Cabinet shuffle to fends off zombies
Where in English, we might refer to the Calderon Administration as a “lame duck presidency”, one Mexican analyst has started using the phrase “presidencia zombi”… dead prez walking.
Perhaps, but by making key concessions in the first week of the new PRI Legislature, the Administration appears to be willing to submit to radical surgery that may leave it weakened, and maimed, but still viable.
PAN, like the Republican Party north of the border, has come to rely heavily on a religious right “base” to turn out the vote. As happened in the United States, this has ended up costing the party in general elections, but unlike the Republicans, PAN is showing signs of being willing to jettison the narrow interests of that base in return for a chance to maintain more than a regional dominance. Eduardo Medina-Moro Icaza — a stalwart in the piety wing of the party, and said to have close ties to the shadowy Catholic fascist group, El Yunque, is out as Procuador General (Attorney General).
As is common in Latin America, disgraced officials who still have political clout are often given diplomatic posts. Medina-Moro is being transferred to the foreign service: where he is assigned will be an indication of how far out of power he — and el Yunque — are. A posting as consul in Presidio Texas or Ambassador to Paraguay would mean something very different than, say, a posting to the OAS or the United Nations.
His probable replacement (Ana Maria Salazar remembers that this is one of the few cabinet posts requiring Senate approval) by Arturo Chávez Chávez, who served as undersecretary of human rights in the Secretaria de Gobernacion and was the Fox Administration’s negotiator during the 2006 Oaxaca crisis indicates that the Administration is being forced to reconsider its “mano duro” (hard hand) policies.
Long time PEMEX director Jesús Reyes Heroles is also being replaced, by Juan José Suárez Coppel. As the maternal apellado indicates, he is a member of the old Mazatlán mercantile family. His own background is as a corporate executive with a number of large Mexican businesses (Banamex, Televisa, Groupo Modelo) before moving to PEMEX as Finance Director. This may indicate further attempts to turn the paraestatal into a straight business operation.
Alberto Cardenás Jimenez, the Secretary of Agriculture, is also leaving. Another ultra-rightist, Cardenás — like Calderón — was another Fox cabinet member, and again like Calderón was a PAN primary candidate for the Presidential election in 2006. Cardenás´replacement is the Fox cabinet’s last Agriculture Secretary, Francisco Javier Mayorga Castañeda . Unlike Cardenás, whose background is in party politics, Mayorga has spent his entire life working in agriculture — his father was a rancher, and the secretary designate´s own career has been as an agricultural economist and bureaucrat within state and federal agricultural agencies.
Cardenás was widely derided for once suggesting “Pan Bimbo” (white bread, specifically that made by Bimbo) was an acceptable alternative to tortillas and for his seeming indifference to rural affairs. However, it was the Procampo scandal, in which federal loans and grants for small farmers were going instead to wealthy farms (and even narcotics kingpins) that made his survival in the cabinet unlikely.
There is nothing unusual about major cabinet changes at the three year mark (after the mid-term congressional elections), but given the need to avoid becoming a zombie presidency, I expect that hacking off the far right extremities may only be the first cuts to be made.
Women of the revolution
Women served as not only camp followers, but as soldiers and officers in the Mexican Revolution, I said in Gods, Gachupines and Gringos. I tried to at least mention some of the more prominent women in Mexican history in my book, but this short (just under seven minute) video highlights some I should have given more attention had they received the attention in the standard histories they deserve.
These revolutionary women served as propagandists, labor organizers, diplomats, and gun runners. Many continued their struggle for a better Mexico the rest of their lives.
María Arias Bernal, the gun-slinging (and gun-running) school-ma’arm, became famous as “María Pistolas” but died young. Neither she, nor Dolores Jiménez, who was sixty when the Revolution broke out, would not live long enough to see women receive the vote.
