[NYTr] Critics say secret society has infiltrated Mexican government Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:01:41 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by Milt Shapiro (mexnews) Dallas Morning News - Jul 8, 2007 Critics say secret society has infiltrated Mexican government Despite denials, critics say hard-liners have infiltrated ruling party By LAURENCE ILIFF MEXICO CITY - It sounds like a Hollywood thriller. A secret organization born in the Cold War and determined to overthrow an authoritarian government outlives the regime and instead begins to undermine a democratically elected administration in hopes of installing a modern theocracy. Luis Paredes Moctezuma, the former mayor of Puebla in central Mexico, said that very scenario exists in the administration of President Felipe CalderC3n and the National Action Party, or PAN. He asserted that the party has been slowly infiltrated by the radical group over decades. Mr. Paredes, a PAN member, said he spent three decades in the secret group El Yunque, or The Anvil, and participated in an ongoing conspiracy "to restore the rule of God" through an ultraconservative Roman Catholic government. "El Yunque is more dangerous than the narcos," Mr. Paredes said, referring to the government's struggle to recover large swaths of Mexico from drug cartels. Hundreds of Yunque members are now in the bureaucracy, and they control four state governments, he said. Mr. Paredes said El Yunque established cells in the U.S. 15 years ago, as university-educated professionals migrated and put down roots. "They're in Dallas, in Boston, in Washington, D.C., in Los Angeles, in Miami," he said. Not all political analysts or PAN members believe that El Yunque exists or that it has significant power within the ruling party or the government. Officials named as Yunque adherents by former members deny any connection. Those who believe in the group's power, however, warn that Mr. CalderC3n could be distracted from the drug fight and badly needed economic reforms if El Yunque touches off a divisive struggle within the PAN as the party prepares to elect a new leader next year. "Of course it's a real group, and it has power," said political commentator Ricardo AlemC!n. "At this moment, it has managed to maintain control of the party. I think that if Felipe CalderC3n has not cut deals already [with El Yunque], that he will do so." The U.S. has praised Mr. CalderC3n's war against drug cartels. And the president's high approval ratings have allowed him to stave off opposition criticism for plunging the military into the drug fight. A PAN scandal could threaten that, analysts and self-proclaimed former Yunque members said. "If the moderate wing of the PAN breaks from the radical wing of the PAN, then an internal war will break out, and Mr. CalderC3n will be the first to suffer," Mr. AlemC!n said. But like all conspiracy theories, this one has doubters. "I have never found anyone who admits to being a member of El Yunque," said Sergio Sarmiento, a longtime political commentator who works in radio, TV and newspapers. "All I see are attacks from the left. It's an easy way to dismiss someone." Personality clashes The fight within the PAN is as much about personalities as it is about ideology. Mr. CalderC3n, a centrist, and party president Manuel Espino, seen as further to the right, have been feuding since before the presidential election a year ago. The PAN, Mr. Sarmiento added, has always been a rightist party with religious overtones and does not need a secret group to impose those values. What many commentators and politicians agree on, however, is that the specter of El Yunque, real or imagined, has never before been publicly discussed as it is now. ?A video of an alleged Yunque initiation ceremony was posted on YouTube in late May, sparking PAN politicians such as former Sen. Javier Corral to call for the group to go public. The authenticity of the 11-minute video is in doubt. ?Luis H. Alvarez, a member of the PAN old guard who has been party president twice, acknowledged the existence of El Yunque to the Mexico City newspaper Reforma. "I fear that it does have some adherents, but certainly a minority," the newspaper quoted him as saying last month. Mr. Alvarez did not return calls seeking comment. ?At the PAN's national assembly in early June, Mr. Paredes handed out 5,000 T-shirts with the inscription "Yunque no, PAN yes," injecting the group into the party's debate. ?To coincide with that assembly, the a.m. newspaper in LeC3n, Guanajuato, published an eight-story report on El Yunque, naming its alleged leaders and quoting politicians who said the group had taken over the PAN in Guanajuato. Among those named as alleged Yunque leaders in the state were Gov. Juan Manuel Oliva; his chief of staff, Gerardo Mosqueda; and state Education Secretary Alberto Diosdado. Contacted by