Mexico’s Roman Catholic Church launched unusually harsh criticism of the former ruling party on Sunday, suggesting the group may be blocking anti-drug efforts.
An editorial posted on the Archdiocese of Mexico’s Web site did not mention the Institutional Revolutionary Party by its full name, but cited legislators describing the “’revolutionary’ party as an obstacle to taking stronger measures to combat drug cartels.”
No other major party has “revolutionary” in its name.
The editorial also alludes to “a party rubbing its hands at returning to power.”
PRI
The party, known as the PRI, held Mexico’s presidency without interruption for 71 years, before losing the 2000 elections. Most polls show it in the lead for July’s midterm elections.
The PRI did not immediately answer calls to party offices on Sunday seeking comment.
The editorial suggested the PRI opposes reforms currently before Congress to enable the seizure of drug traffickers’ property.
“The question arises automatically, is it because of financial interests or base political concerns?” the unsigned piece read. “In either case, the answer is alarming.”
Earlier, PRI Senator Fernando Castro told local news media that his party would approve some form of the law proposed by the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, but wanted changes made to ensure that people facing seizures had a right to defend themselves.
“It will be modified to safeguard individual guarantees, ensure constitutionality and prevent law-abiding people from paying for others’ sins,” Castro said.
Restricted by law from becoming directly involved in party politics, the Catholic Church has long avoided any direct reference to political parties.
ORGANIZED CRIME
Calderon has suggested that past administrations committed a mistake by trying to “manage” organized crime rather than fight it.
Sunday’s editorial appeared to make that accusation more directly.
“These are the same ones who allowed this social cancer to grow and now, incomprehensibly and suspiciously, they refuse to take more drastic and efficient measures to oppose it,” the editorial said.
It also criticized some smaller parties for proposing to legalize drugs as a way to end cartel violence that has claimed more than 7,200 lives since January last year.
“It is not possible to conclude that, given the dimension of the problem, we should declare defeat as a society and leave the way open to decadence,” the editorial said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home