Explosive Audio

The PAN mayoral candidate (Mauricio Fernández) in the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza García (Mexico's answer to Beverly Hills) was caught on tape talking about a pact he had made with the Beltrán Leyva gang. The tradeoff was simple: less violence in San Pedro Garza García (which has witnessed a spike in drug violence in recent years) in exchange for the free operation of the group.

Here is Roberto Alberto Garza's response:

Unless Germán Martínez distances himself immediately, his discourse on the alliance between drug traffickers and the priístas is sunk. Disowning and unregistering Mauricio from the ballot on July 5 would be a cheap price to pay, before contaminating the PAN in all of Mexico with those unconfessable alliances and paying a very high electoral price.

Because here there is a panista confessing to making a pact with one of the most powerful cartels. And he's not the candidate in a small town or some forgotten region.

Nor is he a recent arrival from the PRI, like Virgilio Mendozo, the loose-lipped candidate for deputy in Colima whose recordings --revealed by Reporte Índigo-- exhibited his betrayal of President Calderón, a Germán, and the PAN candidate Marta Sosa.

Fernández Garza isn't a criminal. He is a figure with a very high political and economic profile in a cosmopolitan city like Monterrey, the national hub of panismo.

But the one who must very clearly draw a line in the sand is President Calderón. That which was revealed by the PAN candidate in San Pedro is an act of high treason against the struggle that his administration unleashed against drug trafficking, seeking to recover national security.

How can he explain to the Mexican army commanders that while our soldiers pay for the terrible war against organized crime with their lives, a high-profile PAN candidate sits at the table to make a pact with the enemy and hand over the city to him?

This is embarrassing regardless, but it's a big test for Calderón. Fernández needs to be repudiated and taken off the ticket today.