Punishing the Honest

Last week, Gerardo Priego, an outgoing PAN deputy, returned a little less than $100,000 in cash, which originally had been handed over to him as travel vouchers. (He then exchanged the four tickets a month he received for cash at a travel agency associated with the Chamber.) He returned the money, saying that he didn't feel like it was his, and that it would be untoward to accept cash for plane rides he didn't take given the country's economic straits.

Of course, drawing attention (and consequent disapproval) to this generosity toward the nation's ruling class has not endeared Priego to said ruling class. Indeed, one of his fellow panistas said he lacked the moral authority to make a significant gesture of this type, because he basically demanded a kickback in exchange for running for governor of Tabasco in 2000. Indeed, his own party has been Priego's harshest critic. Bajo Reserva:

Somehow it was understood that the PRI, PRD, and Green blocs would remain silent last week before the condemnation of Deputy Gerardo Priego about the way federal legislators have illegally extracted, for years, money from taxpayers. But for the PAN to not only turn their back on him, but also to scold him for being brave and a good citizen (at least in this episode), says a lot about what that party think of honesty. It also tells us how far the issue of transparency foes in the nation: until it touches the personal interests of certain characters. It would have been enormously sensible had the new leader of the party, César Nava, offered to address the complaint. The same for Josefina Vázquez Mota, the coordinator in the Chamber of Deputies. But that wasn't the case: Priego has been isolated in his party, as other political forces will surely isolated him. And the problem is that, if we are honest, it was very uncomfortable to acknowledge that for decades deputies have diverted funds. They would have had to wound up in the accounts of President Felipe Calderón, and of many other high-level panista, perredista, and priísta politicians that have bragged of clean hands, and that were legislators at some point in their careers.

Indeed.