Sure, Apocolypto is a hit … but how does it play in Tulúm?
Today’s Mexico City Herald:
| Mayas´ opinions on ´Apocalypto´ vary widely |
| Wire services El UniversalMartes 16 de enero de 2007 |
| Mayas had mixed reactions to Mel Gibson´s “Apocalypto” prior to Monday´s screening of the movie in Mexico City after viewing bootleg copies of the bloody, pre-Columbian epic set in a Mexican jungle |
| Mayas had mixed reactions to Mel Gibson´s “Apocalypto” prior to Monday´s screening of the movie in Mexico City after viewing bootleg copies of the bloody, pre-Columbian epic set in a Mexican jungle.In a region where pirated DVDs are often available on street corners before movies even open, some Mayas said the film misrepresents their ancient culture as violent and bloodthirsty.Others appreciated Gibson´s attempt to make the first feature-length film entirely in the Yucatec Maya language, which is still spoken by some 800,000 Mexicans whose ancestors ruled an empire for centuries, from about 250 until the Spanish conquest of the 1520s. By the time the Spanish arrived, however, the Maya civilization was in a state of decline.
“For the most part, you could understand everything,” said Maya activist Amadeo Cool May, who in particular praised the film´s prophetic speech by a child about the impending collapse of the Indian city-state. “That was really Maya. Her monologue was well done.” Cool May added that as he sees it, “the intention (of the film) isn´t to talk about the culture, but rather to exploit the plot of a hero versus a villain.” Bartolomé Alonzo Caamal, who has taught Maya in Yucatan schools for four decades, said he was pleased the movie had been made and called it “a way to focus on the importance of Mayan culture.” But he said “it focused too much on the violent aspects … like slavery or human sacrifice” instead of the Maya´s accomplishments in writing, mathematics and calendars. Some of the actors didn´t speak Maya well, he added. Alonzo Caamal did like the controversial final scene, in which the Spaniards who eventually conquered and exploited the Maya appear and, by pure chance, save the life of the main character. The protagonist and his family decide not to join the Spaniards, instead taking refuge in the jungle. “They decide to take their own path, and that leaves us with a sense of hope,” Alonzo Caamal said. Others were less charitable. “The level of violence in the film could lead some to say the Mayas were a violent people who could only be saved by the arrival of the Spaniards, when history shows it was quite the opposite,” said Juan Tiney of Guatemala´s Indian and Farmer Coordinating Council. Guatemala has a large Maya Indian population whose languages differ from the one used in the movie. Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan Quiche Indian, says she will not even bother to see it. “For my mental health, I don´t watch violent movies, because we´ve already suffered enough violence in Guatemala,” she said. Controversy over his films is nothing new for Gibson, whose “The Passion of the Christ” (2004) was criticized for its graphic violence. Gibson planned to attend a private screening of “Apocalypto” in Mexico City late Monday, according to his publicist Alan Nierob. Gibson employed many Mayas in the filming of the movie, and has said he wanted to make the Mayan language “cool” again and encourage young people “to speak it with pride.” |
| © 2007 Copyright El Universal-El Universal Online |
Mateo Emiliano Zapata Peréz, though only 18 months old when his father was assasinated in April 1919, was a fierce defender of the Caudillo de la Sur’s memory and ideals throughout his life.
Born 21 September 1917, Emiliano Zapata’s youngest son died last week in Cuatla, and was buried in the family plot on Friday. The funeral was attended by his sister, Ana, and older brother, Diego, who were estranged from Mateo over the last several years.
Together with his late brother Nicolas, Mateo was a cofounder of Movimiento Plan de Ayala Instituto, which works to further the agrarian policies and ideas of the original Zapatistas. Besides the usual small town service clubs — the Lions and the Rotary — Mateo was active in the “Instituto Pro Veteranos Revolucionarios e hijos de la Revolución del Sur” though Mauricio Ramirez Cerón, who died at 100 in February 2005 was probably the last veteran to have met the Caudillo.
In 2003, his sister Ana and brother Diego supported film producer Alfonso Arau’s attempts to make a film about their father, Zapata, el Sueño del Héroe. Mateo not only objected to casting Alejandro Fernandez as Emiliano Zapata, he was incensed by rumors that the film would portray a gay Zapata.
