Breathe
By Ivabelle Arroyo
I do not know if the jury in New York made the decision that is in line with the truth or not, but that jury is an authority in matters of justice; the rules of the game were followed and today former Security Secretary Genaro García Luna is guilty of drug trafficking.
This is a shock wave with impacts on many fronts. First, of course, García Luna himself, who is now a convicted criminal in the United States and was once a trusted man of two presidents and U.S. authorities. The enemy in bed.
How much of that is left in Mexico's justice system? What is the participation of other characters? This trial, I remind you, is not the first episode of questioning of the powerful former official. There was not only the Cassez farce case, but also the murders of three federal police commanders close to García Luna (2008); the calls to the Senate for human rights violations and for being in the mouth of La Barbie (2002); the degradation of the AFI due to the accusations of corruption within the AFI. I am recalling them in disorder but it is easy to do a newspaper search 2000-2012: you will find that the secretary was in the crosshairs of Proceso, La Jornada, Reporte Indigo, PRI members, PRD members and even the military.
For my part, I remember debates in the press about his permanence. Why do they keep García Luna as secretary? The cost is very high, we said. And we had not heard any scandalous statements similar to those of the trial in the United States. Well, there was one, but it was not the focus of the questions. Today I wonder about it again. Even without knowing that he was indeed linked to organized crime, President Felipe Calderón kept him in office despite the criticism.
This is done for one of three reasons: power blindness (he believes that his critics are making things up), complicity or being unable to do so. We all remember Calderón staying the course against all odds: there was blindness there. But we do not know if there was more, and in that dark area is the first impact of the guilty plea.
There are other fronts with splinters: the National Action Party and therefore the opposition alliance, among others, but there is an echo of the explosion that particularly interests me and it is the one that says: power is running out.
Do you hear it too? Do the corrupt in active service hear it? I hear it loud and clear: power is ending.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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