Ending the tenencia, or roughly the sales tax for new cars, has been a populist mantra for particularly PRI candidates for governor, who foolishly (from a financial, not electoral point of view) have championed taking away a tax that not only has provided much-needed income to cash-strapped state governments, but whose elimination will be a blatant hand-out to the more wealthy of Mexicans.
Who wants to pay car sales taxes voluntarily? Of course few, but fact remains that the ones most likely to pay the highest tenencia are from the upper economic layers of Mexican society.
Credit then, of sorts, to Veracruz Governor César Duarte, who despite irresponsibly calling for the elimination of the tenencia in his election campaign, is now backtracking and want to keep it, realizing that its elimination would break the state's finances.
What a belated "discovery" - after the election has been one, of course.
Guess who else is proposing its elimination, and ranking high in polls? PRI candidate Eruviel Ávila in Mexico State. When the time comes to pick up the bill... well, that's another story.
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