Pressure on Moreira includes calls to leave as PRI leader
2011-09-09
Posted by: badanov
By Chris Covert
The political crisis for a Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) national leader deepened as charges and barbs were traded between factions both outside and in the PRI.
Humberto Moreria, who virtually walked in last spring as leader of the PRI, is facing increased pressure from inside his own party, some of whom are questioning whether the ex-governor of Coahuila can carry Mexico's largest political party to the presidency in 2012.
According to an online article with El Informador Moreira met with top PRI senators over the weekend in Morelia, Michoacan. Although the article provided no quotes it was clear that the leader was being asked by members of his own party to step down until the crisis is sufficiently contained.
Moreira reportedly deflected criticisms at the meeting by stating emphatically the meeting was the last time he would talk about it. He also said disingenuously, "Let's talk about the debt in deaths.", which was a reference to Mexican president Felipe Calderon's war on the drug cartels now in its fourth year.
Moreira is said to have increased the debt load of the state by about ten orders of magnitude from MP $233 million (USD $25,934,832.80) to MP $32 billion (USD $256,939,520.00) during his three year term.
Worse, Moreira is facing an investigation on possible fraud charges related to the contracting of new debt. The possibility of fraud charges stem from a charge publicly issued by Minister of Finance Ernesto Cordero who said a week ago his office detected potential fraud when Moreira contracted the new debt. The fraud charges come from Moreira's failure to post accurate financial information on the state of Coahuila's finances. Mexican federal law requires all states to post all aspects of a state's finances on a public format, such as a website.
Monday, according to the Mexican news website terra.com.mx the Partido Accion National (PAN) bloc in the Coahuila Chamber of Deputies attempted to persuade the national Chamber of Deputies into conducting an investigation into the matter.
Currently Moreira's party controls the national Chamber of Deputies, as well as the Coahuila legislature.
A total of 14 Coahuila commercial banks met Monday in Mexico City to hammer out a short and long term financing agreement. The negotiations with Ruben Moreira, Humberto's brother who was elected as governor of Coahuila last July, will likely include sharp cuts in government services. Since Coahuila's debt has been downgraded several levels recently, it is certain the state will pay a higher coupon the the current as well a the restructured debt.
The restructured deal will likely also include an increase in taxes.
Negotiations also include the possibility that the banks who hold most of Coahuila's bonds will form a central vehicle for the acceptance and distribution of payments.
In a related development, Gustavo Madero, president of PAN and PRI's fiercest rival, Tuesday accused Moreira of hijacking the national legislative agenda to increase federal aid to state with debt problems.
Madero said were the actions of Moreira during his term as Coahuila governor were applied nationwide, Mexico would be like Greece with its debt problems.
Madero also renewed his charge that the amount of money needed to service all of Coahuila's debt is equal to the income Coahuila gets from all of it investments.