Mexico, January 21st, 2007

Economic stress in Mexico is getting more severe, as food prices skyrocket. Falling oil prices are putting pressure on revenues. Oaxaca remains under the boot heel; APPO offices were bombed and a peaceful march was attacked by state police in a particularly savage way. Violence is at high levels. Joel Gallegos Jiménez, allegedly a robber, was lynched by hanging in the Tierra Blanca section of San Blas Atempa. The PRD has an opportunity to sweep legislative elections in Oaxaca in August and municipal elections in October. Juan Velediaz has a piece in El Universal regarding the relationship between FeCal and the armed forces. Seems that no one believes he actually won the election. So, he's creating a Praetorian Guard. Basically he's made the Army, Navy, and Marines the new police force. Sort of like in Iraq. At the moment, he's running spots portraying the military in a positive light, using them in anti-drug operations, and paying off what Carmelo Terán Montero calls an overdue bill to a military that has been held in little regard: boosting bennies and improving force quality. The latter is probably code for recruiting from the middle class instead of the poor, but maybe I'm too cynical. Proceso has a piece on Defense boss Guillermo Galván Galván, who elevated Marco Antonio Meza Barajas, with roots in the Dirty War in Nayarit in the 1970s. Professor Enrique Plascencia de la Parra blandly compares Calderon to Aleman, a not particularly attractive comparison given the Hardingesque corruption of that regime.