It took almost three decades for Quirino Ordaz Coppel to hold a popularly elected position. Belonging to one of the most prominent families in Mazatlan —his father was mayor of that jewel of the Pacific— since 1985 he combined his business activities with public service, sheltered by Alfredo Baranda and Óscar Espinosa Villarreal.
And although he worked briefly for Francisco Labastida at SEMIP, at the beginning of Zedillo’s six-year term, he rather completed two decades of a discreet career as a federal official. Until 2005, when he joined the team of the governor of Sinaloa, Jesús Aguilar Padilla.
Other countrymen had embraced the Atlacomulco Group with enthusiasm. Some, since Alfredo Del Mazo’s tenure as governor. Others, with Emilio Chuayffet first, and later with Enrique Peña Nieto. The spokespersons for the PRI governors were from Chilorio Power.
Heriberto Galindo Quiñonez, Héctor Lie and David López Gutiérrez were the most prominent, although the latter was the only one who collaborated closely with Peña Nieto, since he became governor of the State of Mexico in 2004.
Many assumed that when he arrived in San Lázaro, in 2015, as coordinator of the Sinaloa bench, López Gutiérrez was profiled for the governorship. In Sinaloa they took it for granted that Chuy Vizcarra or Aarón Irízar would decline their aspirations, to make way for the ex-peñista spokesman.
In the middle of that six-year term, without having previously held a popularly elected position or having worked as a party leader, Quirino Ordaz also arrived in San Lázaro, sheltered by the PRI-PVEM alliance. A year later, with the endorsement of the Sinaloa tricolor leadership, he would reach the candidacy for the state government. The then president, Mario López Valdés, had his secretary of government, Gerardo Vargas Landeros, as his favorite, but he did not object to the presidential finger.
Ordaz Coppel defeated Melesio Cuén at the polls without major complications. In 2018, Sinaloa was painted icing on the cake despite the fact that its governor presumed to be among the best evaluated in the country. His adherence to the Fourth Transformation —say those who know him— was a mere formality. The national leadership of the tricolor cannot complain of treason, because Quirino was never a PRI member.
Yesterday, with 20 votes against and 12 abstentions, the plenary session of the Senate of the Republic ratified the appointment of the former governor of Sinaloa as ambassador of Mexico to the Kingdom of Spain. Now it is known that he will concurrently be before the Principality of Andorra and that he will be the permanent representative of Mexico before the World Tourism Organization.
On the platform of the Senate of the Republic, Ordaz Coppel, but also his counterparts in Sonora, Claudia Pavlovich, and Campeche, Carlos Ayza, were the target of the PAN’s claims and the disapproval of their party, from which they were automatically expelled.
None of the former governors generation 2015-2021 will reach their new position due to their extraordinary work in public service, the former national leader of the PAN, Damián Zepeda, ironically.
“This is a move by President López Obrador to dismantle the opposition in Mexico,” he summarized, “these are political appointments, in a crude game of chess, wanting to send this message: ‘if the prizes collaborate with me, and if the I chase’. That is what he is doing and we cannot be so naive as not to see them”.
Journalist
Vital signs
Journalist and columnist for El Economista, author of Doña Perpetua: Elba Esther Gordillo’s power and opulence. Elba Esther Gordillo against the SEP.