For a map, click here. To read the latest full Rantburg report on the growing Moreria debt scandal, click here
By Chris Covert
Still under pressure from opposition party leaders and members in his home state of Coahuila, Humberto Moreira Valdes, national leader of Mexico's most powerful political entity received a much welcome statement of support from rank and file members Friday, according to Mexican news accounts.
Moreira has also been under some pressure within his own party to explain the massive acquisition of public debt in Coahuila state during his term as governor, where the state obligations went from less than MP $500 million pesos (USD $36,822,650.00) to well over MP $33 billion (USD $243,029,490.00) in the span of just six years.
Coahuila's debt load is Mexico's heaviest in terms of per capita as well as as a percentage of the state's Gross Domestic Product. Coahuila's debt is Mexico fourth largest in absolute terms.
Meeting Friday members of Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) Comision Politica Permanente voted their support of Moreira calling attacks on his term as governor "perverse".
Carlos Jimenez, the committe's executive director said that Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) attacks on Morira were an "attack on democracy". PAN is PRI's long time and bitterest rival.
The committee's vote comes days after a speech given by Senator Manilo Beltrones called for Moreira to explain his actions which caused Coahuila to accrue its debt. Beltrones' calls for an explanation have, however, in recent days been toned down by the senator since he is running for president under the PRI banner. Beltrones told Mexican reporters later in the week that "you have to tke care of strategy".
Beltrones' reference to strategy is a clear reference to Moreira's countercharge, probably untrue, that PAN's bringing his action as governor front and center is politically motivated. The leader of PAN, Gustavo Madero began to make much of Coahuila's public debt problem some moths ago, and in that time press accounts have been cause of much of the trouble Moreira now faces.
Even so, it is very clear Madero intends to keep pounding on Coahuila's debt crisis, and in the process, Moreira throughout the presidential selection process already under way, thus making Moreira himself the most salient national issue.
Moreira has resisted calls to provide his side of the story claiming his work to retake the presidency for PRI takes precedence over his past.
Despite that, PAN politicians and supporters in in Coahuila late this week have staged demonstrations in Saltillo, Coahuila's capital wearing Moreira masks and crowding into the the entrances to Coahuila government officials' offices.
Part of the problem for PAN politicians and the charges they make against Moreira is that much of the state's expenditures are not public record, but even so those politicians and party members have been demanding disclosure on how so much money was spent.
Meanwhile, Asociacion Civil Claridad y Participacion Ciudadana or Association of Citizens for Clarity and Participation, a business group has filed a complaint with Coahuila state calling for Moreira's impeachment, a move which would potentially end his political career.
The petition has been backed by Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) and Partido Trabajo (PT) members. Both the PRD and PT, representing Mexico's mainstream left lost big in July's statewide elections.. Also Jesus Gonzalez Schmal, a former candidate for Coahula governor and a member of Converencia has said he would have "no rest or respite" against Moreira.
Schmal said the case for fraud, embezzlement and crimes against public property were "obvious", as he put it, although he did not specifically mention Moreira.
Schmal is apparently the first politician of any kind to accuse Moreira of using Coahuila state resources financed through questionable loans to finance PRI campaigns in states such as in Zacatecas, Durango, Nayarit and the State of Mexico.
Moreira's strongest supporter amongst the PRI presidential candiate field is Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico state's last governor, whose state was won by PRI in a crushing landslide victory last July. That campaign caused one unidentified official with the PRD to accuse PRI of spending eight times the legal limit.
Now with Schmal's accusation, the charge of illegal campaign spending in Mexico state last July -- not yet official and only a few months old -- now carries some weight with it.
More press reports are coming out which specifically name Moerira. For example, in a Tuesday edition, Reforma said that while governor, Moreira knew of at least one loan for MP $1.650 billion (USD $121,514,745.00) gained through false documents.
That loan was through BBVA Bancomer bank, which was registered with the finance ministry on December 2nd, 2010. On that document was the Spanish acronym, Ccp (con copia para), which is a cc element. The implication if the story about false documents are true, is that Moreira did receive notification about the loan, and did nothing about it.
Moreira submitted his resignation as governor of Coahuila state January 4th, 2011.
Moreira has yet to comment on the latest Reforma report.
El Universal also report Wednesday the discovery of an additional three loans through Banorte for a total of MP $3 billion (USD $220,935,900.00). Those loans were obtained through fraudulent means, according to El Universal.