Invasion of the body snatchers
WTF???
The State of Coahuila prosecutor’s office released a statement that Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano was indeed dead (and there was a photo of the corpse in all the most national papers and on TV this morning).. but…er… uh… gunmen stole the body from a funeral home.
This being Mexico… maybe it has something to do with the “Zetas” being the ones supposedly responsible for killing the former Coahuila governor (and later PRI party chair)’s son, which led demands for the resignation of the present governor… who just happens to be the brother of the former governor (and uncle of the victim) by the victim’s widow. Then again, maybe not.
Body double (with no body, the Prosecutor’s claims of identifying the body through fingerprints will have to stand for now)? Souvenir-hunters, a la Pancho Villa (who was dug up and his head chopped off a couple of years after he was buried)? The State, anxious to avoid Lazcano’s tomb (which had been built a few years ago) becoming a shrine for narcos?
Or… maybe kidnapping and disappearing people being Lazcano’s trade, his minions did the snatch for old times sake. Or…
Is there a problem?
Morir matando es la ley
Unconfirmed stories are circulating that Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano — the supposed leader of the “Zetas” either committed suicide, or was killed by Marines, in a gun battle near Progreso, Coahuila, on Sunday.
Lazcano was a Mexican special forces guy said to have gone over to the dark side and the brains behind making the Zetas the Blackwater of the narcotics export trade (or perhaps Blackwater, aka XE, aka Academi are the Zetas of the oil trade).
Given that there have been media reports of Lazcano’s death at least twice before, I’d hold off taking this as gospel. Though it could be that the third time is a charm (and Chapo Guzman … having one less impediment to his monopoly on the Mexican narcotics export trade .. is a very happy man this evening), and — as always — it’s convenient that these gangsters never make it into a courtroom, where they might mention their financial and logistical backers.
There Hugo Again
A few thoughts on the not-unexpected re-election of Hugo Chavez.
The only surprising thing to me about the whole election was the avidity of the rich-nation’s media to believe Chavez’ election was ever in doubt. I tend to think it was wishful thinking, based perhaps in good part on the idea that IF the opposition won, POTENTIALLY… WHEN and IF the Orinoco Belt reserves come on line, they’d be sold mostly to the United States and client states, rather than to China, or used domestically. Uh, well …yeah… maybe.
Really, I think those who put their faith in Capriles are like those who, in the United States, somehow thought Barack Obama was going to reform capitalism overnight. Or at all… Capriles contented in the last days of his campaign that he’d govern like the Brazilian socialists (which one presumes are less frightening to the “one percenters,” although acceptable to those who just think Chavez and company go a tad too far, or are tired of the same guy at the head of the government for so long, or at least wouldn’t mind a bit of a change), but that ignores the reality of governance.
Any victory would have been a very narrow one for a fragmented coalition of far right-right-center-left of center-everybody BUT Chavez political parties who hardly share the same agenda. The same could be said about a potential AMLO victory here… it wouldn’t have undone the quasi-capitalist state given PRI and PAN opposition. The basic outlines of the Bolivarian Republic wouldn’t have changed all that much had Capriles won.
I expect Jimmy Carter will be blamed in the reactionary press for his claim that the “election process in Venezuela is the best in the world”. Much the same claim is made about Mexico’s, and its basically true… these countries have very good, clear PROCESSES — which just means they’ve got great tech manuals. Not that the manuals are followed.
I don’t think Fausta’s blog is completely off in right-field (well, yeah, it is… but sometimes even the “right” is… um… correct) in suggesting there were some irregularities. I expect there were a lot of them, just as there usually are in elections in this part of the world. But none she notes are particularly outrageous. Well, maybe the supposed letter from Alvaro Uribe (the disgraced former Colombian President, who has made something of a post-presidential career of complaining about other Latin American leaders — that, and avoiding trial for crimes against humanity). But Uribe has to be taken with a large grain of salt.
And — while I don’t expect “fairness” when it comes to political discussions — not having heard many complaints from that side of the political spectrum about irregularities when the PRI “won” last July here, or after the seriously tainted “victory” by PAN in 2006, I would gather that had Capriles somehow won, it would have been a free and fair election (which would have put the right in the position of admitting that Chavez had opened up the political system during his tenure… something often overlooked about him in the scramble to label him somehow a “dictator”).