It’s a historical fact that Emiliano — who was slim, handsome, polite and a snappy dresser (not that there’s anything wrong with that) — was a close friend of Porfirio Diaz’ gay nephew, Ignacio de la Torre. However, de la Torre bred horses at his Morelos hacienda, and Zapata was a Morelos horse trainer.
Mateo, went to court. When that didn’t work, he demanded that the alleged offending scenes be cut. Not exactly a subtle film editor, Mateo and his compadres from the “Instituto Pro veteranos y hijos…” who were all in their 80s — tried to storm the production armed with machetes. His sister Ana (who was hired as a technical consultant) Ana suggested that Mateo was misled by crooked lawyers or… that he was nuts.
There was no suggestion of a gay relationship, but maybe Mateo should have shut the production down. Zapata, el Sueño del Héroe is mostly memorable for being a really bad movie. Mexicans thought it was pretentious and self-indulgent — and trying to create some kind of “stream of consciousness” narriative flow (mixed in with some borrowings from Carlos Casteñada) just confused the hell out of everyone. It didn’t help any when the female co-star, Lucero, pissed off the entire Mexican entertainment media, when she got into a snit at a press conference and her bodyguard pulled out a gun and threatened to blow away the offending reporters. Any chance of a good review — or even a sympathetic one — was remote at best.
All very amusing — and sad, considering the Zapata children never met again. But Mateo, the child who never knew his father — through his work with the Instituto and with the Agrarian groups — was the Zapata most active in keeping Zapatismo alive into the 21st century.
Guantanamo Iowa — update
I know there are some folks who think you should immediately deport “illegal aliens” and I’m not even going to get into that here. In Marshalltown, Iowa, where many of the detainees worked and lived, Sister Jean Feagan and the Hispanic Ministry at St. Mary’s Catholic Church are caring for the children and infants who are — at least temporarily — orphans. I didn’t have the right address when I first wrote about this (not a problem… the church is next door).
Hey… orphans, nuns… do I have to spell it out? As San Carlos Marx said, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” (And babies need diapers, formula… mamí) —
Hispanic Ministry
12 West Linn Street
Marshalltown, Iowa USA 50158
” Poster provided, in a manly, hetrosexual and ecumenical way, by General J.C. Christian, Patriot.
Canadian papers are reporting on a new study that shows that country’s residents are “somewhat racist”. Given the bruhaha over the kid who got hit by a car, the way the press is milking the story… and the reaction among Canadians, I question that “somewhat” part… oh well… the stereotype of Canadians is of a people too damn polite to take a stand.
From the (Canadian) Digital Journal:
The Uncle said he did not see the injuries on the leg, shoulder and lower back injuries when the 19-year-old died in Mexico last Monday.
Even though the autopsy with Ontario’s chief coroner said the body fatal injuries were likely caused by a hit-and-run, not a beating, the family does not believe it.
“There’s more damage to the body than when I left there,” Sandro Bellio (uncle) said, insisting they were added to cover up a “murder” in the tourist city.
An autopsy was done in Mexico also and the body was embalmed. Microscopic work is now being done to see if he was beaten. Aneurologist told the aunt the head injuries were caused by “something steel, metal or rock.” [Like a car, maybe?]
The family is very upset with the Canadian government because they say the government is doing nothing.
[Poster’s comment:] I feel badly for the family but I do not see why a Canadian coroner would lie.
My comment: uh… why would the Acapulco medical examiner have lied, and why would the Canadians have assumed there was a coverup or some deep dark conspiracy involved in all this. I notice the Canadian press has stopped talking about a supposed robbery of the kid’s hotel room… probably they found the kid’s stuff in the hotel safe.
I’m not going to indulge in too much stereotyping here, but Canadians do get a reputation for being too goody-goody for the rest of us… missing the fact that they’ve got their faults just like the rest of the human race.
It was bound to happen sooner or later
“It should be legal to kill illegals,” said Carl, a 69-year old retired Special Forces veteran who fought in Vietnam and now lives out West. “Just shoot ’em on sight. That’s my immigration policy recommendation. You break into my country, you die.”
