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| Javier Duarte de Ochoa, Governor of Veracruz (with red glasses) Photo: Cuartoscuro |
Translated by: Amanda Coe
The past five years and two months have turned Veracruz into a national and international example of violence and impunity in Mexico. Since December 1, 2010, when PRI member Javier Duarte de Ochoa became state governor, the number of atrocities has grown to the point of building a heavy chain of impunity that has shackled the rule of law.
However, in these years of demands and complaints, the Duarte de Ochoa government has only ignored civil society, non-governmental organizations, and even international institutions like the UN that demand action be taken against violence and breeches of human rights, including when caused by police and others who make up the state’s justice system.
The governor—who turns 43 in September—seems increasingly tough, insensitive to the tragedy, less tolerant to criticism and social protest. He increasingly resembles his idol: Dictator Francisco Franco Bahamonde, who was the Spanish Head of State from October 1, 1936 until his death on November 20, 1975.
The so-called “Caudillo [military-political strongman] of Spain, by the Grace of God” was directly responsible for numerous violations of human rights, according to civic organizations and even the State, as well as from complaints from the relatives of victims.
During the Civil War [July 1936 to April 1939] and the initial years in establishing the Franco regime, hundreds of thousands of deaths and disappearances were counted, most of them in concentration camps and prisons, as well as extrajudicial executions.
The Veracruz governor’s likeness to Franco also shows in his identification with the General’s physical weaknesses: his small stature, which, evidently, failed to impress; his shrill, high-pitched voice and poor skills in public speaking and in connecting to the masses, which required him to invest large sums of money and rely on a team of hundreds of people to help him forge a respected, and especially feared, image.
To achieve this objective, one of the main resources of the so-called "Caudillo" was the complete control of communications. To feed a powerful image, photographs were essential; it took Franco’s advisors years and years to carry out a total military iconography.
In Javier Duarte’s case, we know, many of these images, inadvertently, have caused anger because, without the “Grace of God,” the governor and his advisors have not been, and will not be, able to hide the image of an impolite and intolerant person.
In an interview when he served as Secretary of Finance under Governor Fidel Herrera Beltrán, also of the PRI, Duarte said:
In Veracruz under Duarte de Ochoa, day in and day out, media headlines continue to be the thousands of homicides, disappearances, extortions, human rights violations, and the repression of the media and journalists. There are already thousands of griefstricken families seeking justice for their relatives and demanding that the rule of law be applied. They are tired of demanding that federal authorities intervene in the state to control the violence and impunity.
So far, they have been ignored. Clearly, Javier Duarte, with everything that has occcurred, and his tone of voice, and apparent Franco spirit, is ready to follow the path of glory as early as this December [when his term in office ends] or sooner, as he has said. What is to follow, after leaving Veracruz in financial and moral ruin, is getting on the President’s federal cabinet and from there, continue with his pipe dream. Spanish Original
*Rita Varela Mayorga is deputy director of content for SinEmbargo.mx
The past five years and two months have turned Veracruz into a national and international example of violence and impunity in Mexico. Since December 1, 2010, when PRI member Javier Duarte de Ochoa became state governor, the number of atrocities has grown to the point of building a heavy chain of impunity that has shackled the rule of law.
However, in these years of demands and complaints, the Duarte de Ochoa government has only ignored civil society, non-governmental organizations, and even international institutions like the UN that demand action be taken against violence and breeches of human rights, including when caused by police and others who make up the state’s justice system.
The governor—who turns 43 in September—seems increasingly tough, insensitive to the tragedy, less tolerant to criticism and social protest. He increasingly resembles his idol: Dictator Francisco Franco Bahamonde, who was the Spanish Head of State from October 1, 1936 until his death on November 20, 1975.
The so-called “Caudillo [military-political strongman] of Spain, by the Grace of God” was directly responsible for numerous violations of human rights, according to civic organizations and even the State, as well as from complaints from the relatives of victims.
During the Civil War [July 1936 to April 1939] and the initial years in establishing the Franco regime, hundreds of thousands of deaths and disappearances were counted, most of them in concentration camps and prisons, as well as extrajudicial executions.
The Veracruz governor’s likeness to Franco also shows in his identification with the General’s physical weaknesses: his small stature, which, evidently, failed to impress; his shrill, high-pitched voice and poor skills in public speaking and in connecting to the masses, which required him to invest large sums of money and rely on a team of hundreds of people to help him forge a respected, and especially feared, image.
To achieve this objective, one of the main resources of the so-called "Caudillo" was the complete control of communications. To feed a powerful image, photographs were essential; it took Franco’s advisors years and years to carry out a total military iconography.
In Javier Duarte’s case, we know, many of these images, inadvertently, have caused anger because, without the “Grace of God,” the governor and his advisors have not been, and will not be, able to hide the image of an impolite and intolerant person.
In an interview when he served as Secretary of Finance under Governor Fidel Herrera Beltrán, also of the PRI, Duarte said:
“I identify with a historical figure who was controversial in his public actions and a man of firm ideas. I identify with, and you’re going to laugh, because it is a fault that many people have made me feel and see, but I am happy with my voice; my voice identifies me and I am truly comfortable with it. A man in history who is considered a villain to many, and to others not, Generalissimo Francisco Franco, had my same tone of voice, a man with such strength. I do not agree with his political ideology; dictatorship is not the way to lead a country to a good place. However, his strength, his enthusiasm, his energy are an important part of him to emphasize.”The “Generalissimo,” of course, was not only a villain with a squeaky voice, worthy of ridicule in cartoons. He was something much worse: a man who in his hunger for power ordered crimes against humanity, some of which are still under investigation by relatives who, many decades later, remain determined to find answers and, of course, justice.
In Veracruz under Duarte de Ochoa, day in and day out, media headlines continue to be the thousands of homicides, disappearances, extortions, human rights violations, and the repression of the media and journalists. There are already thousands of griefstricken families seeking justice for their relatives and demanding that the rule of law be applied. They are tired of demanding that federal authorities intervene in the state to control the violence and impunity.
So far, they have been ignored. Clearly, Javier Duarte, with everything that has occcurred, and his tone of voice, and apparent Franco spirit, is ready to follow the path of glory as early as this December [when his term in office ends] or sooner, as he has said. What is to follow, after leaving Veracruz in financial and moral ruin, is getting on the President’s federal cabinet and from there, continue with his pipe dream. Spanish Original
*Rita Varela Mayorga is deputy director of content for SinEmbargo.mx