Truths and Rumors

What does the Superior Auditor of the State of Coahuila, Manuel Ramírez Briones, have to hide? This is what our sub-agents are asking. The public official attended the seventh graduation ceremony for the Bachelor's Degree in Public Accounting through the Competency Model, an agreement between UAdeC and the Superior Audit Office of the State. Despite the odious press approaching him to question him about the major issues affecting Coahuila, such as the observations made to municipalities, the state, and even other institutions with public resources, where everything has remained a "dream of the righteous" or in the limbo recently declared nonexistent. The sub-agents say it's striking that, as a public official paid by citizens 120,000 pesos a month to audit public accounts, he is so difficult to access and locate. Not even the president.

Our sub-agents, who claim to know about economics, say that one of the main weapons governments have to confront recessionary processes like the one caused by the "Trump-eradications" is to promote infrastructure development, as we're seeing now with the "Echado Pa' Delante" governor, who is going all out, seeking federal resources and stretching the state's financial resources to build bridges, overpasses, barracks, and anything resembling job creation. It's as if to say he's tightening the clamps on key issues: security and employment. Therefore, the environmentalist protests, where they are tearing their clothes over the trees that will have to be removed for the construction of the Abastos-Independencia Road System, are unclear. Some will be transplanted, while others, old and diseased, will have to be cut down, according to Miguel Algara, head of SIDUM. It's true, the city is crying out for more vegetation, but it also needs jobs. By the way, we've also been informed that the Department of Environment's "Greener Torreón" program already has a nursery with 237 trees that will replace the 47 already dead trees, to clear the area where the new Abastos-Independencia road system will be built. Therefore, our sub-agents will be monitoring the planting and, above all, ensuring that the road project fulfills its purpose in terms of sustainable development...

■■■■■

Our sub-agents, attentive to the movements within Morena in Coahuila, learned of the meeting held by the president of the Movement in Coahuila, Diego del Bosque, who attended under the pretext of evaluating the controversial judicial election held last June 1st throughout the country. Although Don Diego was very happy to show off Coahuila's 24 percent turnout in the election, well above the 12 percent recorded nationally, although in states like Durango it was below average, the top brass downplayed him since in the smog-ridden capital they are aware that it was due to the mobilization and promotion he carried out on behalf of the state government; something that was a commitment the "Governor" made with the president, and apparently he fulfilled more than the "green" governors. Our sub-agents at the National Palace say they know the high turnout was due to the fact that 50 percent of the Morena party and the other 50 percent were PRI loyalists who came to validate the election for the State Judiciary as a nod to whoever is in charge of the country.

■■■■■

Another of the issues discussed in Morena with all the state presidents, no less important the one Del Bosque attended, say our sub-agents disguised as "Amlitos" keychains, was asking the Coahuila guindas to "maintain sanity and harmony" prior to the 2026 candidate elections, where the State Congress is being renewed, and "not to go around with early campaigns and excessive protagonisms," much less kicking each other under the table to fight for districts since in the end they don't yet know if the district will be peeled by the party with which they form an alliance, which in this case, will surely be the Labor Party. And the election for the local Congress of Coahuila takes on relevance since it will be the first orphan election that the "Governor" thrown Pa' adelante will face, who heads one of the two, or perhaps only, PRI strongholds left in the country. And next year, so you don't miss the spring campaigns, around 50 candidates will be promoting themselves across the state in Coahuila, hoping to win one of the 16 seats in the state Congress currently controlled by the PRI in alliance with the National Action Party. Nine plurinominal seats will also be awarded, so Morena's foothold in Coahuila is at stake. It will certainly be a kind of endorsement of Manolo Jiménez Salinas's administration. And although this hasn't even started yet, some names are already being heard. We'll see and decide.