With folks like “Carl” around, and United States Congressvarmits praising rogue Border Patrol agents, it was only a matter of time:
Border agent shoots dead a Mexican migrant
22-year-old was crossing illegally into Arizona with his family
Updated: 1:44 a.m. CT Jan 14, 2007
MEXICO CITY – (Rueters): A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 22-year-old Mexican who was crossing illegally into the United States, U.S. police said Saturday.The agent shot Francisco Dominguez, who had crossed into Arizona with family members and other migrants, while trying to take him into custody, Cochise County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Carol Capas said.
She declined to give further details, including why the shooting occurred, because of an ongoing investigation. A spokesman at a U.S. Border Patrol office in Tucson, Arizona, could not be reached for comment.
The Battle Over Maíz
Jennifer Rogers, who is in Oaxaca studying social movements and seed biodiversity… specifically the movement to protect seed corn from contamination by GM seed… knows more about the ties between the Oaxacan civil movements and the jump in tortilla prices than anyone.
NAFTA gave control of corn production to the United States. The deal struck between the U.S. and Mexico allows the U.S. to export its corn (mostly genetically modified) to the people that first used it (Mexico) and in return, Mexico was promised job opportunities through an increase of factories placed throughout Mexico. However, the majority of the factories continue to be placed along the border, increasing the displacement of families and the unemployment of rural farmers. So already, the recent state of corn in Mexico has disadvantaged farmers and decreased the diversity of corn seeds. And now, reports claim that the price of tortillas has gone up 10 pesos per kilo in some parts of the country. And this can be blaimed in part on the rising cost of corn. El Universal reports: “‘Corn costs 100 percent more than it did a year ago,” said Rafael Ortega Sánchez, director of the National Chamber of the Cornmeal and Tortilla Production Industry.”
More about “The Battle Over Maíz” at her website.
Guantanamo, Iowa… where are the desaparicidos?
Thank you Judge Kane!
Judge demands to know whereabouts of Colo. suspects in Swift raid
January 13, 2007
DENVER (AP)– A federal judge demanded Friday that immigration officials disclose the whereabouts of 265 people arrested in a raid at a meatpacking plant in Greeley last month.U.S. District Judge John L. Kane gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement until Jan. 22 to submit a list accounting for all the detainees, including those who have been deported.”There are people in custody — there is an urgency to this,” Kane said.Kane told ICE officials to work on the list with union attorneys who are contesting the Greeley arrests.ICE agents raided Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in six states on Dec. 12, arresting a total of 1,282 people. ICE has said about 220 face identity theft or other criminal charges and the rest face immigration charges, which are considered administrative rather than criminal.The United Food and Commercial Workers Union filed suit in Denver federal court, alleging the arrests of the 265 Greeley workers violated their constitutional rights to due process.
ICE has denied the charge.
ICE also raided Swift plants in Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn. The Denver lawsuit did not include workers arrested at those plants.
NOTE TO ICE: KCCI-TV (Des Moines, Iowa) didn’t have any problem finding SOME of them … try Camp Dodge Iowa — the Little Gulag on the Prairie. Marshalltown, Iowa isn’t that hard to find on a map:
DES MOINES, Iowa — Several detainees who were removed by federal immigration agents from the Swift & Co. plant on Tuesday in Marshalltown remain in Iowa.
Nearly 1,300 workers from the meatpacking company were arrested in six states, including Iowa.
NewsChannel 8 has learned that several of them are being held at Camp Dodge in Johnston and in Iowa City.
It’s unclear how many detainees are being held at each location.
C’mon ICE-men… this little girl is hardly a “terrorist” and might appreciate seeing one of those detainees (unless you really did disappear them). And, it’s not nice to lie to a nun…
From the Des Moines (IA) Register:
Marshalltown, Ia. — A priest’s and nun’s mission to find the mother of a nursing baby was thwarted today after they said officials from Camp Dodge would not let them inside to tell their story.
Sister Christine Feagan, from the St. Mary’s Hispanic Ministry, and The Rev. Jim Miller, who is a priest from the St. Mary’s Parish, both said they drove to Camp Dodge this afternoon to find out the status of a nursing mother who was deported and nursing a baby. They were also seeking a father with an ashmatic child.
