PAN membership in freefall following election debacle
Of 1,868,567 party members across Mexico, just 368,253 renewed their membership during the inscription period from October 1 to December 14. In Jalisco, PAN membership fell by half from 34,801 to 17,887.
Governor Emilio Gonzalez sought to put a positive spin on the news that the Jalisco PAN retained a higher proportion of members than the national average.
“I was pleasantly surprised, I thought we were going to be like 10 percent,” Gonzalez said. “I think it is a positive sign.”
Not everyone, however, remained so optimistic.
“We are a party in crisis, a leadership crisis. A party that has not learned its lesson and continues the practices that led us to defeat,” Jalisco’s former Culture Secretary Santiago Baeza said last week. “It is time to reaffirm one’s political commitment.”
Party membership had risen dramatically as the PAN won successive elections in 2000 and 2006, thus ending the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Yet the PAN slipped to third in this year’s election, leading to the exodus of party members.
The first and most notable figure to jump ship was former President Vicente Fox, who memorably backed the PRI against his own party ahead of the July 1 election. The respective former governors of Yucatan and Tlaxcala, Laviada Patricio Patron and Hector Ortiz, have also abandoned the PAN, with only around 50 percent of members in the two states opting to remain in the party.
A traditional and conservative state, Jalisco had been considered a PAN stronghold over the last 18 years, but gubernatorial candidate Fernando Guzman finished behind not only the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), but also the leftist Citizen’s Movement, with a lowly 19.87 percent of the vote on July 1. The PAN won only 22 of Jalisco’s 125 municipalities (including Chapala) and retained 12 seats in the State Congress, down from 16 in 2009.
Having been informed only that they were unfit for service – with no explanation given as to which test they failed or why – fifty municipal officers from Zapopan demonstrated outside the municipal palace in the Plaza de los Caudillos.
“We’re policemen, not criminals,” shouted over 100 municipal officers from Guadalajara, Tlaquepaque, Tonala and Zapopan the following day, as they marched to Guadalajara’s municipal palace via the Minerva and Niños Heroes glorietas.
Of the 416 municipal police tested in Guadalajara to date, 137 have failed (33 percent) the five assessments, which include a drug test, lie detector, medical and psychological tests, and a socioeconomic lifestyle examination. Of the 1,650 officers tested in Zapopan, 380 have failed (23 percent), while in Tlajomulco 182 of the 600 officers tested so far have failed (30 percent).
Across Jalisco, 4,357 of the 12,500 municipal and state officers tested so far have failed (35 percent). While this seems a considerable proportion, it is way below the national average, with 60 percent of the state and municipal police tested across Mexico having failed the tests. In some states as many as 80 percent of those tested have failed, according to the State Public Security Council (CESP).
With the examination process for the 19,000 municipal and state police officers in Jalisco way behind schedule, the deadline for completion has been extended from January 3 to October 2013. The CESP has blamed the slow progress on the fact that three out of every ten officers miss their appointments – many of them purposefully, knowing that they would fail the tests.
The examination process has drawn strong criticism from many quarters, with state police chief Luis Carlos Najera stating on Monday that the tests violate certain rights under the Mexican Constitution, and that some officers have complained to Mexico’s Human Rights Commission.
“I think they should make some changes to the confidence tests because not all are good,” Najera said. “We’re running out of cops and now we’ll see if we can we deal with the criminals.”
While the Guadalajara municipal police have 200 prospective replacements awaiting examination, Zapopan Mayor Hector Robles expressed concern over shortages in personnel this week, noting that “if we are going to cut 380 officers form the force, when there is already a deficit of 500, then we’ll need to hire between 800 and 900 police officers this year.”
Robles also questioned the evaluation process, noting that 60 percent of those who failed have been serving in the force for over 20 years and many failed only because they were overweight or suffering from heart problems or knee injuries.
However, Ricardo Salas Torres, executive secretary of the CESP, retorted this week that the most common reasons for failure, are “one: that they are drug dependent; two: that they are not psychologically fit to carry or fire a weapon; and three: that they are linked to organized crime.”
Not all of the officers who fail the examinations will be fired outright; depending on the area of the examination process failed, many could remain on the municipal payroll but would be relocated to other areas of civil service and might suffer salary reductions. This would help prevent laid-off officers from filing lawsuits for unfair dismissal, Guadalajara Mayor Ramiro Hernandez said last year.
Hernandez clarified his comments this week, explaining that his government will not be finding new positions for officers who failed the drug test or were linked to organized crime. The authorities are currently deciding upon the terms of their dismissal and there will be “no room for negotiation,” Hernandez said.
Army, state and federal police reinforce Michoacan border
Michoacan Governor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa confirmed this week that Mexican Army units are also patrolling the area to prevent further disturbances, while his Jalisco counterpart Emilio Gonzalez said he wants to deploy another military battalion on the border.
Plans are underway to “build facilities to house a battalion in Jalisco on the border with Michoacan … helping us to improve our security in both states,” Gonzalez said.
At least 38 people, including 11 police officers, were killed in the two states in the days leading up to Christmas, and another ten were murdered in southeast Jalisco on Sunday, January 6.
Seven men were shot dead in El Terrero and Pueblo Nuevo in the municipality of Jilotlan de los Dolores and another three bodies were then found in the plaza of El Montoso in the nearby municipality of Quitupan.
Jalisco public security chief Luis Carlos Najera blamed the violence on conflict between rival criminal gangs, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion and the Knights Templar from Michoacan.
“It is a clash between organized crime groups, we are working together with the Mexican military and the federal police to try to restore calm in the area,” Najera said.
The Tequila Files 