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.
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.