While it has been widely reported that Chavez used the power of his office to benefit his re-election (something incumbents usually do, mostly because they can), there’s probably a simpler reason Chavez won. He’s got a track record of keeping his campaign promises. And he got the most votes.
7 October 1913 — the accidental hero of the Revolution
Yesterday, there was an unusual ceremony held at the Mexican Senate Chamber… a 99-year late wake for Senator Belisario Domínguez, the accidental hero of the revolution, a victim of stating the obvious.
Born in 1863 in Comitán, Chiapas, Domínguez was sent to France as a teen-ager for his education, not returning until he was in his late 20s, having obtained a medical degree from the Sorbonne. In 1909 (when he was 46) Doctor Domínguez was elected Presidente Municipal of Comitán. As a foreign educated provincial of the “liberal” stripe, he was something of an archetype of the “new” leadership Francisco I. Madero envisioned for Mexico in the post-Porfirian era… younger, but with the same social background of Don Porfirio’s geriatric “cientificos”.
With the success of Madero’s short 1910-11 Revolution opening up the political system, Domínguez was asked to run for the Senate on Madero’s Liberal Party ticket in the Senate elections of 1912, but he decided not to run, serving on as the “substitute” candidate, who would serve if anything prevented the elected Senator from holding office. A highly educated professional and widower Domínguez moved temporarily to Mexico City in January 1913 to enroll his son in the National Preparatory Academy. He and his son Ricardo had ringside seats to the “Ten Tragic Days” in February when the slaughter in the streets of Mexico City ended with Victoriano Huerta’s murder of Madero and his assumption of the Presidency.
A “constitutional coup” in that the letter of the basic document — Madero had resigned (with a gun pointed at his head), after Vice-President Pino Suarez had also resigned (with another gun at his head) leaving the hapless next in line for the Presidency, Secretary of Foreign Relations Pedro José Domingo de la Calzada Manuel María Lascuráin Paredes to appoint Huerta NEXT in the line of succession, and resign. Of course, being a “constitutional” government, Huerta couldn’t simply dissolve the Senate, but he could ignore it.
Or he could until Senator Leopoldo Gout died on 3 March, and his substitute, Dr. and now Senator Belasario Domínguez was suddenly thrust in a leadership role. Relying on Senatorial privilege — the immunity from prosecution extended to sitting Senators — Domínguez turned Senate Chamber into what I guess could be called an “anti-bully pulpit”. The doctor from Chiapas only paused in his criticism of Huerta to complain about allowing U.S. naval vessels to call at Veracruz… which, as it turned out, Domínguez was right in saying it would lead to a U.S. intervention.
Despite his Senate Privilege… not that Victoriano Huerta was all that scrupulous about constitutional niceties (or scrupulous, or nice, about anything) … Domínguez’ speeches on the Senate floor the week of 23 to 29 September 1913 sealed the doctor’s fate.
He was pulled out of his hotel room on 7 October 1913, driven to a cemetery in Coyoacán, tortured and shot. Huerta gave up on any pretense of being “constitutional” and simply dissolved the Senate a few days later.
While hardly a “perfect democracy” for most of the post-Huerta period, and even today far from perfect (what country is?) our senators and deputies do get away with outrageous anti-adminstration remarks from time to time, and even have the temerity to once in a while point out patently obvious criminal activites by the government (or at least unconstitutional acts — like using the military as policemen in peacetime) with relatively few repercussions: something of a rarity in this world, especially in Latin America, over the last century… a debt owed to the accidental legislator and accidental hero of the Revolution.
(There is a good short Spanish-language biography of Belisario Domínguez, by Javier Torres Landa V., at monografias.com)
Financial piracy
Mitt Romney financial supporter Paul Singer is giving piracy a bad name. Singer’s seizure of an Argentine ship by a Ghanian court on behalf of his Cayman Islands company might be fun and games to the readers of the New York Post, but it’s likely to raise some real questions about not just Singer, but his buddy Mitt, and bring up the question of how much of Mitt’s money also comes from “vulture capitalism”… i.e., shaking down bankrupt governments, or governments (like Argentina) recovering from the debts run up by discredited and disowned dictatorships.
Harriet Dennys in The Telegraph (U.K.)
New York financier Paul Singer has set a new watermark for hedge fund madness by seizing an 100-metre naval vessel as down-payment for a defaulted bond the Argentine government owes his $17bn (£10.5bn) fund Elliott Capital Management.