Carmen Serdán (whose birth and death dates [1875-1948] are wrong in the film) also died before women received full emancipation in 1953. Although greatly respected and honored for her early role in the Maderist uprising, after her release from prison she preferred a more traditional role: serving as a nurse during the fighting, and later as surrogate mother to her martyred brother Achiles’ orphaned children.
Hermila Galindo — who had served the Revolution as a journalist and diplomat — would be the first woman to serve in the Chamber of Deputies. Elvira Carillo Puerto, called “the red nun” for her dedication to the socialism before and after the Revolution, lived long enough to succeed in her post-revolutionary struggle — both before her election to the Chamber, and during her time as a socialist deputy — for legal recognition of a woman’s right to birth control.
Quick work, or…?
On Wednesday, gunmen killed seventeen clients of a Juarez drug clinic. On Friday,
Troops captured a suspect in the killing …, José Rodolfo Escajeda, … a leader of the powerful Juárez Cartel. He is on the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted list on suspicion of marijuana and cocaine smuggling into the United States.
For some reason, that reminds me of a joke I was told by a Mexican prosecutor:
When the circus magician went to pull his rabbit out of his hat, the rabbit disappeared. And so did the circus payroll. The authorities were baffled and international consultants were called in. The F.B.I. ran forensic tests on the magician’s hat, and drew up a psychological profile of the rabbit, Scotland Yard sent Sherlock Holmes, who studied the scene, found a hair (but not a hare) that led him to deduce the bearded lady was involved and she was questioned by the Mounties… and so on and so on and so on… until the Mexican police were called in.
They shooed all the other investigators out of the big top and walked in where screams, roars, sounds of fists, etc… lasted a couple of minutes, then suddenly stopped. An elephant staggered out, and confessed to stealing the payroll.
Not that José Rodolfo Escajeda necessarily isn’t the intellectual author of the massacre, but given the sorry state of murder investigations in Juarez, this does seem to suggest more a rationale to extradite the guy to the U.S. or that he was a handy suspect and has been “persuaded” to take a gamble that murder charges in Mexico will trump U.S. drug smuggling charges, which — under the circumstances –might not stand up in court.
Or, maybe he did do it, and prefers a U.S. prison sentence for smuggling, and not a Mexican murder conviction. After all, the U.S. has a poor record when it comes to extraditing wanted killers back to Latin America, as in the case of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles wanted in Venezuela for escaping from prison, after being arrested as the intellectual author of the 73 murders (he helped blow up an airliner, among other things). In the United States, he’s only been convicted of illegal entry — which is bailable — and his extradition has languished for years.
Links for Sunday Brunch
She is the Matador
Neither Mari Paz Vega nor Eva Florencia is unique. As related in Ella Es El Matador (She Is the Matador), the new documentary airing on PBS’ POV (Point of View) series, there is a long and surprising history of women fighting in the Spanish bullring — and fighting to have the chance to do so. For all of Spain’s traditional machismo and the image of the matador as a quintessentially male figure, women have always wanted to fight bulls. A 1908 law banning women from bullfighting is testament to women’s determination to perform in the ring and not just shout “Olé!” from the stands.
Art and death
Guy Adams (The Independent, U.K.) on the murder of French film director Christian Poveda:
It was a senselessly violent end to a career spent exposing the senseless violence that has for years plagued El Salvador for years. The killing was also predictable.
Poveda had made himself a marked man, thanks to his film La Vida Loca (Crazy Life), which chronicled daily life among the 30,000-odd gang members whose activities have turned the tiny Central American nation of 5.5 million into one of the most dangerous places in the Western hemisphere…
You can’t go home (to mashed potatoes) again:
The Midwesterner in Mexico seeks sustenance during a stint in Grand Island, Nebraska:
Although a rigorous existing dinner schedule prevented us from checking out any Latino establishments for la cena, I have extracted a commitment from Mom & Dad to go suss out the coctel de camarones (shrimp cocktail) at Restaurante Ario after I leave. And we did manage to make it to El Taco Naco for a snack, arguably the most DF-esque option in town.
