Caciques in Puebla, with permission to operate: The Coyomeapan conflict, an example
The results of the elections show that the chiefdom system in Puebla, formed from Avilacamachismo, is still in force and gives scope for authoritarian governments to develop
By El Ciudadano Mexico
By Gabriela Hernández / El Ciudadano Newsroom
Puebla, Puebla, Since the early hours of October 15, more than 5,000 residents of the 44 indigenous communities of Coyomeapan gathered in the municipal seat to block road accesses and prevent Mayor Rodolfo García López, elected by the Labor Party (PT), take a protest in that town.
The elected mayor, husband of the PT federal deputy Araceli Celestino Rosas, had to take office at the Centro Integral de Servicios (CIS) of Ajalpan, some 55 kilometers away from the community that is supposed to have elected him.
At a rally, which they held after marching through the streets of that town, the residents warned that they do not mind being imprisoned and, even giving their lives, for this fight against the chiefdom that the Celestino Rosas family has imposed on those lands for more 11 years old.
The federal deputy for Morena, Inés Parra Juárez, says that what is happening in Coyomeapan is the -historic demonstration in Puebla- of an organized people that resists being governed by a political group that has abused power and enriched itself at the expense of the poverty of the settlers.
However, the Celestino was not the only caciquil group that won the June 6 elections in Puebla. Some of them will govern for three more years, after being nominated by Morena, the party that promised to fight the vices of the "old regime."
What about the regional chiefdoms?
Gerardo Domínguez, Morena's state councilor, points out that, in this entity, regional chiefdoms that previously fought President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, now show themselves as the representatives of the Fourth Transformation.
Coyomeapan, he explains, is emblematic, since four residents who are workers are now in prison for protesting against the Celestino, while that caciquil group, which in the past was an opposition, today assumes itself as an ally of the President.
And although in Article 3, section f, of the Morena statute, it is warned that this party will fight "the perpetuation in office", in the municipalities of Tlatlauquitepec and Teziutlán, Porfirio Loeza Aguilar and Carlos Enrique Peredo Grau, respectively, took a protest as mayors for the fourth time after having been candidates for the cherry party.
Another case is that of Eloxochitlán
The same occurs in Eloxochitlán, the poorest municipality in Puebla, where the brothers Delfino and Honor Hernández Hernández have taken turns as municipal presidency since 2014 and began a third term with the support of the PT, a political ally of lopezobradorism.
Domínguez affirms that this derived from the distribution of candidacies where the party bases were displaced by external profiles that turned out to be the worst the PRI and the PAN. In addition, he assures, because the interest of Governor Miguel Barbosa Huerta prevailed in strengthening the chiefdom system of the entity to control the regions.
A current system in Puebla
Political scientist Daniel Velázquez Caballero, author of the book Political Transfuguismo en Mixteca Poblana, agrees that the results of the elections show that the chiefdom system in Puebla, formed from Avilacamachismo, is still in force.
“They are volatile alliances, very pragmatic, economic”, explains the academic, “but they give scope for authoritarian governments to develop at the local level on many occasions and in recent years dedicated to crimes such as theft of gasoline, human trafficking and even drug trafficking "
Daniel Velázquez Caballero
Political scientist
Governor Rafael Moreno Valle, the political scientist exposes, attempted during his tenure a “neo-avilacamachismo” with a poly-party alliance.
«That structure was used and submitted to motivate his career towards the presidency of the Republic, when the tragedy happens, which ends with his life and that of his partner, the governor Martha Erika Alonso, that structure remains there and now we see that adapts ”
Daniel Velázquez Caballero
Political scientist
Extract from the report published in the most recent issue of Proceso
elciudadano.com