telephone, representatives of the three men played down the report and said their bosses had no comment. Enrique GC3mez, publisher of a.m., said El Yunque's control of the state government is an open secret in Guanajuato. "The PAN has been invaded by a parasite called El Yunque," Mr. GC3mez said. "The danger here is that they are fascists." Purported views The group greatly admires the late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and is anti-Semitic and hard-line Catholic, the publisher said. Guanajuato legislators under El Yunque's control tried to pass a law banning abortion even in cases of rape, Mr. GC3mez said. Public outcry killed the proposal. Likewise, he said, public schools in the state have more limited sex education than even mainstream Catholic schools. The most extensive work on El Yunque has been done by an investigative reporter from the magazine Proceso, Alvaro Delgado, who won the 2003 National Journalism Prize for his book El Yunque: The Ultra-right in Power. A follow-up book, The Army of God, was published in 2004. In both, former members describe how El Yunque formed anti-communist and pro-Catholic front groups that integrated themselves into the party over decades.Mr. Delgado said leaders of the PAN have long struggled with the group's participation in the party: On the one hand, it helped the PAN build a base; on the other, El Yunque is anti-democratic. Mr. CalderC3n is seen as a foe of the group, although people close to him have been accused of being Yunque leaders, including chief of staff CC)sar Nava, a possible candidate for party president. Mr. Nava has denied knowledge of the group's existence. A spokesman for Mr. CalderC3n's office did not return calls for comment. In interviews with suspected Yunque members, Mr. Delgado said, the subjects walked the fine line between not committing the sin of lying and maintaining the secrecy of the group. Mr. Espino, the current PAN president, playfully told Mr. Delgado "maybe I am" a member of the group during an interview for the 2004 book. 'Their real project' "They obviously appear as reasonable people, but they continue to hide their real project," said Mr. Delgado. "They continue to be secret because their project is in violation of the Mexican Constitution and its laws, which establish a secular state." Mr. Paredes, the former Puebla mayor, said El Yunque was formed in the early 1950s as a reaction to anti-Catholic sentiment under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled from 1929 to 2000. Middle-class religious students like him joined El Yunque and rightist front groups in the 1960s to counter a world they saw turning to the left with the Cuban revolution and the threats posed by the Soviet Union and communist China, Mr. Paredes said. As the PAN began to win local and state elections in the 1980s and 1990s, he said, two Yunques emerged: one that was pragmatic, because politics demands compromise; another that was dogmatic and dominant. Mr. Paredes began distancing himself from El Yunque in 1988, he said, as he traveled the world and began seeing the fruits of democracy, particularly by the socialists in Spain. El Yunque opposed his candidacy for mayor of Puebla in 2002, he said, and when he refused to take orders from the group, it sabotaged him by charging him with corruption. Mr. Paredes said the allegations are false. "El Yunque must disappear; there is no other option," Mr. Paredes said. While the group opposed Mr. CalderC3n's candidacy and is therefore in a poor position to influence him, Mr. Paredes said, the president may need all the support he can get. "CalderC3n has serious problems in the fight against the narcos and on tax reform, and he could be tempted to lie down with the enemy," Mr. Paredes said. "But he may wake up with his head cut off." EL YUNQUE According to critics, El Yunque, or The Anvil, has a long history in Mexico: ?Begun in Puebla in 1953 as a student movement to fight communism and liberal government, its ultimate goal is the creation of a Roman Catholic state. ?Through the establishment of a series of anti-communist, pro-religious front groups, El Yunque expands its membership on college campuses in the 1960s and 1970s. ?During the economic crises of the 1970s and 1980s, El Yunque members become leaders of business organizations battered by the government's erratic economic policies. ?Mostly through front groups, El Yunque integrates into the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, during the opposition party's growth period in the 1980s and 1990s. ?With the PAN's victory in the 2000 presidential election, Yunque members move into government posts and solidify their presence at the highest levels of the PAN. SOURCES: Luis Paredes Moctezuma, former mayor of Puebla; Alvaro Delgado, author of El Yunque and The Army of God * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================