They didn’t come with papers showing legal status. Instead, they wanted “to show them the need to be free,” said Miller.
Miller said he knows detainees were located there, because they were permitted a phone call from Camp Dodge and some had called the church seeking help.
He said an ICE officer at the facility “wouldn’t tell us anything about anybody.”
The duo returned to Marshalltown this afternoon to deal with the scores of families trying arrange care for children whose parents have been detained.At the church’s Hispanic ministry, the baby whose mother was arrested was passed among staff and a community activist who had agreed to help care for her.
They said they don’t know when the girl, whose father is absent, will be reunited with her mother.
The child, whose name was not provided by ministry staff, cried little, and stared at the different faces visiting the ministry. Women speaking a mixture of Spanish and English coordinated plans with how they would take care of children left behind.
Carmen Montealegre is one of the women who is taking care of two of her friends’ children with family displaced by the arrests. One of the children, a seven-year-old, asks frequently why her mother was detained, she said.
“She asked me three times, ‘Did she kill someone?’ I said, ‘She was working under another name.’”
The baby left behind has her own problems.
She has been difficult to feed since her mother was arrested, Feagan said.
“The mother was breastfeeding the baby,” Feagan said. “The baby doesn’t want to eat. Another tried to breastfeed, but she knew it wasn’t her.”
Feagan said she and advocates for local Hispanic families have tried to pinpoint exactly how many children are in family-limbo to try to organize help.
A total of 408 students were absent in the Marshalltown community school district as of Wednesday morning, district officials reported.
When I called Monday morning, they were a little overwhelmed. There’s no pay pal account, but Sister Feagen and the staff could use some help buying formula and diapers (and toys… and lawyers… and…):
Hispanic Ministry
12 West Linn Street
Marshalltown, Iowa USA 50158
The Canada Connection
A wealthy Canadian couple, Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero, were found in their Mayan Riviera hotel room with their throats slashed, last February. Last week, on the OTHER SIDE of the country, in Acapulco, another Canadian, 19-year old Adam De Prisco, died in Acapulco, after either a car accident, a beating or both.
About a million Canadians visit Mexico every year. The country’s entire population is only 32 million (slighly less than double Mexico’s Federal District). That’s a pretty big percentage of the country’s population — and out of a million people anywhere, you’d normally expect a few to die and, alas, a few to be murdered. But these two incidents, nearly a year apart, are … strangely enough… related. To what, no one is sure.
The Ianieros were in Mexico for a family wedding. Their throats were slashed in their hotel room, but nothing was taken. Two Canadian nurses, staying in a room across the hall, checked out before the bodies were discovered, went to the airport and left the country. The two women, both working in the medical field, were wanted as material witnesses in Mexico, but refused to return. The original suspects, all hotel workers, were eventually ruled out, by both the Quintano Roo police and the Mounties, who were sent to assist with the investigation.
With no robbery, it doesn’t appear to have been random. President Vincente Fox – being pressured to intervene – did. But, when he gave his assessment that the killers were Canadians, the Canadian press, and the Ianiero’s lawyer, condemned the President for interfereing (which he’d done at the request of the Canadians).
The Ianiero family lawyer is Edward Greenspan. Greenspan has an international reputation as a defense lawyer: he represents Conrad Black. Black was a Canadian version of Rupert Murdoch, building an empire of right-wing media outlets and gobbling up local media throughout the country. He was also something of a Canadian Ken Lay, the Texas financial “genuis” who turned out to be a greedier crook than most, but no more a genius than any other swindler. Black is now accused of all manner of large scale financial fraud and chincanery, on trial in several countries, and needs a good lawyer.
Though Greenspan has defended less “illustrious” crooks (including some from the Hell’s Angels) he’s a publicity whore – well known on Canadian TV and radio. Which may explain why a DEFENSE ATTORNEY is representing the interests of a crime victim’s family. It makes no sense, unless… and this is indulging in stereotypes, but rumors float about any wealthy family whose last name ends in a vowel, the Ianieros were involved with the Mafia.
Convoluted enough? BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE!
Greenspan has been making the media rounds, complaining about coverups and whatnot and demanding the Canadian government ban travel to Mexico until the matter is solved. Okie-dokie, but what happens if the murderers turn out to be Canadians?
