MEXICO.- The attitude that caused the most anger among the fans of rival teams towards soccer player Cuauhtémoc Blanco was a mixture of cynicism and sarcasm. The way of celebrating the goals imitating a puppy or a bullfighter nailing the banderillas earned him resentments as acute as the ones he now provokes in politics.
As governor of the State of Morelos since 2018, the citizenry has claimed the same lack of tact in his governorship as on the soccer field, but without the brilliant passages in sport.
After the publication of a photograph at the beginning of the year in which he appears next to local bosses of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and allies, he replied that the image was a mere chance on the way to go taking pictures left and right due to his fame.
“You you know where it went”, countered an anonymous poster exposed in the street.
Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Mexico City, 1973) jumped from being one of the most important scorers of the National Team to a short and successful political career that e led him to become the first soccer player to become governor.
Whether Blanco’s explanation in Morelos is true or not, the country has unleashed an avalanche of criticism, indignation, accusations and complaints that surround the state president with the demand for more explanations about his presumed relationship with organized crime.
“In the case of intentional homicides we have a very large increase in 27% percent, of which, a quarter were committed with a firearm in the last year”, warned Fernando Vela, director of the Citizen Council of Public Security (CCSP) of Morelos. , one of the organizations that keeps track of the damage.
The activists reproach the former Americanist for his constant “effrontery”. Last Christmas, he went on vacation to Brazil when action was demanded of him to stop the intentional homicides that accumulated during his government 3,500 victims.
Morelenses are they realized that he was walking around Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro with his wife when they saw the photos leaked to the press between 17 from December to January 2 while Morelos bled to death between shootings.
The newspaper El Sol de Morelos documented the violent death of a pizza delivery man from 15 years whose body appeared on a property; the femicide of Yuridiana, a young woman who disappeared on Christmas Eve after fighting with her boyfriend; the murder of some boyfriends who were walking down a popular street when they were shot and the attack in Cuernavaca on a federal judge and his son of 15 years, among others.
“During the most complicated crises in Morelos, Blanco has shown that his leisure and fun times are a priority for him,” he warned. the newspaper.
Last September, opposition groups reproached the governor for going to play golf with businessman Arturo Elías Ayub and former goalkeeper Jorge Campos, while the Yautepec River and Laguna Dry flooded hundreds of homes in four municipalities.
Around that time the municipality of Yecapixtla accumulated so many murders that the rise in proportion to 2020 was 260%, according to the Executive Secretariat of the System National Public Security (SESNSP). Zacatepec, increased to 106%; Cuernavaca added 157 intentional homicides, Yautepec with 80 cases and Jiutepec with 80.
The 2021 closed with 1, 80 homicides, the number highest in recent years and the new year followed the same rhythm. Among the most recent cases is that of Benjamín López Palacios, elected mayor of the municipality of Xoxocotla on 11 from January. In a banner/message it was said that the intention of the assassination is that the governor be left without allied mayors.
“The state of mind that these attacks provoke is very stressful because you always feel that you can meet between fires, in the middle of the street, in the bar, in the supermarket, wherever,” said Avelina Barrera, a fashion designer who moved to Cuernavaca from Mexico City a decade ago.
Avelina was looking for a better climate in the “city of eternal spring” like many people from the capital who bought houses or land in Morelos in recent years. The entity neighboring the Mexican capital has an average temperature of 27 degrees centigrade, which is why it was very attractive for those who wanted to flee the chaos and pollution of CDMX.
Now they regret it. The vise grip closes even in unsuspected social circles and in a cyclical manner. In 2011, Morelos became the focus of attention after the murder with a plastic bag of the son of the poet Javier Sicilia; In recent days, the show business was shaken by the femicide of Tania Mendoza, star of the movie “The Mere, Mere Reyna del Sur”.
“It’s not just the murders but the quality of life in general. For example, extortions are the daily bread: tortillerías, to grocery stores, to bakeries, they leave nothing of the economy”, warns Barrera. “It is a country problem, but in some areas it is more brazen. I want to leave here but I can’t sell”.
The lack of rule of law and the complicity of authorities for intimidation or collusion make Morelos a target of cartel battles. In past months, banners have appeared in tourist sites, kiosks, local squares, highways, and neighborhoods. They had the signature of the Northwest Cartel that promised to liberate the population from the yoke of the CJNG.
“For all citizens. No more kidnapping, extortion, all the crap that all those fucking local groups have been doing. We are here, hold on, ”says a first poster. “Notice to all citizens. We continue in the cleanup of kidnappers, rapists, extortionists, collection of flat”, said another.
In the history of the fights of squares between criminal organizations in Mexico, the promises of liberation are only a facade to announce the arrival of a new executioner.
The devoured idol?
