More Reaction to the Torre Assassination

The papers today are focusing on Paredes' speech last night as a clear rejection of Calderón's call for unity. It remains to be seen how much of an influence the speech and its author have on the PRI's relationship with Calderón with regard to security policy, but insofar as Paredes' speech is a reflection of the PRI's intentions, it's a real shame. Mexico's last great opportunity to establish a cross-party security alliance came in late 2008, and policy-makers (with a lot of help from certain media sources) completely blew it.

One thing I've read or heard dozens of times in the past several years is that Mexico's politicians don't care about security because it doesn't really affect them, they don't feel the fear that the average Mexican does. Well, they certainly should now. If they can't pull it together and articulate a lasting, unified approach to security (and that's not something that can or should be hammered out in the next couple of days, but the headlines indicate an unwillingness to even take steps in that direction), it's not because they aren't affected by crime. It's because there's too many narrow-minded clowns among them.

Also, Torre Cantú's brother Egidio is to take over his candidacy.