Mexico’s first independent state deputy tries to stay different
Pedro Kumamoto is the first ever independent legislator in the Jalisco state congress.
It is hardly uncommon to see protesters gathering outside government buildings to berate public officials in Mexico. Yet a more unusual occurrence unfolded recently as angry demonstrators outside the state congress building in Jalisco suddenly began chanting words of praise.
Cries of “I love you!” and “Kumamoto for president!” rang out after they caught sight of a banner hanging from a ground-floor window with the words “Walls do fall.”
The phrase was the campaign slogan of Pedro Kumamoto, who last year became the first ever independent candidate to win a seat in a state congress.
“Los muros sí caen,” meaning “Walls do fall,” was Kumamoto’s campaign slogan.
During the campaign the 25-year-old college graduate challenged the prevailing image of Mexican legislators as overpaid and out of touch with the public. Now he’s under pressure to prove he really is different…
This image purportedly shows Elvis Gonzalez Valencia on his hospital bed.
The alleged financial brains of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has been taken into police custody while recovering from a shooting at a hospital.
Elvis González Valencia is the brother-in-law of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes — alias “El Mencho” — the elusive head of the cartel that is based in the western state of Jalisco. He is also the brother of Abigael González Valencia, the former head of a sister organization believed to run the Jalisco Cartel’s finances known as Los Cuinis, who was captured in the nearby resort of Puerto Vallarta last February.
Eduardo Almaguer, the attorney general of the state of Jalisco, told reporters on Sunday that González was hurt in a drive-by shooting while traveling from the town of San Miguel El Alto, about 60 miles northeast of Guadalajara, the state capital. He said the incident happened on Friday when González had apparently stopped to relieve himself by the side of the road when he and his companions came under attack from a group of armed men aboard a pick-up truck…
Mexico’s criminal gangs ‘contaminating democracy’ with money laundering activities
Edgardo Buscaglia presented his new book Money Laundering and Political Corruption at the 2015 Guadalajara International Book Fair in December.
Criminal gangs are “contaminating democracy” in Mexico by funding political campaigns and even buying public debt to launder their dirty money, according to Edgardo Buscaglia, one of the world’s leading experts on international organised crime.
A senior research scholar in law and economics at Columbia University and the author of the new book, Money Laundering and Political Corruption, Dr Buscaglia told The Independent that a “pact of political impunity” inhibits Mexico’s government from combating financial crime.
“There is a relationship between dirty money in politics and the inaction and paralysis of the Mexican government,” he said. “The Mexican government does not take action in the cases of businesses involved in laundering drug money or other financial crimes [because] in some cases these businesses finance political campaigns at local, state and federal level.”
The US government estimates that over £19bn in laundered money crosses the border with Mexico each year, while the non-profit think-tank Global Financial Integrity estimates that more than £34bn in illicit funds flows out of Mexico every year, the third-highest total in the world after China and Russia…
The Tequila Files 