Puebla and the resignation of the security agency
Diego Martin Velazquez Caballero
A few weeks ago, almost days after taking office, the recent governor of Puebla Sergio Salomón Céspedes petitioned the municipal presidents to allocate 25% of the public budget to security. However, the situation that has been generated in Sinaloa and the data on insecurity in Puebla itself, reveal the null capacity of the mayors to support the well-being of their citizens in a dignified manner, as well as the incomprehensible request of the governor. Only in compliance with correspondence related to police/citizens, most of Puebla's municipalities do not comply. What other monstrosity can arise when talking about training, protocols, weapons or infrastructure?
Before the death of Miguel Barbosa, Puebla occupied - at the level of state entities - one of the most serious spaces of insecurity, for this reason, although Salomón Céspedes's suggestion has a positive intention, the results will not benefit Puebla. The political scientist Mauricio Saldaña of the ICGDE-BUAP, provided scientific elements to demonstrate the delicate level that the crime of huachicol, drug trafficking, femicides, money laundering, impunity, kidnappings and extortion has reached; as well as the importance of building intelligent public policies to, at least, do "something" against the crime that has prevailed in Puebla for several years.
The study by María Amparo Casar, entitled “The municipality, an institution designed for failure”, has been constantly referred to, so that it serves to show that what has happened at the state level: feuderalism; It is also reproduced at the municipal level. It could well be called alcaldehueteria, but the social sciences have already worked on the subject long before and, instead of meaning useless neologisms, the pre-Columbian word cacicazgo is taken.
It seems that the state government does not want to assume its responsibility and proposes a gentle request to the characters who lead crime on a micro scale. Legislator Castillo, who heads the presidency of the permanent commission, could well report on these circumstances as he belongs to one of the most violent and criminal regions of the entity. This is what has been seen in the experience of Michoacán, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Sinaloa. The narcopolitics have more than surrounded the municipal presidents, as it happens in many states of the country and Puebla is no exception.
Federalism has served to expose the pathologies of patrimonialism, cacicazgo and clientelism.
Since the administration of Rafael Moreno Valle, there has been a contradiction between state and local governments regarding the issue of municipal police and security. The big loser has been society and the results are all the time in the red note. The increases in insecurity grow relentlessly due to the incapacity and corruption that prevail in municipal governments to which the governor "tries" to persuade.
Public safety in Puebla is already one of the main problems that future candidates for state government should seriously consider. It is essential to avoid solutions that have failed in the past, municipal police are not good for much, and the most important thing is withdraw the budget from the mayors of the most violent areas of the state to better develop the state police, or develop interstate programs that in the past have served to prevent the cockroach effect of crime. The most important thing is that the state government must not continue to dismantle, as Moreno Valle did and the subsequent rulers could not avoid it, the judicial structure necessary to link crimes and apply the law; Trusting in the ability of mayors -mainly within the state- to fight crime is akin to handing over Rome to Nero
As the electoral process for the governorship in Puebla approaches, the unity of Morena is called into question, but also the circumstances in which local interests have struggled to retain power. The dispute for political power in Puebla does not go unnoticed due to the growth of organized crime, particularly the issue of Huachicol and drug trafficking. Just as ICGDE-BUAP political scientist Mauricio Saldaña has numerically highlighted the growth of groups and criminal typology in the entity and, even, in the state capital; Now, the journalist Francisco Ramos Zerón in Reforma, involves a study on the criminal collaboration of some officials from the time of the marines and up to the present with these issues that have placed Puebla in the most serious levels of corruption, impunity and violence. It is enough to remember the passage of Facundo Rosas through Puebla and the collaboration with the accused in North America Genaro García Luna. The Huachicol has reached not only important extensions of the state but also a wide power.
Unfortunately, the narco and the huachicol dot several members of the Puebla political class. Those who are faithfully militating in their parties, but also the defectors. Ardelio Vargas has collaborated with all the political parties in the entity to reduce these negative conditions that affect various regions of the state, and nothing has been done. Is it because someone cooperates?, as the narco corridos say.
Francisco Ramos's note should encourage the political class of Puebla to inhibit their collaboration with crime and corruption, to do something about crime and accidents that have cost -and are costing- many lives.
It is true that barbarism could do little against Huachicol and drug trafficking. The delicate conflicts that have affected the holders of the Executive Branch in Puebla involve carefully observing the evolution of crime. Apparently, the security situation in Puebla is uncontrollable and nobody wants to do anything, but it is everyone's job, mainly the government. Of the government that all the political parties have represented and not only the current one. The rugged barbosismo could not take control of governance, avilacamachismo and morenovallismo remain strongly rooted in poblana life.