Tourism and its complaints
Dr. Lisa Wade (Sociological Images) dissects Washington Post travel writer Amit Paley’s article on Thailand, and gaping at the “colorful native costumes”:
The women she meets confirm that they wear traditional garb, continue traditional practices (such as the brass rings), and are even forced to remain in the villages, in order to attract tourists. Men, largely, appear to be exempted from earning their keep in this way.
Paley says that one powerful male village member said that the women “must wear the dress because of tradition” and “spoke excitedly about its appeal to tourists and noted that half of the village’s income of $30,000 a year comes from tourism.”
A woman in brass rings told her “We do it to put on a show for the foreigners and tourists!”
The natives are … uh… restless
No need to go to Thailand for see strange and colorful native customs. Laura Martinez (“Mi Blog es Tu Blog“) presents a particularly rich example of El Paso cultural synergy:
Bilingualism and boorishness
Wow… while I’m still wrapping my head around the idea that there is an organized resistance in the United States to the idea of national health care (let alone something basic like universal insurance) … I am surprised (but shouldn’t be) on what the opponents ALSO find unacceptable.
Bishop Alvarez being a man of the cloth, and Rep. Himes being a public figure, probably have to watch what they say, and besides… I don’t know the way Peruvians would phrase this, but the proper Mexican response is:
¡Chingarles, pinche cabrones!
Bookmark this!
Wow… looking for Mexican news sources a little less “biased in his self-interest” (as someone recently wrote about this site)?
Jennifer Rose found the ultimate Mexican media link: 254 newspapers and television stations, including those in English. I´ll probably replace my list of Mexican newspapers with just a link to Kidon Media Link.
What she said (about the Informe)
Felipe Calderón’s tenure in office has borne more than a few resemblances to that of George W. Bush. Beginning with a dubious electoral victory[1], there has been an on-going claim of a “national security” threat used to justify violations, large and small, of civil rights, attempts to gut 1930s economic and social changes as “reforms” and increasing attempts to isolate the President from critical opinion.
While the opposition made it difficult for Calderón to present his Informe, absenting himself from the exercise has not put him above the fray, but may have energized his opponents. He, of all people, might recognize the irony in that: the mounting carnage in the “war on drugs” is said by his administration to be an indicator of success, and the bloodshed is something to be celebrated, yet the resident of Los Pinos turns squeamish when it comes to facing potentially rude behavior in the Chamber of Deputies.
Given that the Informe — even when presented in person — has, at least since Carlos Salinas finally recognized that he could not just give a “speech from the throne”, but had to actually try to sell his agenda, never been a fully detailed program, but is an executive summary of what the Administration hopes to accomplish and a precis of the reasons for whatever innovations are intended.
While a bullet-pointed summary, and infomercials are easier to digest than the whole 500-page document, I think something has been lost in avoiding the rough and tumble of legislative dissent. Neither the President, nor the public, receives immediate confirmation of what parts of the program are likely to be rejected or accepted… and which groups will be accepting or rejecting them.
By only speaking with those in the press who are reliable Administration supporters, the President is — as was Bush — likely to find himself in an echo chamber, and find himself supported by a shrinking minority and making decision that are counterproductive. I am not a Mexican citizen, so don’t presume to tell Mexicans what to do. I leave that for Mexicans, like Denise Dresser.
She is, among other things an Associate Editor of the Los Angeles Times, a regular columnist in the main conservative newspaper, Reforma, a professor of political theory at Mexico’s prestigious private university, ITAM, and about as mainstream, “inside the Periferico” as you can get.
However, being one of those holding a critical opinion of the Calderón Administration, she was specifically not invited to interview the President after his informe. This translation is from an article appearing, not in one of her usual outlets, but on Blogotitlan.
