No more holidays for the Congress

No more holidays for the Congress

After a six-day holiday, deputies and senators have a very heavy and tight agenda waiting for them – which they are certainly not eager to tackle because they all seem more preoccupied with the 2018 General Election. The senators – to begin with – have to discuss the matter of the new prosecutor for the Specialized Attorney's Office against Electoral Crimes ( FEPADE ). Then, they have the issue of the Bank of Mexico to address, which depends on Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto . In the case of the deputies , we're told they will come back and try to make up for the lost time by having three meetings on Wednesday. Our sources say next November 8 the Minister of the Environment Rafael Pacchiano, the Minister of Health José Narro, and the Minister of Education Aurelio Nuño are all expected in San Lázaro. We've been told there are still many meetings more pending and that the deputies are in the final round to approve the Expenditure Budget – which must be ready by November 15. Let's hope they all come back rested and ready after feasting for long on tamales and pan de muerto .

Traitors in the Citizen's Front?

The Citizen's Front for Mexico , led by the National Action Party (PAN) , the Citizen's Movement Party (MC) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) is on its way to 2018. However, we've been told there are several suspicions of treason floating about. Eyes shift restlessly between one and the other, wondering if perhaps it's this one or that one. Our sources say it is very likely the Federal Government or the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has infiltrated the Front. In fact, their suspicions have even led them to publicly claim over and over again they cannot hold open elections for the Front's candidate because anyone with an electoral card will be eligible to vote and they fear this is how the PRI can find its way inside. Yet above all, the PAN and PRD dread someone within their ranks is actually a sleeper agent of the PRI. The fears are many, yet regardless of their actions, the Front seems unable to root out the mole.

They want the head of Martínez Veloz

Federal deputies of the National Action Party (PAN) María del Rosario Rodríguez, Exaltación González, and Luz Argelia Paniagua want to take all the way to the stand in San Lázaro a new demand to the Ministry of the Interior to remove from his charge Jaime Maartínez Veloz , the National Commissioner of the Indigenous People. Our sources say it is all because the federal official criticized the PAN governor of Baja California, Francisco Vega, who has attacked those opposing the desalination plants in Rosarito and San Quintin. Martínez Veloz has been one of the main critics of these projects, and now he has come under the fire of the PAN members. Perhaps few will remember this, but Martínez Veloz was in the 90's a prominent figure in the dialogues with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and he has even written a few books and papers on the subject.

But now the PAN members want his head.

Pope shakes Mexican Church

We're told that since Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the Pope, there's been a renewal taking place in the Mexican Catholic Church; since the papacy of Pope Francis , he has appointed 14 bishops and 11 auxiliary bishops. Moreover, he has appointed two cardinals, Alberto Suárez , emeritus archbishop of Morelia, and Carlos Aguiar , archbishop of Tlalnepantla – and the main candidate to succeed Norberto Rivera as the head of the Mexican Archdiocese. Nevertheless, the Archdiocese is still missing an archbishop as Pope Francis is yet to appoint someone to the post since Rivera filed his resignation last June.

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