Woodbridge, Ontario, where the Ianieros lived, is a wealthy, 90 percent ethnic Italian enclave north of Toronto. The other 10% are just rich people. The kinds of folks who can afford vacations to Mexican resorts. So, it’s no surprise that another Woodbridge Ontario resident, Adam De Pasco, was in Acapulco.
This gets really weird. There were some rumors that Adam is – or was – related to the Ianarios (so much for their lawyer’s demand that Canadians of all ethnicities, let alone relations of the dead couple, avoid Mexico). I haven’t seen anything but internet speculations on that, and it probably is just that both families have Italian names, and both live in a mostly Italian-descended community.
Originally, it was reported that he’d been killed by a hit and run driver, but his travelling buddy claimed the kid had been roughed up in a nightclub after messing with some guy’s girlfriend. At any rate, he was found dead in the street. Of course the family is grieving, and I don’t make light of their loss…
BUT… who should pop up by Edward Greenspan, Queen’s Counsel? He’s keeping the issue alive, pushing the buddy’s story – which sounds reasonable – that Adam acted like a jerk in the club, was tossed out by the bouncers and then…???
It’s the ??? I wonder about. Very likely the kid did get beat up. He might have been also hit by a car, as the Mexican authorities originally claimed. At any rate, the Canadians demanded a Canadian autopsy, so the body’s been shipped back to Ontario.
The buddy claims he and Adam weren’t drinking, and weren’t particually rude (the “acting like a jerk” was my paraphrase of the buddy’s tale). The buddy, Marco Calabro, was interviewed by Joe Fantauzzi, of the Woodbridge local newsper, the Vaughn Citizen:
“He wanted to go dancing, he’s a dancer,” Mr. Calabro said. “He likes to pick up girls.”
Mr. Calabro doesn’t dance so he stayed at the bar, a vantage point from which he couldn’t see Mr. De Prisco through the crowd, but the pair knew exactly where each other was.
Minutes after they parted, another friend of Mr. Calabro’s told him there was a problem.
Mr. De Prisco was being expelled from the club after meetinga woman inside the building.
“I ran. Right away,” Mr. Calabro said. “I begged and pleaded to know where he was. One bouncer was laughing and pointed me in the direction.”
Hailing a taxi, Mr. Calabro saw a dead body as he headed away from the club.
“My eyes … I didn’t think it was him,” he said. “I wouldn’t believe it.”
Going back to the hotel, Mr. Calabro didn’t see Mr. De Prisco. He retraced his steps up and down, back to the night club to no avail.
When he went back to the club, workers were cleansing the area where he had earlier spotted the body, he said.
Mr. Calabro thinks the chance meeting with the woman was a set-up, which was supposed to lead to Mr. De Prisco being robbed.
I lived in Mexico long enough to hear the “set up” claim before. Usually from somebody who was drunk or otherwise distracted and ran into trouble. The reasoning goes… Bad thing #1 happened, followed by bad thing #2… therefore bad thing #1 was arranged to cause bad thing #2. Nah… but if you just got bounced from a club (and maybe had the shit kicked out of you, you are more likely to be the victim of other bad actors… especially wandering around in a seaport town).
Though it this case, there is also “Bad thing #3”… Calabro claims De Prisco’s hotel room was “ripped off”while he was dying in the hospital. I’ve seen claims this is part of the grand coverup… but why there would be such an elaborate plot to do in a 19-year old kid (unless… hmmm … those vowels at the end of the name again).
On the other hand, a thread dealing with this on the Lonely Planet “Thorn Tree Mexico Message Board” contributed to by a lot of Canadian (and other foreign) Mexico regulars, mentioned that relatively rich kids do get themselves in trouble in Mexico… and mentioned a Canadian who used to post regularly (again from Woodbridge, Ontario) who ran his face into a Mexican guy’s fist after trying to pick up the guy’s girlfriend – and then referred to the girl as a “skank.” Maybe they’re just not proper cabelleros up there in the north woods.
