Tonala government owes over one billion pesos

Delivering his first annual informe this week, Jorge Arana Arana lamented the public debt of over one billion pesos which limited his work as Tonala mayor over the past year.

“We had to take tough decisions such as lowering the payroll, among other actions. Tonala now has a debt of 1.03 billion pesos,” Arana said.

Among his achievements, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) politician cited the support that his government provided for local, citizens after Tonala was ravaged by a particularly strong storm on July 22.

He also emphasized his administration’s work in bringing about a reduction in crime. There was not a single kidnapping recorded in the municipality in the last year, Arana claimed, while the most commonly recorded crimes fell by 11 percent and sexual abuse fell by 42 percent, although he did admit that the number of bank robberies rose significantly.

In response to the informe, Apolinar Alatorre Rodriguez, the National Action Party (PAN) coordinator in Tonala, criticized Arana for the lack of transparency and poor planning that has characterized his administration. In contrast to Tlajomulco, which was named the most transparent municipality in Mexico earlier this year, Tonala failed the evaluation with a low grade of just 32 out of 100.