A few days ago, President Felipe Calderón criticized his critics, calling on them “Speak well of Mexico and its advantages … this is the way to build the country’s future.” Following his own advice, he proceded to celebrate our homicide rate per 100 thousand inhabitants — lower than that in Colombia, Brazil, El Salvador and New Orleans…
I ask my readers to do exactly the opposite of what the President demands. I remind you that the stoicism, resignation, complicity and silence of all too many explains why a country as majestic as Mexico has been as badly governed. As Günter Grass pointed out, it is the citizen’s duty to live with his mouth open. Speak well of the country – of its clear rivers… but speak ill of its dirty politics…
The job of a good citizen is … to tell those who have plundered the country that they have no right to continue doing so, to look to Mexico with the honesty, to show that we are better than our politicians and we will have the government we deserve. To live permanently anchored in indignation: criticizing, proposing, shaking our fists — to raise the bar and to speak truth to power…. Being a citizen means understanding one’s intellectual obligation to pay tribute to your country through criticism.
…
Being a good citizen in Mexico is a vocation that requires commitment and courage. It is having the courage to believe in something deeply and be prepared to convince others about it. It is an ongoing challenge to half-truths, mediocrity, political correctness, and mendacity. It is resistance to co-option. It is living with the upheavals and shocks of life. resisting the cooptation. It is living producing small earthquakes and shocks and jolts. Living, as suggested by George Orwell, by telling others what you do not want to hear.
…
The critical citizen must possess a great capacity to withstand conventional images, the official narratives, justifications powerful television or circulated by Presidential cheerleaders. … When you take on critical thinking, you do not perceive reality as a given – immutable and unchanging — but as a contingent situation, the result of human decisions. The country’s crisis becomes something that can be reversed, which can be altered through decisive action and intense public debate. Criticism becomes a way of giving hope to the nation. Speaking ill of Mexico means to aspire to better country.
This vital position — extremely useful, but unorthodox – is only slowly becoming acceptable. …Octavio Paz put it well: “If we are not all stoic and impassive, like Juárez and Cuauhtémoc, we at least try to be resigned, and suffer patiently. Resignation is one of our popular virtues…” Our propensity is to compare ourselves downwards, and like Felipe Calderón congratulate ourselves that at least “Mexico is not as violent as the city of New Orleans.”
Given this tendency to conformity I invite you to speak ill of Mexico: to become a citizen who refuses to accept the logic of “at least.” Practice critical citizenship. Hold up a mirror for the nation to look at itself. Say “no.” Resist the arbitrary use of authority. Take on the challenge of free intelligence. Think differently. Declare that the emperor is naked. Be involved in causes and issues and movements larger than yourself. Do not remain neutral in a time of great ethical dilemmas. Refuse to be a spectator to injustice or stupidity. Be one of those who criticizes Mexico for what Carlos Pellicer called the absence of grandeur. …
[1] Including, as in the 2000 election, unofficial support for a minor party (the Greens in the U.S., PANAL in Mexico) for the specific purpose of draining off a small percentage of opposition voters.
Guarding the guards
Wackenhut in the news:
KABUL – The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has banned alcohol and assigned American personnel to watch over the embassy’s security guards following allegations of lewd behavior and sexual misconduct at their living quarters.
WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department intends to put federal employees in charge of monitoring the treatment of detainees in the country’s largest immigration detention facilities, two years after the government turned that job over to a private company.
Please tell me Wackenhut — aka GEO Group — does a little more vetting of the low paid hourly workers in the alien detention facilities where they lock up women and children then those highly paid Embassy guards who need baby-sitters after doing this:
..
PLEASE????
Rest in pieces: gross out nota roja and Friday video
I had a “concerned” e-mail from one sometime commentator, worried after reading about the spike in murders here in Mazatlán.
What mass killings did I miss? It took me a while to figure it out. A “music promoter” named Iván López Toledo disappeared from a disco early Saturday morning, reportedly kidnapped along with another guy. Iván’s street moniker was “Jeringas” (“Syringes”).
