MEMORIES OF THE PAST

It was 1982, and in Guanajuato, the hegemonic PRI began to falling off a cliff pushed by the inexcusable negligence of a "little governor, Enrique Velasco Ibarra. In the combative Journal of Irapuato, which I am proud of having led since converged to the formation of a new generation of professional journalists with a different mentality, the chief editor, Mario Barajas Perez, I made a substantive approach:

"Hey, would it not be better than our front page was more balanced? Some advertisers complain that they only see negative angles. Maybe we could make an effort to rescue the good. What do you think?

"Sounds great. What we as the primary tomorrow? Ah, yes The increasing desertification indices where previously planted strawberry-symbol of that region-watered, to top it with sewage. Pretty bad, right? But there will be something positive. Tell me.

"Well, the City reports that trees planted on the ridges of the avenue through which will pass tomorrow, the governor. It is the strongest note. Does the first place?

And so every day. The dilemma, in a context of severe social and economic inequalities, hung over a sharp blow of conscience:that is, we must decide whether the facts and suavizábamos critical readers will not cause the ensuing unrest, considering that our only duty was to exalt the routine to give the impression that the government met and thereby, the company could not sleep quiet.But at the same time, it would be to give in to political power whose discomfort was reflected in the decline of institutional advertising and even the business under pressure from the Government Palace.

We chose to stay in our trench and the costs were appalling: Velasco Ibarra-board order ended largely under the noise of the signs of the Journal, "and we lost, undercapitalized, the newspaper.We closed the doors, I remember, none of whom were my colleagues oppose the least requirement, each one, and I'll never forget, I repeat, "encouraged me not to give, to find different spaces and continue to denounce. One of them told me:

"Our greatest victory is precisely that we have been driven into bankruptcy. This reflects that our criticisms, for certain, impacted in the official organs.

I gave him the reason and a hug.Weeks ago, in the struggle, who served as coordinator of government press, Manuel Villa Aguilera, phoned me to give me "good news":

- We will send the registration list boxes for the publication-that was his obligation since, by law, be disseminated to these sites through major newspapers in every square, and in our case was fully accredited as position. All I ask in return, a small consideration.

- What, sir Villa?

- That, from today, we send your editorial on the eve of his appearance. So we will honor our decision to cooperate more closely.

- I suggest something, I said: that right now you are the director of the Journal. So you even have the privilege of using the forums ... honoring its particular sense of freedom of expression.

Of course, there was no treatment and pay the consequences.(By the way this episode has been recalled on the occasion of the recent death of Velasco Ibarra, for his part, Villa Aguilera was concentrated in the center of the country, reaching, beneficial predators of their duties, ownership of the Federal Radio and Television ample time. They say that the system always rewards the oppressors).

Parallels.I learn, with growing concern the so-called "president" Felipe Calderon said, out loud, what is your dream in relation to information management:

- I dream of seeing, reading and listening in a medium that there are two sides of the page (sic). In a ... they are the facts or the bad news and on the other side, the good news. You know a balance.

The way for Calderon is open:has no more to invest, as principal shareholder in a new journal intended to displace the journalists, especially those of race, increasingly harassed.Thus, acting director-we be rid of a bad executive in the political sphere, not in the newspaper, "would occasion, for example, to exalt his speeches placing appellants on page sixteen, where he found a stimulating picture said, "the information about the release from prison of two Indians, after nearly four years of confinement, victims of injustice, the unprecedented arrogance of the Attorney General and the astonishing neglect of the Presidency dand the Republic.

And it would, of course, very happy ... dreaming, free of nightmares.

Debate


Pure justice. Onesimo Cepeda Silva, Bishop of Ecatepec, alleged fraud by simulating a "loan" for 130 million pesos for Olga Azcarraga, as if this lady, who died months after the operation, he needed-based judicial loophole its many relationships with political control and until now has been largely protected.In another scenario, were released at last Otomi Alberta ladies and Teresa González Alcántara, after being held since August 2006, this is just a month after the consummation of the electoral travesty that year-on charges for allegedly kidnapping six AFI agents without, at any time, could prove his responsibility. Does not even deserve an apology from the authorities of Queretaro where he rigged channel to the process.

Mr. Onesimus - "a poor rich man to enter Bishop" by his own definition, "argues, in his defense," victim "of an orchestrated campaign against the Jewish community-perhaps universal, always identified by the Catholic hierarchy as the instigators of cause disrepute to them. And extended sentences, as if it were excommunications against all those insisting on the imperative to administer justice freed from the plain old prejudices and atavism.No answer, it hides behind his robes ... and the mysteries of faith.

In the case of indigenous insulted, without doubt, the newspaper remarks were key to not leave them in legal distress, given the scale of the slogans and the need to exacerbate the warning to the helpless in order to silence as flawed know the interrelationships between gangsters and officials obviously shielded.

Which of these two notes should be given priority as part of the "good"? Does a premature declaration of sainthood for the Bishop of Carlos Slim, before being anointed, Cepeda was Inbursa adviser, "so they go up to the altar as a financial patron of impunity?This also would work for Mr. Calderón, so slaughtered, could accomplish his dream, like the vision of a Mexico without violence and unemployment that would be sensed bequests to their children at a key time for promoting proselytizing. (Read "The Disobedient Son," Santillana, 2006, written by Felipe Calderón).

Exaltation as it merely confirm what is the dominant trend in a stunted right government that does not learn:demagoguery and it alone. Or will we have to explain what is the sustenance of the political duel between optimists, pessimists, messianic, continuity and amafiados? What side is the "good", blessed by the official spokesmen immovable?

The Challenge


Some time ago, say from the consummation of unpunished crimes against journalists during the disastrous administration of Miguel de la Madrid -1982 to 88 -, and its executive arm, Manuel Bartlett, currently climbing the left temple of memory, this columnist lost faith in justice. I know you read terrible, and it is.

Under these conditions, under the scourge of political impudence allowed the cartels and kingpins facing of the pyramid of government power, there is no higher priority than building a judicial system that will translate into a rule of law, overcome inertia, injustices and simulations .First this, then politics, with the agreement of those who say monitor, from the Chambers, the country's interests and are unable to agree unless the proselytizing ambitions come and converge to alliances of the absurd.

Even that proposed by Mr. Calderón to deserve some space within the good course without request with empty hands.Remember several months ago-five, to be exact, passed the zenith of its disputed mandate.

The Trivia


It was 1986, the year specified by the "boom" of drug trafficking and the persecution of critics silenced dozens of them at close range.In the Southern Prison in Mexico City, the engineer Jorge Diaz Serrano, a victim of political vendetta under the auspices higher awaited a ruling that never gave up his imprisonment years later.

That's when the defending former director of PEMEX, the attorney Enrique Mendoza, issued a chilling assertion:

- The fiercest fighting in Mexico is to avoid falling into the jail while being innocent.Against the slogans, rarely have any chance.

Well know specialists in criminal matters and the dozens of victims of a system that chooses to keep in prison two Indians, were three for almost four years so as not to budge. Brutal paradox of this.

E-mail: rafloret@hotmail.com