Before diving into the muddy waters of Mexican politics, Cuautémoc Blanco was a man of visible talent. In the courts score a goal or not and the former soccer player sneaked many during a career that started from below. He was born in Tepito, one of the poorest and rudest neighborhoods in the Mexican capital, the cradle of criminals and athletes in striking contrasts.
He started playing soccer when he was six years old until he was discovered by Angel González, a popular talent scout who directed him towards the Águilas del América to put him in competition with legends like Hugo Sánchez or Luis Roberto Alves “Zague”.
He passed through Necaxa, returned to the Águilas, participated in the Copa Libertadores and in the National Team to which he gave glories such as the defeat of the legendary Brazilian team in 1999; He was in European football with Real Valladolid and when age led him to relegation he emigrated as a legend to the Chicago Fire of the MLS.
At the end of his sports career he won the trophy of the Copa MX in 2015 with Puebla and he still gave game in his retirement with the Lobos from where he swung on the trapeze to politics when he became mayor from Cuernavaca, where he had his residence like many people from the capital.
Thus began the complications of another type. In 2017, the State Public Security Commissioner of then Governor Graco Ramírez, accused three officials of Mayor Blanco of having links with organized crime and the former scorer of having “perverse” interests to gain control of the municipal police.
The former soccer player had reached the mayor’s office by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) that convinced famous people to join its ranks to capitalize on society’s weariness of traditional politicians. From there, he flirted with leftist organizations.
In the jump to the governorship, the opposition accused Blanco of agreeing with local drug lords to seize local power while criticizing the corruption of his predecessor and rampant insecurity.
“I don’t sell myself,” he said as a candidate for governor for the alliance between the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the Labor Party and the Social Encounter Party.
Over time, his detractors have insisted on proving that the monster of corruption, impunity and the lack of State of Right devoured the soccer idol.
In mid-September 2021, the scorer was reported to the state Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for allegedly concealing the origin, ownership and destination of triangulated money in various bank accounts between 2016 and 2018 when he served as municipal president.
The alleged money laundering network and the millionaire accounts were detected in 2020 by the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF). There was still no news about the progress of these investigations when the scandal of the photography with the capos of the CGNG was added.
The image released by El Sol de Morelos was obtained on one of its phones from an alleged CJNG operator and PR person who operates locally in association with the Guerreros Unidos criminal organization.
Esther Yadira Huitrón is also the sister of the state president of the Progressive Social Networks Party and alleged lover of Senator Angel García Yáñez, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
The spread of cancer from the criminal leadership to the political spheres or vice versa was widely exposed last October when a verbal confrontation broke out in the Morelos Congress between the Morelos security commissioner, José Arturo Ortiz, and the deputy of the Honeycomb and former mayor of Yautepec, Agustín Alonso.
The deputy requested Ortiz Guarneros’ resignation in view of the figures on insecurity in Morelos and he replied that he had information relevant to the pacts with organized crime established by narco-politicians from Morelos such as Agustín Alonso, who is accused of trying to link Blanco to organized crime.
After the governor said that he did not know who the criminals with whom he appeared in the photograph published in January, a banner appeared reproaching Blanco for not knowing the criminal leaders. “Puto”, it read and threatened to give details of the activist’s death
The operators with whom the Morelos president was portrayed were: Irving Eduardo Solano Vera, alias el Profe, leader of the Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG); Homero Figueroa Meza, nicknamed the Gut, head of the Tlahuica Command and Raymundo Isidro Castro, the Ray, lieutenant of the CJNG. All accused of facilitating drug dealing in Morelos.
When it was leaked that the meeting had taken place through the intermediary of the Catholic Church, Vicar General of the Diocese of Cuernavaca , Tomás Toral, acknowledged that it was during a mass on 12 in December 2018 by the Virgin of Guadalupe in Yautepec, but denied that there were links between Catholics.
“It was known that the governor was there but no who else”, he said.
In another recently released photograph, the ex-soccer player appears alone with El Ray, founder of the Tlahuica Command and due to the clothing of both, it is presumed that it was the same day of the mass.
In the midst of the scandal, the Morena party has been neutral. “Actually he has stated that he is m uy friendly and that takes photos with whoever asks them. I believe that he will have to be subject to the review carried out in this regard by the corresponding authorities”, said the deputy coordinator in the Chamber of Deputies, Aleida Alavez.
“We do not we can point out by a photo or by a saying something that we are not aware of, it is better for the authorities to define it that way”.
For this controversy, Cuauhtémoc Blanco opted for the game between politics and sport as a crisis management strategy or escape route. In an interview he said that the accusations of links to organized crime were part of the beating of opponents and announced his future, again as a scorer:
“I want to manage America or the Mexican National Team”.
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Photo: Mexican former soccer player Cuauhtémoc Blanco with CJNG leaders