The last few days have offered a tit-for-tat spat between PAN and PRI functionaries over who is to blame for the insecurity today. PAN chief Germán Martínez said Mexico is being rattled today because past PRI presidents dropped the ball; PRI Senator Jesus Murillo responded that such was stupidity; Interior Secretary Fernando Gómez Mont reaffirmed Martínez's comments, and threw a little leftover blame Vicente Fox's direction for good measure.
I'm not sure quite what PRI officials have to gain by defending their past presidents, none of whom hold public office and all of whom are widely (and correctly) considered to have been ineffective in combating the growth of Mexican drug gangs. They'd do better to simply focus on today. Similarly, I'm not sure what Calderón and co. think blaming the others does for them. It's a matter of fact that drug violence has reached unprecedented levels under his administration, so indirectly encouraging comparisons between today and, say, the halcyon days of Miguel de la Madrid is unhelpful. Aside from that, it's irrelevant. I don't think Mexicans much care who is to blame --they are mostly content fingering anyone powerful-- they just want it to get better.
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I think the central issue here is the national (PAN) government vs. the state (PRI-heavy) governors. Plenty of blame to go around, natch, but the political implications of which level gets more of the blame has serious implications come election time. The squabbles over jurisdiction and complaints about lack of investigations highlighted in El Uni the past few days are part of this as well. One of the columnists today pointed out that it's even more complicated for the PAN because Calderon actually has to work with the governors, which makes it harder to allow Martinez to really let loose to try and tar the whole PRI brand as the congressional elections approach.
That's an interesting point about Calderón having to work with the governors, whose column was it?
I'm not sure Calderón wants to shift the blame specifically to the governors so much as away from himself, but I'm skeptical that anyone is going to win the blame game. Electoral politics is a zero-sum game, but I suspect that both sides could find better terrain on which to fight their battles.
I think it was either Aziz or one of the Ricardos (I know, doesn't narrow things much). Yeah, it's not that healthy of a game, but I guess these are some pretty frustrated dudes these days.
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