Fox and fascism. My read on the panistas goes something like this. I think they are a party that has its roots in the Phalange, and that the original founders were the surviving Cristeros and that they were allied with Franco. Before that, their legacy goes back through the traditional Catholic reactionary roots of the Mexican "conservatives" to Maximilian's supporters who had previously fought the War of the Reform against Benito Juarez, and had supported Iturbide before that, and the Spanish government before that in its resistance to the first insurrectionists, Hidalgo and Morelos. Okay - those are its historic roots - fascist and reactionary. Panistas and narco-fascism (in Chihuahua, anyway) The modern panistas that we would recognize, at least the ones I am familiar with: Ernesto Poblano - the first panista mayor of Ojinaga - was a character in Druglord. His stint in office coincided with the rise of Pablo Acosta and Armado Carrillo. He fell out of favor and fled to the US, and in his most famous declaration to the Mexican press (speaking from experience, of course), he stated that "not one kilo of drugs arrives at the border without the direct involvement of the Mexican military." Pancho Barrio: I remember when he came to Ojinaga the last time during his tenure as governor. He had just come back from Chile, and was raving about the "economic miracle" there. Even though he spared us any praise for Pinochet, he sure ran down Allende a lot, and it was clear that he didn't care one way or another about human rights. His scorn and cynicism regarding the Tarahumaras was evident throughout his administration, as people always had a very hard time getting any aid to them, because Barrio made it a policy to deny that they needed any, since he apparently felt that he and his party would lose face by admitting that they were undernourished and plagued with such things a tuberculosis and that they were being driven off of their lands by narco-bandits. Everything had change for the better since he came into office, and these stains to the panista self image could not be recognized. That was, apparently, his logic. If I can find Guillermo M. Morales, a local journalist here in Ojinaga who survived an assassination attempt by local narco interests (we have a LOT of money laundering, for instance) and was left alone only because the American newspaper that he strings for made such a stink over it, I am going to get him to start writing about the situation here. He told me the other day that Ojinaga has returned to the importance that it held when Pablo Acosta was the plaza holder here - largely due to the involvement now of Donaldo Colosio's bodyguard, undoubtedly involved in his assassination: Domiro Garcia, whom Guillermo said is as crooked and narco of a military leader as you could possibly find. I think the way the drug smuggling setup in Mexico goes now is like this: the drugs come in through Chiapas, and the military is involved, and they go out through Ojinaga, and the military is involved. Checkpoints are along all of the key roads, where they are checking, essentially, to see that everyone has their business properly "fixed". When Guillermo said the other day that everyone here who had anything going for themselves (with a few exceptions of course) was laundering drug money, and that things were more intense (but not as out in the open) as they were in Acosta's heyday - that was saying a LOT. Because (and I know Al has pointed to the "sloppiness" of Terrence Poppa's reporting - which I don't doubt) Poppa has said that during the height of the Acosta's reign, more drugs were going through Ojinaga than the rest of the border combined. Supposing that was a gross exaggeration: Even if it were, there would have to be a hell of a lot of activity to prompt any credible reporter into making such a claim. Ah, yes - before I get too far off the subject - this was all ushered in under the inception of a panista administration here - that of Ernesto Poblano. Does anyone know where old Ernesto is these days? His compadre was kidnapped here a while back and hasn't shown up yet. "Compadre", as gringos use it, has little meaning other than a way to spice up B grade movie dialog. In Mexico, it is a very formal relationship. The compadre in question is the brother of Samuel Sanchez, a local priista official - the recaudador de rentas - the top state job in town - representative of Governor Patricio Martinez. Since no one has any sympathy for Sanchez, and I assume none for his brother either, this news story has not gone anywhere. The fact of it being a potential embarrassment for Martinez has not been developed by anyone. Guillermo has a lot to tell, and he wants to get his reporting recognized by someone who will pay for it, and I intend to help him, with translations and with coaching in his couching things in a way that gringos can have the background and the angle they need to both understand the story itself, and the implications. The story of Acosta was an important and fascinating story, because it was all a springboard for the rise and fall of Carrillo. But that story isn't over yet. The locus has moved once again back from Juarez to Ojinaga, and the involvement of people like Domiro add another angle that we have not seen yet. We did not have all these military roadblocks, for instance, before. Bryant --------------------------------------------------------------------<e|- <FONT COLOR="#000099">GET A NEXTCARD VISA, in 30 seconds! Get rates of 2.9% Intro or 9.9% Ongoing APR* and no annual fee! Apply NOW! </FONT><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/7872/6/_/475667/_/966994325/"><B>Click Here!</B></A> --------------------------------------------------------------------|e>-
