Truths and Rumors

The one who no longer takes off his green "Mejora" vest even to sleep is the well-polished mayor, who for the last month has practiced his best smile to show off in all the photographs of the social programs coordinated with the State. Such is the coordination that even the municipal directors have requested green vests to imitate their boss's smile and thumbs-up gesture. Even the most expensive building in the city received a wave of green vests that flooded the hallways. It is said that they all stopped there on the fourth floor, where the district leaders had breakfast with the mayor with the shiny shoes and where everyone competed for the applause meter in congratulating themselves on the work done. In an analysis by the after-dinner sub-agents, they acknowledged that if anyone had anything to do with the rapprochement between Don Román and the "Góber" Echado Pa´Delante, Manolo Jiménez, it was the former dancing governor, Humberto Moreira, who has a very good relationship with both of them, not to mention the new secretary of the Torreón city council and former mayor, Eduardo Olmos Castro.

Without a doubt, if Don Humberto was capable of dancing with Doña Elba Esther Gordillo (even though, in her opinion, "El Profe" is already quite old), he's capable of anything. He's also told everyone that Román and Olmos will govern well, but not so with Miguel Mery Ayup, they say. In short, Don Román's eventual departure, which was so widely rumored, is a thing of the past, and it's said that it was because the former governor suggested it as a strategy. We'll see and decide if unity prevails between the two sides.

By the way, those who attended the event say that Don Román seemed somewhat uncomfortable with Gabriel Elizondo, coordinator of the Mejora program, but even more so with Fernando Simón Gutiérrez, deputy director of Infrastructure, Urban Development, and Mobility, who, to his liking, distorts information regarding the fate of the failed Buslaguna project, which never existed and which the aforementioned official, in theory, has been in charge of for years. For now, he made it clear that the project remains a state project and the municipality will not assume any debt. They will be "matching" and "coordinating" the fate of the infrastructure, but with direct dialogue with the "Governor" who has been "echado pa' delante" so that they don't blame him for things that are a thing of the past. And right at this point, there's no way to say "clean slate," because politicians alone don't realize the terrible image that all PRI governments are given by the eternal and useless contraption that has no reason to be there, full of garbage and criminals and that serves no purpose other than to hinder both the entrance and exit of Torreón on Múzquiz Street, Ramos Arizpe Street, and all along Revolución Boulevard, as a reminder of a failed project. If nothing else, this is what the cherries have to burst the Tricolor, which in this case has always preferred to shift blame, turn a deaf ear, and pretend that what the new generations mock so much on "TikTok" no one else in La Laguna sees, or that by magic the substation (for which they removed the Torreón) will suddenly stop looking like a war zone.

The fact that the boss is more than 256 kilometers away has its benefits, and this is the case with some state officials who work from their offices in Torreón, a city that seems to be forgotten by God's mercy. Proof that some people do what they want, whenever they want, is the case of Evelyn Hernández, director of the Registry and Cadastral Institute of the State of Coahuila. For Torreón and San Pedro, the perverse sub-agents tell us that during her three-month leave (for maternity leave), the one who was working in her chair was none other than her husband (who has nothing to do with public service), and thus, during that entire period, he handled the most complicated cases in the state office, and in Saltillo, it doesn't even count. The Public Registry is in such bad shape that it can take up to two months to respond to a citizen who says a procedure can't always be done, and how could it not be with those substitutions? Another person in the same situation is Claudia González, head of the State Civil Protection Department. Despite cleaning up her image with express donations and interviews with the gossipy press, she still has to work hand in hand with the Municipality to safeguard citizens rather than going around asking for "support" from business owners, who then report to the sub-agents that they're fed up with having to hand out these extraordinary (non-auditable) grants to the official. Who supervises these state representatives? Because they have a very loose handle on the position.

Armando Cobían's departure from Radio Torreón was a matter of time. It came as no surprise to anyone after months of "friendly fire" inside the city's most expensive building. It's not that Don Armando would have helped his own cause much, and knowing about the criminal activities of his son, Nassael Armando Cobián Duarte "El Muñeco" and leader in Durango of CATEM, he did not stop posting photos on the gossipy social networks with his son, the pride of the family, despite the fact that the entire productive sector has new and old audios where "the spoiled brat" launches accurate death threats and "kidnappings" in the purest style of "Look son of your so-and-so mother, you're going to get screwed..." to any transport worker who demonstrates against the extortion of which he was the object by this pseudo union leader and the threats have been carried out, if not ask Félix Caldera, the transport leader who even had trucks disappear or just get into the gossipy social networks plagued with videos where members of CATEM physically and verbally attack producers agricultural workers, transport workers, construction workers, business owners, and even the leaders of other unions, as in the case of the CFE. And many might say, "Well, what's the father's fault with his son's record?" True, except that while some parents correct their children when they misbehave, others celebrate. Since Radio Torreón is under the control of the Torreón City Council—redundancy aside—being a decentralized public agency of this administration, it's not as if his continued presence would have given them much publicity. Luis Guillermo Hernández arrives in his place. We'll see and see if he keeps all of Cobían's children on the payroll.

Allende and Nazas, the sub-agents, who hold the philosophy that "it is wise to correct mistakes," couldn't help but notice that in all the recent City Council sessions in Gómez Palacio, it seems that City Secretary Aldo Damián Macías Franco is finally being advised, as he has changed his strategy and is now reading the Agenda, which is nothing more than the list of important matters to be discussed by the highest authority of the Municipality, the City Council. By finally reading it, he complies with the internal regulations and the Law of the Free Municipality, but he is no longer the only City Council that does not do so, neither in Durango nor in Coahuila. Now the only thing left is to polish the wording of the points to be approved, since on occasions, such as in the recent approval of tax incentives, more than one person got confused between the discount percentages and the items to which they referred. We'll see and decide if things improve over time, because we mustn't forget that the way things are explained in the Town Hall, they should be transcribed in the minutes, and that's up to whoever has to read them because they won't understand a word.

And in Lerdo, the one who already gave a "wink" to Mrs. Susy Torrecillas was the "Governor" who sings rancheras quite well. Although sad because he will have to reduce 18 percent of his workforce before the end of 2025 (due to demands from the UCEF), he also seemed enthusiastic in assuring the councilor that he will be "very close by accompanying her" because he has commitments with her. What caught the most attention was that on this visit to the Garden City, where carnivorous plants grow perennially, the former president, Homero Martínez Cabrera, was warmly received by the president, with whom he hugged and took several photographs, which is not only in form but in substance because the former mayor's name sounds quite a bit like one of the PRI's strong cards (due to the election results) to renew the State Leadership of the PRI, currently it is in the hands of Dany Soto and for other issues since July the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) began throughout the country with its National Affiliation Day and in Durango the above takes on relevance with a view to the renewal of the State Congress in 2027 so Homero Martínez will most likely not stay home taking care of the children as he assured.