So for those not familiar with Singer’s form in making millions of dollars in profits from the world’s poorest countries, here’s Diary with a quick reminder.
In 1995, Elliott bought defaulted Peruvian bank debt for $20m and successfully sued for $58m. More recently, the company’s subsidiary Kensington International bought a $32.6m loan owed by Congo-Brazzaville at the reported cut-down price of $2.3m, and was then awarded more than $100m interest over 2002 and 2003.
Meanwhile, a scan of the interests and hobbies section of the sovereign debt specialist’s CV reveals he is a major donor to fellow vulture capitalist Mitt Romney, and that he finds time to read – notably Commentary magazine, the monthly that started life as the voice of the liberal left before veering sharply to the neoconservative right over the1980s.
No prizes for guessing which Republican bankroller also sits on the provocative magazine’s board of directors.
That”100-metre naval vessel” is ARS Libertad, is a a “tall ship” — an old fashioned sailing frigate used for training naval cadets and for showing the Argentine flag on goodwill missions. Singer, or… I suppose to be accurate, Singer’s Cayman Islands company, has been on an ill-will mission: court shopping for someone to enforce judgements by New York and London courts against Argentina (the whole country) and with ARS Libertad scheduled to dock in Tema, Ghana… got a Ghanian injunction to hold the frigate pending hearings on the entire matter… in Ghana, which has nothing to do with all this, really.
Singer, though his “Elliott Management” company bought Argentine debt at “reduced prices” over 10 years ago, and is now trying to collect on old debts and interest, claiming Argentina owes Eliot around 1.6 billion dollars. Or, at least shake down the Argentines for a cool 10 million:
“Argentina may obtain release of the ship, however, by posting a bond with the High Court in Accra”, point out the local press mentioning the possible 10plus million dollars bond.
Argentina’s Navy was kind of disgraced a few years back, but with their motto of irse a pique antes que rendir el pabellón ( Go to the bottom of the sea, but never surrender!) I don’t expect the Argentine Navy will just give Singer their boat. Nor do I expect that Argentina is going to pay ransom to pirates. And Argentina’s Navy has a few things Singer doesn’t. They have four destroyers, three submarines, a bunch of patrol boats and fast attack vessels around, and Singer’s got… a big sail boat?
Yo ho ho, and a whole lot of dumb.
Arrrrrgh!
¡Libertad para la Libertad!
Round up the usual suspects
October 3:
Mexican troops arrested two men on Wednesday suspected of involvement in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot dead in Arizona while responding to a tripped ground sensor, Mexican security officials said.
[…]
The violence drew sharp words from Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, a vocal foe of President Barack Obama’s administration on immigration. She said it should lead to anger over “the federal failure and political stalemate that has left our border unsecured and our Border Patrol in harm’s way.”
October 6:
Investigators believe that Border Patrol agents involved in a likely “friendly fire” shooting that killed one officer responded from different directions in a dark, rugged canyon and may have misinterpreted their colleagues’ actions on approach, officials said Saturday.Three agents fired unknowingly at each other after they separately responded to a tripped sensor in a rugged canyon in southeastern Arizona, Cochise County Acting Sheriff Rod Rothrock told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday.
FBI officials said a preliminary investigation showed that Border Agent Nicholas J. Ivie died in a “friendly fire” shooting that only involved the agents.
[…]
A .223 Bushmaster rifle, seized on Wednesday, was “recovered in Mexico in the vicinity where Border Patrol agent was murdered,” according to one of the documents. It says the weapon was purchased in the United States but does not specify where.
(Los Angeles Times... generally reliable)
Maybe Governor Brewer might spare a few “sharp words” about whoever bought the Bushmaster.
And, bailing out the guys in Mexico might be a nice gesture. Unless they were the guys carrying the Bushmaster, nothing illegal in leaving Mexico, even if a couple of BP guys ended up shooting each other.
Grilled beef (cake)
Life imitates art: Roberto Palazuelos has made a career out of playing the yuppie scumbags in telenovelas, but at 45, is a bit over the hill for soap opera villainy, so seems to be pursuing his calling in real life. Taking a cue perhaps from Dolly Parton, who traded on her wholesome image (and fond memories of her mammaries) to market her own resort complex, “Dollywood”, Palazuelos — who dubbed himself El Diamonte Negro — supposedly a reference to his tall dark and handsome schtick — has been pushing his own Yucatán resort complex, El Diamonte.
