Truths and Rumors

Allende, in the Garden City, around June 2022, then-Governor José Rosas Aispuro announced that the CREE building was 90% complete and that the second phase was 32% complete. The current administration, led by the Governor, who is not known for his rancheras, completed the finishing touches, but it's striking that three years after the project began, it still hasn't been operational. Esteban Villegas' administration barely began when he assured that he would continue operating this building, which was supposed to serve the needs of people with mobility issues not only in Lerdo but in several municipalities of La Laguna de Durango. Every year he assures us that "now yes" it will be operational. The last time was last year, but to this day, it remains exactly the same, not functioning. "All that's left is to equip it," he commented, and it has been like this since January 2024.
The reason why Ana Rosa Hernández, head of the Durango State Secretariat of Communications and Public Works (Secope), is not even a household name in La Laguna is understandable. There isn't a single major project in this region that the state official can highlight. Recently, Marisol Rosso Rivera, president of the State DIF (Division of the State of Durango), confirmed in the first week of July that the new Regional Rehabilitation Center (CREE) in Lerdo will be equipped "once again," with an initial investment of nearly 6 million pesos and that it will be operational before the end of the year. Hopefully, because the same thing has been said every year under the current administration.
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Our idle sub-agents, who spend their time eating popcorn while reading comments on social media, were struck by how passionate the mayor of Piedras Negras is about his job. He even takes the time to respond to the citizens of the municipality who are unhappy with his management and have seen him as erratic in his decisions, while the fierce Mejía Berdeja cadres gain ground and make him lose his temper. Our sub-agents detail that while the mayor, Jacobo Rodríguez, boasted about the 2.6 km wiring replacement on a city artery, they responded on social media that it was an "unnecessary expense" for the city. Jacobo immediately went online and referred to his economic activity: "I hope your cakes don't taste like your opinions." Just like our sub-agents, we wonder if the mayor doesn't have more important issues to address in Piedras Negras. We have some options, such as the security of the municipality, the deterioration that the main streets have suffered after the rains, and immigration. These are some ideas.
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Our sub-agents who in their free time are plumbers and follow the social networks of 'bobe' Escalante, manager of Simas Torreón, to learn a little about how the drainage network dredging work is done, for which 'vactors' trucks are used now that several neighborhoods in Torreón were flooded and even an industrial area located in Nueva Laguna Norte where at least 10 companies are located who recently warned of bankruptcy due to the losses caused by the floods so much so that the workers had to return since it was impossible to get to work. Although they searched and searched, they found no work by "Bobe's" boys, only one carried out in a few neighborhoods. Could it be that the vactors are broken? What our sub-agents, who never rested, did find were the videos made at Municipal Public Services where Fernando Villarreal, who very proudly shows the Orange Wave workers using brooms to unclog sewers and also sweeping the water from the various flooded areas of Torreón with strength and dedication, say those in the know that about 20 brooms together do what a vactor does, and if not, the attempt is made, the truth is that the Orange Wave workers are not backing down. The good thing about all this disaster left by the rains is the multi-million dollar investment that Víctor Navarro, head of the Comprehensive Road Maintenance System, will be making. He is already rubbing his hands with the 10 million pesos earmarked exclusively for patching after the destructive rains in Torreón. And the storm drain project? Fine, thank you.
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The one who roared loudly, like El Tigre Toño, after local deputy Gerardo Aguado accused him and reported him to the Attorney General's Office (FGR) of being a narcopolitician was the self-proclaimed "tiger" Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, although in his younger days as a PRI member, everyone remembers him as the baby dinosaur. Our sub-agents have already put out their popcorn to see how Gerardo Aguado's complaint ends, in addition to announcing that the National Action Party will undertake a "crusade against narcopoliticians." First on the local deputy's list is Ricardo Sóstenes Mejía Berdeja. The letter sent by the local legislator alleges alleged acts of corruption, collusion with organized crime, and serious omissions during his tenure as federal undersecretary of Public Security during the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. These accusations enraged the "tiger," who used social media to denigrate the "watered-down" narrative and called it a frivolous slander; and claimed that Gerardo Aguado is being "hired" by the governor of Coahuila to affect him. Our sub-agents, who are always full of surprises, also noted that the federal deputy for the Labor Party in that same video raises his hand and claims he's running for governor of Coahuila and says he's the "sole opponent" of the "Echado Pa' Delante" government. Is that true?
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Our sub-agents, who like to investigate the protagonists, realize that the second administration of the 4T (Tourist Party) is currently experiencing one of the worst public challenges from Donald Trump. They are threatened with a barrage of tariffs, along with Ovidio Guzmán, a new protected witness in the US. They are now at a dead end, and the only thing left for Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum to do is hand over former federal officials, not those of Peña Nieto or Felipe Calderón, but those of her very own mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Those who read the future say that Adán Augusto López Hernández, a senator and former Secretary of the Interior during the first season of the 4T (Tourist Party), is already on the horizon. We will see and say if the Attorney General's Office, headed by the swift and efficient Alejandro Gertz Manero, and the Ministry of Public Security and Citizen Participation, headed by Omar García Harfuch, are doing their job or pretending. The die is cast, the new tariff deadline is August 1st, and we'll have to wait and see what bellicose corrido he unleashes...
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In San Pedro, after the creation of the Mayrán Ejido Pro-Works Committee (whose purpose is unclear and is assumed to be composed of local people), the City Council imposed the committee's members, who are of course close to the mayor, Brenda Guereca, and also granted them a permit to sell alcohol in that community, causing annoyance to the Board of Directors of the Ejido Commissariat, who, by custom and tradition, have been in charge of the sales. In short, those in the Commissariat felt marginalized by the president's decisions. We are told that the background to this ejidal dispute has more to do with a dispute between Jorge Abdala, Undersecretary of Infrastructure in La Laguna, and his brother Carlos Abdala, president of Irrigation Module No. 17 (whose son, Carlos, is currently a PRI councilor, also in San Pedro). Jorge Abdala, Doña Brenda's political boss, whom many identify as the power behind the throne in San Pedro, wants to control alcohol sales, but the problem is the interference of Carlos, who finances the Ejidal Commissariat movement. This has caused great excitement in Saltillo, a politically very active and historically PRI-affiliated community in San Pedro with more than 3,000 inhabitants. Incidentally, ejidatarios loyal to the Commissariat have been protesting for three days now, even seizing the City Hall and preventing the workers from leaving, releasing them at 5 p.m. The problem appears to be escalating.
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