The family relationship between the Ianeros and De Prisco don’t seem to be anything more than rumors… as is most of the Canadian coverage. Which, in a nice symmetry, is being pumped up by the media outlets connected with… Conrad Black. His papers have been on anti-Mexico crusades before. About 5 years ago, they claimed Mexican pirates tried to murder a Canadian yachtsman, who it turned out had botched a suicide. Then, when a Canadian was accidently shot outside a youth hostel in Chiapas, had alarmist reports on anti-Canadian Zapatista attacks… though it turned out the shooting, which was patched up in the local emergency room (not requiring emergency flights to Mexico City as the Black papers reported). The shooter, it turned out was drunk, and aiming at something else when he winged the Canadian backpacker… and felt so ashamed of himself, confessed to his priest and brought the padre with him when he confessed at the local Ministerio Publico. And apologized to the Canadian.
My sense is that after Fox News in the U.S. milked the story of the girl who disappeared in Aruba, Contrad Black’s chain wanted something similar. Not having a war, or more than the normal violence and stupidity of any wealthy industrialized society to carp about, Mexico has to do. Maybe that suburb should send their residents to Aruba and leave Mexico alone for the other million Canadians who don’t come from Woodbridge, Ontario, don’t have Italian names and don’t get themselves killed in mysterious ways… and don’t have Edward Greenspan as their attorney.
But, then again, unless you read tocrime.blogspot.com, who’d have thunk Toronto suburbia was such a hotbed of international intrigue?
12 pesos, 30 pesos, 156,000,000 dollars… and up
Photo courtesy la Jornada
There are already women banging their pots in front of congress and the Secretary of the Economy’s office in DF, where the new tortilla price is “ONLY” 12 pesos per kilo. There were reports of prices up to 30 per kilo in Durango. A few weeks ago, 8 per kilo was high.
What’s going on? Theories range from speculation and monopolistic hoarding (some truth to that one) to “savage capitalism” (also very likely true) to the success of U.S. “farmers” (i.e., agri-biz, Conagra, ADM, et.al.) at maintaining subsidies for everything from fuel and transport costs to fertilizer to EXPORTS… while Mexico ended agricultural subsidies… and will be allowing corn imports.
(Which, of course, means INDEPENDENT LANDOWNING MEXICAN FARMERS will be exporting themselves to Iowa and Nebraska and California and New York and… to work as laborors for those corporate farmers. What in Mexico used to be called peonage, in the bad old days of the haciendas… you know, those foreign owned agribusineses that Mexicans got rid of in the 1930s).
In the short run, the new administration of the homeland of corn is buying 450 tons from the U.S. (Corporate farms, underwritten by U.S. taxpayer export subsidies) and another 250 tons from elsewhere.
Even with the new salario minimo (50.57 pesos per DAY in Mexico City, now… 47.60 in the rural zones), nobody could pay 30 pesos a kilo for tortillas.
Milk prices are also going up, up, up… More on this later.
I haven’t hunted down all my sources yet… but I’ve been saying for a long time that when the barriers to corn imports fell, there were going to be even worse problems in rural Mexico. It almost seems as if the only crops Mexico can sell are marijuana and opium poppies… but that seems to be creating problems (or opportunities for the DEA and the U.S. government to spend their money in Mexico) right now.
It doesn’t look like the neoliberal Calderón administration will have any choice but to intervene in the market place, but they’re not in a bad position to do so… the national debt just dropped another 156 million U.S. DOLLARS (not pesos) thanks to early payouts on bonds maturing in 2019, 2022, 2026, 2031 and 2033.
Maybe they’ll be able to loan some money north of the border…
Cost of the War in Iraq (as of 3 AM, 13 Jan, 2007:
$357,889,000,000 … that’s Dollars, too)
My tax dollars at… work?
The famous “Texas Border Watch” spy-cam program (amusing on so many levels) only cost us taxpayers $200,000 for its one-month test.
Gosh, it was successful…the El Paso Times, under the Freedom of Information act, got Texas Homeland Security to cough up the 14,800 e-mails they received.
Which resulted in nabbing… 10 indocumentados.
$200,000.00 (not including PR and salaries)…
298,000,000 hits…
14,800 e-mails…
30 day before anyone caught on this was nuts…
10 indocumentados…
PRICELESS!
Civil Unions bill passed in Coahuila… wow!
