By: Julia Álvarez-Icaza
The leading contender for MORENA’s Party (Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional) nomination to the governorship of the state of Guerrero is Senator Félix Salgado Macedonio, who is set to win by a landslide in next June’s elections. However, the news cycle has been dominated by the recent accusations of sexual misconduct and rape against him. What has become public are the accusations in the hands of Guerrero’s General Attorney, presumably leaked by the Attorney General himself. Sadly, none of the claims has been resolved despite the fact they have been under investigation for years, which clouds the search for justice and raises questions of possible political motivations behind this innaction.
MORENA is in a shaky position insofar there are no court sentences over Macedonio. Therefore it is MORENA’s responsibility to stand-up for Macedonio’s cause or instead, adhere to the Party’s principles and put his intentions on halt. The case can be analyzed from many perspectives. As a feminists woman I can’t accept that a person with such serious accusations hanging over him can even contend for such an important political office. From the Party’s optic however, terminating with Macedonio’s political ambitions without having solid evidence against him could initiate an internal war in which any nomination could be potentially derailed using similar tactics. In the long run this erodes the feminist cause because victims’s vulnerabilty is used by powerful men and women only with political purposes without any concern, whatsoever, in seeking justice.
Of course, we can’t ignore the innumerable bureaucratic, social and legal obstacles that Mexican women face every day to report their anonimous harassers, let alone when their harasser is a prominent political figure with real power. So, particularly in this context, MORENA can’t wait for a legal resolution, the victims’ testimony should suffice to cancel Macedonio’s potential nomination. Anyone committed to justice and interested in the victim’s wellbeing should put pressure on Gerrero’s General Attorney and call him to do his job. Victims deserve due process. With Macedonio on the way that won’t happen easily, nor with the Attorney’s innaction.
La Piñata: We are about to drop something big. Stay tuned!
Lotería: Blackouts in Mexico (El apagón)
We all have heard about what’s going on in Texas with the power outages happening all over the state. However, those outages are not only happening in the border state because Mexican northern states (Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Sonora, Sinaloa y Nuevo Léon) are also experiencing power outages due to the freezing conditions in the US.
Why? Because Texas stopped exporting gas to other locations out of the state, including Mexico, and power generation in these Mexican northern states largely depends on the gas imported from the lone star state.
This large dependency is one of the outcomes of the public energy sector dismantling that has been happening in the last decades throughout the neoliberal period. The privatization of the energy sector happened slowly but surely and instead of selling the entire companies (CFE nad PEMEX) to the private sector, past administrations targeted specific business lines, such as gas imports, that were profitable both for private companies and high-level politicians.
These decisions based on corrupt deals left the country with an ill energy dependence and that is exactly what AMLO is trying to avoid by proactively prioritizing the energy supply generated by CFE through his priority bill. The bill was approved in commissions and now goes to the floor to be voted this week.
This is a step in the right direction to overcome Peña Nieto’s Energy Reform, one that left the country with no energy, and politicians and private companies with full pockets.
Avanzamos.
Chew for the week
This is what else you need to know this week
“Revealed: Monsanto owner and US officials pressured Mexico to drop glyphosate ban”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/16/revealed-monsanto-mexico-us-glyphosate-ban