On 8 December, Manuel Velasco Coello became governor of Chiapas, for the coming six-year term from 2012 to 2018. Velasco Coello, 32 years old and the grandson of the former governor of Chiapas, Manuel Velasco Suárez, won the gubernatorial elections last July with a large margin, representing the coalition made by the Green Ecological Party of Mexico (PVEM), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and the New Alliance Party (PANAL). At the inaugural event were present, among others, 18 governors, both elected and current, the head of Governance in Mexico City, Miguel Ángel Mancera, the representative of President Enrique Peña Nieto, and Rosario Robles Berlanga, secretary for Social Development. Coello’s immediate predecessor, Juan Sabines Guerrero, was not in attendance.
Velasco Coello announced that he would initiate “a profound administrative reform that will allow us a more efficient government, which can do more with less.” He detailed that he will present a state plan of austerity, reducing wages and governmental expenses at the primary level, including for his own salary, which will be reduced by half.
Although he still has not announced the members of his cabinet, he reiterated his proposal regarding the establishment of a government of a citizens’ coalition, plural and inclusive, that count with the participation of all party affiliations and ideologies. His press representative had previously expressed that “the heads of the institutions remain in charge until [the governor] names replacements.”It should be recalled that despite the brief nature of his speech, Velasco Coello mentioned the political and cultural contributions made by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and its Good-Government Councils, affirming that “On my part there will be a great disposition to establish the proper communication toward the end of strengthening the peace, happiness, and development of the people.”
For more information (in Spanish):
Presentará Manuel Velasco plan de austeridad en Chiapas (El Universal, 8 de diciembre de 2012)
Saluda Manuel Velasco al EZLN y Juntas de Buen Gobierno al asumir como mandatario (La Jornada, 8 de diciembre de 2012)
Asume Velasco Coello en Chiapas; dice que se bajará el sueldo (Proceso, 8 de diciembre de 2012)
Rinde protesta Manuel Velasco como gobernador de Chiapas (Milenio, 8 de diciembre de 2012)
For more information from SIPAZ (in English):
Chiapas: elections in Chiapas; PRI-Green alliance wins (10 July 2012)
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