Drugs in Tabasco

The local police in a few Tabasco towns have been in the news in recent weeks for extensive financial links to drug cartels in a scandal referred to as narconómina. In response, the army has moved into the town of Cárdenas, disarmed all of the 541 local officers, revised their license to carry weapons, and arrested the local police bosses. 

Bring Us Our Corrupt Union Boss!

A federal judge in Mexico issued a warrant for the arrest of Napoleón Gómez, Gancho's favorite dirty union boss. The mining leader, now holed up in Canada, is wanted for embezzling several million dollars. Canada is hiding NapGo's immigration status, but the warrant opens the door to an extradition request. 

Hooking and Jabbing in Houston

I like Juan Diaz to win via stoppage in a competitive and entertaining scrap with Michael Katsidis. He should have a lightweight belt again by next summer. I also like Rocky Juarez to get over his elite-fight hump with a slightly less entertaining decision over Jorge Barrios.

When I win both of these picks, I'll be 10-4 on the year.

Obstacles

Mauricio Merino writes that Mexico's well intentioned, properly planned reforms too often run aground on the jagged shoals of entrenched special interests (I was explaining about metaphors and sensory imagery today in class; does it show?), especially the unions.

The country isn't trapped only by disagreements, but also by the fact that the implementation of the solutions that arise turns in an additional problem. When you look at the traps into which the already agreed-upon reforms have fallen, it's frightening to think that they are still lacking.

Fittingly, Excelsior ran a story yesterday about the roadblocks tripping up security reform in various states, now two weeks after the 75-point agreement was signed, and 85 days until the self-imposed deadline for reform legislation. This reflects a dilemma for security officials: Mexicans want change right now (witness Excelsior's and Imagen Radio's 100-day countdown), but reforming a nation's security policies and ensuring that 32 states with very different levels of development and standards of government are on the same page is a monumental task that maybe shouldn't have a 100-day timeline.

Leftists Brawling

PRD leader Guadalupe Acosta and party founder Porfirio Muñoz are engaged in a war of insults. The former called the latter an obstacle for these left in Mexico, and Muñoz responded that the moderate Acosta is Felipe Calderón's lackey.

We Ain't Scrappin', Stop Askin'

Secretary of Public Security Genaro García Luna throws more cold water on the rumors of a deep rift between Eduardo Medina Mora and him, saying that they meet regularly. He also said that the problems that do exist stem more from a lack of definition and clarity in the police agencies, which is a) pretty damning, b) not that surprising given all the institutional reorganization over the past decade, and c) should be among the first targets for fixing as Mexico reevaluates its security over the next few months.

Long Odds

A British sports book is offering 10,000 to 1 odds that Barack Obama will be named coach of West Ham United. I have no smart-aleck comment that can compete with the plain fact written above. 

Wal-Mart Loses

Wal-Mart, whose employee-abusing reputation doesn't really exist across the border, pays its Mexican employees partially in store credit. Or it used to, I should say, because the Supreme Court here has outlawed the practice. The practice of supplementing salaries with grocery store gift certificates is pretty common in Mexico, but I guess Wal-Mart crossed the line because the certificates could only be used at Wal-Mart. But, then again, I think most gift certificates offered by employers are exclusive to one store, so it seems a little inconsistent to punish Wal-Mart here. After all, it's not like Wal-Mart is going to pay with certificates valid in competitors' stores. 

Ha-Ha

Reading Gregg Easterbrook's NFL columns is like hanging out with a smart kid with ADD. Who holds grudges. And has an overdeloped libido. Or something. This nugget found its way into his all-haiku preview.

LPGA Players Now Required to Know English; There Is No Rule for Commissioners: Announcing the tour's new language-proficiency policy, LPGA deputy commissioner Libba Galloway said last week, "We think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English." That statement contains a grammatical error! If English were mandatory in the NFL, no one would be permitted to say, "They're giving 110 percent."

I guess he's talking about the split infinitive. Or maybe he means that "for," as a preposition, shouldn't initiate the subordinate clause "our players to effectively communicate in English." It would be better introduced by the subordinating conjunction "that", as in, "...that our players communicate effectively in English." But maybe I should first string together two days of blog posts without a spelling error before I go off nit-picking. In any event, a fair point.

The CIA and Cocaine Planes

El Universal is reporting that a plane that crashed in Yucatán in 2007 with four tons of cocaine attributed to Sinaloa cartel boss El Chapo Guzmán was also previously used by the CIA on several occasions to haul terrorism suspects into the detention facilities in Guantánamo Bay. I guess this could be a coincidence, but given the CIA's forgiving attitude toward Latin American drug lords, the burden of proof is on the agency.

Saved

A wild scene in Mexico State was the big headline this morning, as an anonymous tip about strange activity led to a gunfight between kidnappers and police in which four of the latter were killed and an abducted mother and son were rescued.