■■■■■

The sub-agents disguised as cards and maroon vests informed us that after the year of the fight began, it now turns out that local representative Antonio Attolini and the Coahuila Welfare delegate, Américo Villarreal Santiago, are good friends. And also part of this club of Morena friends is Senator Luis Fernando Salazar, whom the Tamaulipas delegate said he hasn't been able to meet and only ran into in the Senate with his girlfriend, Senator Cecilia Guadiana. "We are very good friends with the representative; we have worked together and are discussing many projects... I haven't had the opportunity to see the senator," he said recently on his tour of La Laguna. He also claimed to be unaware of the source of the rumors about the disagreements, as they have met numerous times, including to work on promoting the Judicial Branch's Process. He stated that he doesn't rule out working together for the upcoming electoral processes in the state, where they hope to put Coahuila in a golden state. Speaking of which, Senator Luis Fernando Salazar was recently seen visiting Pablo Gómez, head of the UIF (Financial Intelligence Unit), and for those who don't believe it, he assures us that it will be a matter of weeks before we see concrete progress in the complaint he filed against Simas Torreón for the embezzlement of at least 66 million pesos. Gosh, that's life.

■■■■■

Our sub-agents in San Pedro de las Colonias, who reported on the irregularities occurring at the ISSSTE Unit in that municipality, report that neither the influence of being "friends of Martí Batres," nor the demands of Miroslava Sánchez, a Morena member and former federal deputy who, after her time in politics, is now a federal bureaucrat (with a salary of up to 70,000 pesos per month), nor pressure from the gossipy press were able to stop the dismissal of Cuauhtémoc Rangel, who served as the ISSSTE Director General in that municipality. Our sub-agents report that there was even a demonstration previously over the irregularities occurring there, such as: a lack of medical staff, prioritizing care for patients who are relatives of officials who hold positions in the State and Municipality even when the diagnoses were not urgent, positions awarded to people close to the management in collusion with the union who don't even show up for work, among a long list. The sub-agents say that the citizen complaint to the odious press was so annoying that Rangel even issued threats and demands, claiming that it was Dr. Miroslava Sánchez in Mexico City who was demanding the names of the people who filed complaints so that action could be taken. The truth is that the shortcomings at the San Pedro ISSSTE are nothing new; directors come and go, and the service hasn't improved. We'll see and see if there are any changes.

■■■■■

Great uncertainty and mistrust exist among the directors and council members of Torreón's most expensive building after the scoldings they received from the well-dressed mayor, who claims that instead of them defending him from attacks, he always has to be the one to defend himself, in addition to maintaining the unsustainable. Deputy officials say that at a recent meeting of all the political stakeholders of Don Román Alberto Cepeda's administration, some agreements were reached, although only on the surface, as everyone already has their own personal aspirations. Thus, while hypocrisy and backstabbing reign among the council members, municipal officials turn the departments under their charge into their own fiefdoms where they only "squeeze water for their mill." The lack of harmony and all kinds of problems the administration has had in this second season have unleashed a series of superstitions about black magic "workings" taking over the halls of Torreón's most expensive building. But the funniest thing is that officials have been seen at some sort of dark arts school located in Valle Oriente. Some might be surprised by who it is, but others aren't. This is what people do to disguise their ineptitude.

■■■■■ Allende el Nazas finally did justice to the Firefighters, there in Ciudad Jardín, who had been asking for decades for a decent space or a new Fire and Civil Protection building, since in her time the former municipal president, Mrs. María Luisa González Achem, only blew them away with the announcement of a project that in the end was not executed and it was not until now that the president of Lerdo, Homero Martínez, delivered this work carried out with one hundred percent municipal resources and for which he received the support of the "Governor" who does not sing rancheras badly, who was also inaugurating a water well in the rural area for which this time there was a state contribution and Don Homero thanked him very (very) much. On the same day in Gómez Palacio, Don Esteban Villegas was also accompanied by the municipal president, Mrs. Lety Herrera, in the delivery of the Rebollo Acosta boulevard, another work with one hundred percent municipal resources. The strangest thing is that the gossipmongers in the media weren't summoned for this visit by Don Esteban Villegas, surely because they were confusing, so the coverage, they say, was "virtual," a bit odd considering that governments usually crave the spotlight the most. Did they ask Don Esteban something awkward during his penultimate visit? Or is it part of the Durango government's usual Ostrich Policy? Incidentally, the deputy agents disguised as drivers and pedestrians were very pleased that saplings have already been planted along Rebollo Acosta Boulevard, since everyone knows that what Gómez Palacio needs most are trees and green areas, of course, in addition to pavement, despite the fact that Public Works Director Juan Salazar talks a lot about the "historic paving program" he claims to be maintaining. I wish he would visit the neighborhoods located behind the Central de Abastos (Bakery Market), where what remains of the pavement is pitiful.