Notimex/ La Jornada On Line (my translation)
11/01/2007 19:18
Saltillo. Meeting in a special session, the State Congress approved the “Civil Solidarity Pact” this evening, giving equal rights and obligations of all cohabiting couples, heterosexual or homosexual.
Following weeks of intense debate within the local Congress over the role of society within the state, the majority faction Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), assisted by the Partido del Trabajo (PT – “Workers’ Party”), approved the legal modifications to the existing code.
After a three hour debate, the iniative was rejected by the other four parties in the Legislature: Acción Nacional (PAN), Verde Ecologísta de México (PVEM –”Green Party of Mexico”), Revolución Democrática (PRD) and Unidad Democrática de Coahuila (PUDC), whose legislators considered the legislation to be anti-family.
Furthermore, PAN delegates promised that within a few days they would raise constitutional quations about the parliamentary procedure used by the Coahuala legislature before the Federal Supreme Court (SCJN – Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación).
In the special session, 15 legislators mounted the podium to urge passage or rejection of the iniative, followed by three hours of debate before voting. The legislation passed 20 to 13.
A couple of surprises for me. We always assume PRD are the forward-thinking progressives (which, for the most part, they are), but Mexican politics being what it is, the PRD is going to vote against the PRI no matter what they do. Incidentally, it was Lopez Obradór who held up passage of the Civil Unions bill in the Federal District… or, rather, fear that support by the PRD would damage his chances in the Presidential campaign.
The Greens (PVEM) are PRI allies nationally, but were PAN allies before – and have a reputation for being “grillos” that jump to whatever side they think will garner them the most support. I expect nationally, they’ll be joining with PAN to form a legislative majority. PT joined with PRD in the Lopez Obradór coalition, and is part of the federal congressional “Frente Amplio Progesivo” (Wide Progressive Front), along with PRD and Convergencia. But… as they say in Mexico (and Boston, and Brewster County)… “All politics is local.”
But Coahuila? Outside of Satillo, it’s a rural, isolated place – a lot like Brewster County Texas for that matter (we border both Coahuila and Chihuahua. Looks about the same, too!). But, we’re pretty cranky individualists here in the Big Bend, and our friends on the other side of the border are much the same… libertarians at heart, whatever party-label they wear.
Incidentally, Texas was once part of Cohuila, but that was a long, long time ago. Hmmm…
Better not say anything. The Texans tossed out Santa Ana, but what did we end up with? Rick Perry, George W. and a buck and a quarter surcharge for a pack of cigarettes. .. as the dad of one of our more embarrasing productions would say “wouldn’t be prudent” to commit to print what just crossed my mind.
mas, de Diaro de Coahuila (Saltillo) aquí
Citius64 (aka Alfredo Narváez Lozano) looks at how the Mexican media covered the story (en español). What Citius64 noticed is how LITTLE national coverage there was… a good thing, really. Why should a common sense, civilized, decent legal change be front page news? We aren’t barbarians.
How dare they! (the usual right-wing idiots)
I could almost make a regular series out of the right-wing morons who go ballistic any time Mexico… or Mexicans … are in the news, and see some sort of plot afoot, or … ahem… react badly.
Two new stories. The “incursion” (by unknown persons, who returned to Mexico when they bumped into some National Guardsmen in the middle of the Arizona Desert) leads “Euphoric Reality” to start babbling about somebody named “Governor Lopez” (who apparently is Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona — I guess when these yo-yos get wound up, they can’t bother with little things like factual accuracy. Governor Lopez? )… and… like every other report I’ve seen, all references the same exact TV news cast.
Sheesh… can’t these guys find something new?
And… in the “Pay for your Italian Food in American Dollars… or else…” department:
Dallas-based pizza chain under fire for taking pesos
Associated Press
DALLAS — A pizza chain has been hit with death threats and hate mail after offering to accept Mexican pesos, becoming another flashpoint in the nation’s debate over immigrants.
“This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico,” one e-mail read. “Quit catering to the damn illegal Mexicans,” demanded another.
Dallas-based Pizza Patron said it was not trying to inject itself into a larger political debate about illegal immigration when it posted signs this week saying “Aceptamos pesos” — or “We accept pesos” — at its 59 stores across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California….
mexfiles.net 