Not One Night Off

The night of the Let's Light Up Mexico march, with the Mexico City police concentrated around the site of the protest, crime jumped 12 percent citywide.

Infighting

This is not a boxing post despite the title, but the big shots in Calderón's security cabinet are battling each other like Corrales and Castillo. Calderón and Secretary of the Interior Juan Camilo Mouriño said yesterday that rumors of discord between PGR chief Eduardo Medina Mora and Federal Police boss Genaro García Luna are overblown, that there are differences of opinion, no more.

Informe Feedback

The basic gist of Calderón's informe seems to be that despite a difficult economic climate and some specific setbacks, Mexico is OK. Inflation in 2008 is higher than projected and growth lower, but neither is yet a very serious problem. Arguing that Mexico is generally healthy is a lot easier if, as Calderón did, you exclude any mention of drug violence. Everyone knows that Mexico's security is the most pressing immediate threat to the country's development, much more so than some bumps in the economic cycle, yet for some reason he chose to ignore it. I'm sure Calderón's sick of talking about it, but that's a tough omission to explain.

Northern Money Splashing Southward

Notimex is reporting that groups associated with the Sinaloa cartel donated $120,000 to the campaign of Argentine President Cristina Fernández. This is in keeping with two scandalous and under-reported stories: Mexican drug money in Argentine politics (see Ojos Vendados by Andrés Oppenheimer for more info), and inappropriate contributions to Fernández.

Tubed Politics

Leo Zuckermann came away impressed with the made-for-TV spectacle that was the Democratic nominating convention. He compares Mexico's post-electoral reform political climate unfavorably with what he saw in Denver.

[The power televised politics] is something many politicians in Mexico haven't understood. Instead of accepting this media-related reality, they deny it. Instead of working under this premise, they want to change it, as if it could be erased by decree. Absurdly, they wish to return to the eras where TV didn't exist. They enact ridiculous regulations to "dignify politics." As if it was TV's fault and not that of the public that's on the other side of the machine. In Mexico, it would seem that the politicians want politics to be basically boring. And the only thing they will achieve will be that the people see it as such and keep away from it.

Concerns

Alberto Aziz Nassif suggests that the new format for the informe, which replaces the recitation before Congress of every conceivable statistical measure of Mexico's progress with a series of brief messages on a variety of topics and and a written version of the informe previously given orally, is merely "a comfortable solution before the incapacity of finding any republican mechanism so that the executive and legislative branches could establish a direct interlocution." He also worries that the president is obligated to appear before Congress only twice over the course of the six-year term: when he (or she) is sworn into office, and when he (or she) turns power over to his (or her) successor.

I think he's overreacting. The informe was theatre, and boring theatre at that. It did nothing to foster communication between Congress and the president. If they were determined to get along poorly (see the sexenio of Fox, Vicente) putting them together in the same room once a year for an interminable speech didn't change anything. If both branches are serious about working productively (see Calderón, Felipe), a watered-down informe won't impede them.

May I Never Spend a Day in a Mexican Prison

This doesn't sound like a fun place.

Crap

How is it possible that a team intercepts the other guys four times, holds them to 29 yards rushing while piling up 174 on the ground, and doesn't win by three or four touchdows? How? How? HOW? I'm sick of asking questions like this, but that's the Phil Fulmer era for you, at least the last seven years of it. 

Tennessee just hit a last-second 47-yard field goal to send their opener against UCLA into overtime. If they win, I'll still be disgusted with the outcome. If they lose, anyone who wants a damaged Mac can look in my front yard, because mine's going out the window.

Calderón Falls, But Doesn't

Felipe Calderón may be having a hard time staying physically upright (he's recovering from a fractured shoulder after a fall from his bike this Saturday), but his popularity remains conspicuously untouched: two thirds of Mexicans are partially or wholly improving of his term.

Sinister

The Federal Police is suggesting that the dozen severed heads found in Yucatán last week are the work of drug runners who worship the occult.

Informe

Today Felipe Calderón delivers his government's second informe, or State of the Union Address. Thanks to a procedural change a few months ago, this is the first time he doesn't have to speak before Congress; instead, the president now provides the legislators with a written copy, and gives the speech elsewhere. Also, Calderón offered a handful of brief statements last week, a series of informe-related hors d’oeuvres before today's main course. That's also a new wrinkle. Check out more info on Mexidata.info.

Post Columnists Weigh In

David Broder, who panned Obama's speech last week, is impressed by the inclusion of Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket. E.J. Dionne calls it "breathtaking recklessness." Michael Kinsley oddly compares Republicans' quick switch from attacking Obama's lack of experience to supporting Palin as veep to American communists' on-again, off-again relationship with Adolph Hitler in the 1930s and '40s.