Then body parts started showing up, making for stories all across Mexico about a mass murder. It took a while for anybody to put it together… so to speak… with each new discovery being reported as another body, but until Jeringas’ head showed up, it had everyone in Mexico thinking there had been several killings.
It turned out the initial reports about the other guy were false. He wasn’t with Syringes and… OK, so may be she was hot, and maybe he is an adult… but this is Mexico. You need to call your mom.
The late Mr. López claimed to be a “music promoter” — which was undoubtedly a euphemism for another field of entertainment activity facilitation. On the other hand, there might have been some musical works he was qualified to promote:
“Political trampoline”
As in several countries, political parties in Mexico have attempted to balance out gender inequality by at least requiring that a given percentage of their candidates for public office be female. Enoé Uranga Muñoz, whose PRD goes a step further in also requiring a percentage of indigenous candidates, is outraged that eight out of the ten new Deputies first official act was to submit their resignation in favor of their male supplientes*.
Uranga (who has also pushed her party consider “affirmative action” for gays and lesbians) — and who called the resignations a “political trampoline” — was joined by PANista María Antonia Pérez Reyes in objecting to the resignations. She said it was an embarrassment that women were being used as a “tradeable commodity” in politics.
Six of the deputies asking to resign are from the Green Party, the others from across the board. A few women have achieved high positions in national politics (Esther Elba Gordilla heads the largest public employees’ union in the Americas, Beatriz Parades Rangel is chair of the PRI, Rosario Green was foreign secretary long before anyone heard of Madeline Albright and Patricia Espinosa holds the post today and Josefina Vázquez Mota — who served in both the Fox and Calderón cabinets — is a highly probable PAN presidential candidate for 2012), but are still under-represented in the legislature.
* Not uniquely Mexican, but an unfamiliar practice to people in the United States and other countries, is voting not just for a legislative candidate, but for a designated substitute. Because the Mexican constitution does not allow either for re-election to federal office, nor for a anyone who has held federal office in the past six months to be a candidate for another federal office, there are usually mass resignations six months and one day before federal elections. And, one can count on a few legislators dying, fleeing the country in disgrace or otherwise leaving during the session, in which case the B-team is already in place.
Still not a coup?
… the Sec. of State, meeting with Mel Zelaya on Thursday, also said she was still not prepared to label the events of June 28 a “military coup,” rejecting calls from House leaders like Dem. Howard Berman who penned an opinion piece in the LA Times on Thursday. Such a designation would have led to further aid cuts, and, according to the Times, “required certification by Congress.” The Washington Post highlights the fact the U.S. may not recognize November elections. State Dept. spokesman Phillip Crowley says the de facto regime in Tegucigalpa must “sign on to the San Jose accords to get out of the box” in which it currently find itself. Some analysts are critical of the U.S.’s new position on this point. The U.S. statement on November elections “limits our options, a violation of the first law of diplomacy, by taking off the table the one means by which the crisis could naturally be resolved,” says Eric Farnsworth, a Latin America expert at the Council of the Americas. And, finally, the Post also adds that DOS will examine revoking more visas of particular Honduran officials who have supported the regime.
On the other hand, Brazil is now requiring ALL Hondurans to obtain a visa before entering the country.
Greg Weeks sees one theoretical good thing about the coup: when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.
Beat the press
Blaming the media is a favorite among right-wing politicians around the world, but the mayor of Santa Cruz, Bolivia has a solution to the pesky reporter problem … well, make that a final solution.
The controversial mayor of Santa Cruz, Percy Fernández, has drawn criticism from journalism groups and unions for saying that he wants journalists to “die” because they are foolish “traitors,” La Prensa reports.
According to El Deber, the mayor said in his speech that if journalists die, “it’s better that it be from natural causes, so they can’t accuse us of having done it.”
(Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas)
Sombrero tip to El Duderino (“Abiding in Bolivia“):
mexfiles.net 