Death: a bad career move

I have to admit I’m a bit stumped by Coahuila politics. On one hand, it’s often the most progressive state in Mexico (legalizing same sex marriage, for starters), and on the other, sometimes trying to act like their former territorial dependents, the Texans.

Coahuila Governor Humberto Moreira, depending on a state law, wants to institute the death penalty for some crimes. Federal Senate leader Gustavo Madero has warned the Governor that should he attempt to institute a death penalty law in his state, the Senate will have him stripped of his office. Senator Madero is from the conservative PAN party, but unlike the United States, Christian conservatives in Mexico really follow their religion. They also tend to believe in following the Mexican Constitution and international treaties (Mexico being a signatory to the Inter-American Human Rights Agreement (the “San Jose Pact”), both of which forbid the barbaric practice of state-sanctioned murder. It should be added that the euphemistic bureaucratic name for Mexican prisons is “Social Readaption Center” — suggesting that the point of locking people up is to eventually return them to society (alive), not — as in Texas and the United States — to punish them and prop up local economies.