While advertised as an “eco-resort”, the property intrudes into Parque Nacional Tulum and — in theory — has been scheduled for eventual expropriation ever since the area was declared an ecological reserve back in 1981. That the original sale to Palazeulos in 2000 by an elderly Mayan couple was in itself irregular, hasn’t stopped Palazuelos from continuing to develop the property. Back and forth lawsuits flowed, along with raw sewage from the inadequate plumbing at the unfinished “eco-resort” which was closed by court order in 2008. Leading Palazuelos — in the best traditions of TV villians —to go to then regional director of National Commission for Protected Areas (somewhat the equivalent of the U.S. National Parks Service) — and drop the hint that “somebody” would put a bullet in said regional director’s head.
From his gay-dissing days. No comment.
Which, coupled with his reported admiration of Ronald Reagan, and deciding he was qualified to speak on gay adoptions (he was against them) somehow meant Palanzeulos appeared to be an ideal PRI candidate to run for Presidente Municipal of Tulum last year. Though, for some reason, selling yourself as the local business executive fending off unreasonable federal mandates, just didn’t fly with the local party. Maybe it wasn’t his year… his big political advantage is a friendship with Enrique Peña Nieto (they move in the same social circles, EPN being married to a telenovela diva). Which, he appears to believe, is reason enough to claim the court order expropriating the property doesn’t apply to him.
And make not-so.veiled threats against President Calderón. And threatening to run for office again.
It’s not so weird that a “dancer and model” was arrested in Mexico City as part of an extortion ring. What was weird is that there are tanning salons in Mexico City, which is where Armando González, aka “El Muñeco” (the boy toy) was picked up Wednesday by federal authorities on suspicion that he was the lookout for payoffs to the extortion ring. One assumes he dressed inconspicuously…
Death the great equalizer?
Surrealismo Mexicano; 60,000+ drug war dead, the vast majority of those deaths un-investigated. Thousands of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters continue demanding justice for the deaths of their loved ones. But the son of a powerful and disgraced Mexican politician is murdered, a politician under investigation for fraud and corruption, accused of increasing the debt of the state he governed from around 200 million to 35 billion dollars in just five years, and they send in 5,000 federal security soldiers, marines and police. It’s hard to fathom the priorities of Mexico’s federal government.
(Deborah Bonello, re: the federal response to the murder of José Eduardo Moreira Rodríguez, son of disgraced former Coahulia governor (and PRI party chair, Humberto Moreira).
Ahh, get outta town
There has been almost no news coverage of the uprising in Montozintla, Chiapas (north of Tapachula, close to the Guatemalan border). This might have something to do with reporters having been attacked by police, but then again, it could be that no one is quite ready to admit that resistance to the incoming governments is more than protest marches by intellectuals and students in Mexico City.
The Tapachula daily El Orbe reports that several communities in the region have seen demonstrations against perceived voter fraud and the “impostion” of municipal governments from the PRI and PVEM coalition considered by the protesters and demonstrators to be illegitimate.
In Motozintla, El Heraldo de Chiapas (usually considered a pro-PRI publication) says the situation is one of “tense calm” and claims clean up from the fires started in municipal buildings was in progress. However, the facebook page “Revista Altitud” says the fires were still burning today… the fire department hasn’t been paid.
Revista Altitud also reports that Motozintla’s the new presidente municipal (mayor), Oscar Gallindo who had to be sworn in at his house on Monday (surrounded by state police guards) showed up at his burned out office today, only to be sworn at, and, again surrounded by state police guards, decided not to meet with his constituents.
A farewell to arms
Time to clean out the garage?
In Los Mochis (Sinaloa) over the next two weeks, citizens can turn in their firearms, no questions asked in return for cash and computers. Among other items turned over to authorities so far have been several 40 cal pistols, 16 fragmentation grenades, a grenade launcher and a 60 calibre mortar shell.
A revolution of sorts…
In 2000 only 8 million Latin Americans were active online. Today that number has ballooned to 129 million regular users…
Shannon K. O’Neil, “Latin America’s Growing Social Network” (Latin American Moment)
A fairly short article, but quite an eye-opener on the political impact social networking is having all through the Americas. Fun factoid… Barack Obama, as you’d expect, is the head of state with the most twitter followers. Number two is… Hugo Chavez, the guy who once called microblogging, “un instrumento de terrorismo“.
mexfiles.net 