Letters to the Editor: Why I am telling my neighbors that Kevin de León must resign
Wednesday
Apr 22, 2013 at 12:01 AM
We live next to the de León family in the town of Santa Rosa del Bravo in Sinaloa, Mexico. As a matter of fact, one of the things I enjoy about living there is being able to see the entire, beautiful family that resides in that beautiful town. As long as I have been living in my house, which is about 30 years, I have noticed the wonderful things they have done for the town in spite of the poverty that is so often found there. Kevin de León, I mean, should not think himself exempt from these same good deeds.
De León, the mayor of the town, is not exactly known for his personal virtues, but he seems to be doing good work in the town. He has had a reputation of being quite corrupt from the start of his political career, and I personally have come to call him “Chicharito”, a derogatory reference to the Mexican actor from Televisa and the “Mexican Robin Hood” who is also famous in Sinaloa. It was in this context that Chicharito de León started to behave like an evil king who stole and destroyed the wealth of the town. A similar king I met in Brazil, a very wealthy man, who did the same thing to poor peoples. He used to give each poor community whatever they asked for, without asking anything in return. I am not exactly saying that that is what de León is doing, I am simply saying that that what he does in Mexico has the same effect.
How are we to judge a man who has stolen the wealth of a town, in the first place? How are we to know whether or not he can be trusted when he was the mayor of the town? If he is trustworthy, why does he live with us? If he can be trusted, why is it only the other day that he stole all the power over Sinaloa from the town leadership? He has been stealing power and resources from other leaders as well. How can we trust him to be a legitimate mayor?
What is worse is the behavior he has demonstrated when he was the mayor of Sinaloa. How did he behave in the past when he was mayor of the small town next to mine? One of the first things he did was he declared