Rantburg has a number of corrections and clarifications concerning the ongoing story of Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) leader Humberto Moreira and his role in the run up of Coahuila's public debt when he was governor.Previous stories posted at Rantburg after October 27th state a Mexican treasurer's report that Coahuila is the most heavily indebted state in Mexico in absolute terms.
That is not true.
Coahuila is the fourth most heavily indebted state in absolute terms, but the most heavily indebted state in terms of per capita and as a percentage of the state's gross domestic product. The Rantburg report dated for October 27th which states the original claim is accurate. However, subsequent references state in error that Coahuila's total debt is the largest in Mexico. Those errors have been since corrected in both Rantburg's version as well as the archived version.
Also, in an edition of Animal Politico, the Mexican Secretaria de Hacienda y Publico Credito, the Finance Ministry, reportedly released a report concerning total indebtedness of all 32 Mexican states and political entities on October 26th.
In a Thursday post, Animal Politico said the original report was in fact released July 29th. The article which provided a link to a scribd.com version of the report was dated October 24th. The reference to the report was presumably reiterated without any reference to the date of the original report.
The story of Moreira's role in the unprecedented run up of public debt of Coahuila is still very much a moving target and may well be with us for some time to come. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the leadership of Mexico's Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), PRI's bitterest rival, does not want Moreira to step down, rather to continue being PAN's whipping boy for the 2012 presidential elections.
One last note: We will try as best we can to italicize Spanish names of government agencies and the like with a subsequent English transliteration of what the name means. Constraints of time and other factors often do not allow us to adhere to that standard, so if you have a question, please feel free to enquire.