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Thursday, April 10, 2014

The sins of Jesus Reyna

El Diario.mx (4-7-2014) by Raymundo Riva Palacio, Journalist and political analyst

Translated for Borderland Beat by un vato

FEDERAL DISTRICT-- The most surprising thing about the arrest last Friday of Jesus Reyna, Secretary of Government and former interim governor for the State of Michoacan is that it did not happen earlier. For a long time, he said that the situation in Michoacan was peaceful, and with that, he prevented an earlier Federal intervention in the state, which led to the rise of the self defense forces (autodefensas).  For months, he operated from the shadows against Federal Commissioner Alfredo Castillo and controlled the local Congress to prevent the reestablishment of the political order.  Accused by the former gubernatorial candidate, Luisa Maria Calderon, of having links with Los Caballeros Templarios, nobody touched him until a few days ago,  when the lieutenant of a cartel leader pointed him out.

It's unusual when a criminal incriminates a politician for the latter to be arrested by Federal authorities, interrogated and, to investigate more thoroughly, for him to be placed in detention for 40 days, all ofwhich the PGR (Mexico's Attorney General) did this past weekend. Normally, when a criminal names a high level public official, Federal authorities investigate him quietly, without throwing him into the bonfire because he was singled out. The PGR (Mexican Attorney General) sentenced Reyna politically, and Miguel Angel Osorio, the Secretary of Interior, without worrying about the Federal Pact [between PRI and PAN], converted him into the  "former Secretary" of government.  If the rules were broken and the times have changed, the question is, why?

In any case, Reyna is the key to a door that could unveil details about the institutional protection provided to Los Caballeros Templarios. Within the Federal government, his dark connections with the criminal world were known, but, like other politicians in the past, the connections were useful for the new government.  "Reyna operates in the sewers,  but he's necessary for resolving (public) security problems", a high ranking federal official said last year when it was thought that Fausto Vallejo would not return to govern Michoacan after he had health problems.

Osorio Chong worked with him to restore order in Michoacan, but what Reyna did was to maintain the status quo that favored Los Caballeros Templarios.  The PGR will have to determine whether the consequences from his policies were deliberate or circumstantial, but the bottom line is that it happened. The clearest example was the former mayor of Tepalcatepec, Guillermo Valencia, who in February requested permanent leave after nine months, he said, of harassment by the brothers Juan Jose and Uriel Farias, alleged in court files to be plaza bosses for the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion  (CJNG).

Valencia is a creation of Reyna, and for ten months functioned as mayor (of Tepalcatepec) from Morelia.  The council of Tepalcatepec asked the local Congress to name a new mayor, but, under pressure from Reyna, it responded that it did not have the power to remove him, froze the petition, and in that manner exacerbated the conflict in the area. When Reyna lost power, the Congress facilitated the process and Valencia became an instrument to attack Commissioner Castillo.

Both of them were accused publicly of having links with the deceased leader of  La Familia Michoacana/Los Caballeros Templarios, Nazario Moreno, "El Chayo", and Servando Gomez, "La Tuta", which is one of the reasons that Reyna is under arrest. (Reyna) is the first thread in a web that reaches into the heart of Leonel Godoy's government, who, through his (Reyna's) intercession , became  a political ally of Vallejo. The strange alliance of the PRI politician Vallejo with his PRD predecessor --who left an out of control public debt and a state partially governed by drug traffickers-- triggered a profound political crisis and deepened the security crisis in Michoacan.

If the phenomenon of drug trafficking grew during the administration of Lazaro Cardens Batel during the fist part of this century, it became solidly entrenched in power during that of Godoy, friend of Reyna since they were youths. The alliance allowed him to maintain, by omission or by intent, the support of the Templario cartel, itself broken by the paramilitary offensive of the autodefensas and their alliance with the Federal government.

When Vallejo returned to the governor's office in October, Reyna revolted and tried to sabotage him.  He was unable to do so, and began his own war of attrition and discredit against Castillo and the Federal intervention. The struggle ended this weekend, with the veil of protection of Los Caballeros Templarios -- again, through omission or intentionally -- (disappearing) in step with the beheading of the cartel. Leaders, finances, militias, businesses have been affected in the last few months. What was needed was a blow to the heart of institutional protection, which everything seems to indicate has begun.

14 comments:

  1. Great read, Un Vato. For some reason the last part of the last paragraph jumped out at me. The part obout the veil of protection by the CT being lifted and especially the loss of finances. Of course, the story could have emphasized the role that the ADs played even more than it did. We BB readers already know that the ADs deserve almost all of the credit for the turnaround in the direction of criminality in Michoacan.

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  2. So now that one politician has been the question is! Will he be the sacraficial lamb or will they go after the rest of the corrupt establishment? It's just mot possible for the cartels to amass thatmuch without political help!

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    Replies
    1. The ADs and the general public can make it happen.

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  3. the PRD party, corrupted to the core, the hope of mexico, with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, sponsored by mexico's own billionaire oligarch
    Carlos Slim Helu, whose money votes and he wins big time, money and business, whether his political godsons win or lose.
    The most north american political practice that gives big money personhood, now entrenched into the US constitution thanks to the greedy republican justices of the SCOTUS co-conspirers, whose votes are not for sale... because they have been bought well before they arrive to their supreme court with bags full of corporate bills to pass for the corporations that in mitt romney's words "are persons too, my friend"...
    The latin american priests that sponsored the theology of liberation and anybody that could have heard their hateful speeches and sermons were kidnapped, tortured, hunted like dogs, murdered, and disappeared into secret tombs, many of which have been found and are being blamed on the disciples of Klaus Barbie and the CIA and the School of the Americas...
    The capitalist vulture neo-liberals that preach their capitalist jesus' given rights to anybody's money wealth and property, in anybody's country, even in the US keep rolling in the money, and keep rolling in it like pigs in the mud, nobody has kidnapped or tortured and mutilated or killed and disappeared them, not yet.
    i wonder if carlos slim helu would tolerate in his corporations the corruption he buys, inspires, and tolerates in the mexican government, from any political party and from any politician or corrupt federal police officer/narcotrafficker, kidnapper, extortionist, murderer, business associate?

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  4. Chivis o chris...radio doce dio una noticia de que aparecio muerto El bravo en sinaloa el bravo y 2 personas mas aparecieron ejecutadas en sinaloa. ..

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  5. He should've been named Diablo and Jesus! or perhaps Judas!

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  6. Reports that bravo is dead?

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    Replies
    1. True. U better run if your job is head of security and you fail to do your job. He should of cut his loses.

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  7. interesting article

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  8. Thank you! I have the post now up

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  9. Its sad that young, optimistic politicians who are eager to do good for their community, quickly find themselves wimmimg against the strong current of corruption. BUT, is there really a difference from politicians who are under the spell of fat-wallet lobbyists and their power? How can the cigarette industry still operate whilr their product kills more Americans than all other drugs/illneses combined?? MONEY.

    El Pollo

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  10. Good concise article with a lot of compressed info, goo-yob

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  11. @ 8:09 AM

    My friend, I have read your posts many times. You have valid points... but, I think you need to stop cramming all the issues in one post. You confuse the readers and it sounds like you are shouting at us. A concise and clear post would be much more readable. For example you could expand on Carlos Slim Helu financial and political reach with concrete examples. IMHO.

    Peace, ESB

    ReplyDelete

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