Jim in Cancun
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Jun 20, 2004, 4:58 PM
Post #4 of 7
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Since you didn't say, I wasn't sure what your message was about. I apologize in advance for a response that is probably "more than you wanted to know."
1.- "Friday's judgement that all the charges against Chacho are suspended for a month or so."
1.- Lawyers do not agree that that is what the stay issued by the Supreme Court says. And you know the old saying "Whenever you have 2 lawyers, you have at least 3 different opinions." The State Auditors and Legislature continue investigating and supposedly have found some "irregularities"is the administration of public funds. I don't doubt that but do doubt that they are malicious or a sign of corruption.
2.- "Or what will happen to Cancun without any emergency police services or garbage collection. Or if Fonator is going to/has made a deal with the governor to assure basic services in the hotel zone? Or how Cancun is going to finish the year with its coffers bare?"
2.- Those services have not been interrupted (for what they are worth) yet--nor will they be IMHO (in my humble opinion). There have been some sporadic work stoppages since the local government hasn't been paying the payroll on time since it basically has no money. I was at a conference in Mexico City for 3 days last week with the head of Fonatur--John McCarthy--and hoteliers, lawmakers and government officials from all over the country and I do not believe that either the State or Federal governments will do--or not do--whatever is necessary to protect the "goose that lays the golden eggs." (It's a hen in Spanish.)
Unsolicited opinion and comments: Really too bad about Chacho (Dr. Juan Ignacio García Zalvidea--Presidente Municipal de Benito Juárez and brother of Fernando Garcia, owner of the Real Hotel chain)and his problems. BTW (by the way) Benito Juarez is the "Municipio" (which roughly corresponds to a "County" government in the States) which covers Cancun, Puerto Juarez, Puerto Morelos, Bonfil and Leona Vicario. He was elected to the maximum 3-year term for local "Mayors" about a year and a half ago
as a member of the "Green" party of Mexico and still has a year and a half to serve. Doesn't look like he will remain in power that long though. Since he came to office, he has been known as a "populist" "Mayor" (by the opposition parties--especially the PRI that desperately wants back in power after being ousted for the first time in 71 years at the Federal level and the first time in history in Cancun). He has done some things that no other single "Mayor" has done in the last 17 years I have been here anyway--he has paid attention to the people and the city of Cancun--probably in excess--as well as the tourist infrastructure of Cancun. There have been improvements in roads, lighting, maintenance, landscaping and local services that are visible from the airport to the "colonias populares" of Cancun. Whether his motivation has been to serve the people and City of Cancun better or to be elected Governor of Quintana Roo next year (probably both)he has done things no one else has and again IMHO he overspent on certain line items of the budget making a shortfall for other line items.
That's why I say "too bad" about "Chacho." He has done a lot of good and spent too much of the money on services and the people--something no one can certainly blame previous local governments of doing. His "defense" is getting desperate though--turning as is normal into an offense against the "plots" of the State Governor and the opposition parties and countersuing at Federal and State levels and even "invading" the State Attorney General's office last week in order to protect his money manager from testifying in the audits. His "City Council" and even his Green Party have all abandoned him as those kind are wont to do--deserting a sinking ship.
I am not sure what will happen with him or the local administration. My "WAG" (wild a*s guess) is that in order to mount an adequate legal defense, he will have to leave the control of government to the Council who will elect an interim "Mayor" and things will continue as usual until local elections next summer. But my SWAG (scientific wild a*s guess) is that it will get worse before it gets better. The nice but unfortunate thin about government is that nothing that the it does--or doesn't do--really affects the lives of the people. Whether it is the Nixon tapes, Monica Lewisky, my political opinions or Chacho's books, we seem to go right along without being in any way affected--at least in any serious or permanent fashion. Nice, isn't it? And sad at the same time...he says stepping down off the soapbox.
3. (NFM=no further message)
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