#Chronicle: With the Wizard of Oz, tears and affection, their governor is fired in Puebla

Tears rolled down Mrs. Rosario’s face and at that moment, he tried to comfort her with “it will be in many years, so they don’t think it’s going to be soon.”

Three years after that moment, Miguel Barbosa was received in the Legislative Branch with this song and among slogans of “governor, governor!” and applause, his coffin was placed in the plenary.

The 41 legislators lined up in two columns while those carrying the corpse advanced. They were all dressed in black as a sign of mourning.

Outside, behind the fences that were placed, there were people wanting to enter, seeking to fire the governor closely, but it was not possible. There was only access to relatives, members of the cabinet and those close to the president.

This December 14, at the same time that Barbosa Huerta was scheduled to come to this venue to deliver his Fourth Government Report, the president of the Legislative Branch, Sergio Salomón Céspedes, a person close to him, gave a speech to thank him for having been his dude.

“Women and men from Puebla, there should be no uncertainty. This Congress is constituted to be a guarantor of legality, stability and honesty in what comes forward. There should be no fear or sobriety. The best way to preserve the legacy of Miguel Barbosa is giving continuity to its transformative purpose. This will be carried out with a high vision,” he said.

The coordinator of the Morena bench, also referred to the fact that the State Constitution empowers the Legislative Branch to be the one who designates the substitute governor in the absence of the head of the Executive Branch.

According to the law, they have 30 days to complete it, while the Secretary of the Interior, Ana Lucía Hill, is in charge of the office.

Later, the honor guards began, and what followed was to transfer the remains to the House of Justice that is located on the same street, one block away. In this place, no one spoke, only the magistrates paid their respects to Barbosa next to his coffin.

Farewell to the partner of 25 years of struggle

The white float, between sirens and people (citizens and officials) who walked side by side, headed towards Casa Aguayo, where Barbosa’s office had been since August 2019 when he assumed power. Here his wife Rosario Orozco and his two children (Rosario and Miguel), state and federal officials, were already waiting for him.

The mariachis from the El Alto Market, which is located in front of the headquarters of the Executive Power, began to play ‘El Rey’, then paused to sing ‘La Feria de las Flores’, as Barbosa always asked them for that song, they said.

Officials such as the head of government of Mexico City, Claudia Shienbaum; the director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), Manuel Barttlett; Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard; the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto; the national leader of Morena, Mario Delgado, and at least seven other governors were arriving.

Around noon, Doña Rosario tried to read a speech that had been written for her, but then she decided to improvise. “He was looking to put an end to corruption,” she stressed, despite the threats she received.

She thanked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the opportunity they gave her husband to govern their state. She remembered him as a good friend and an excellent father of a family.

In his intervention, the president was brief. He summarized how he met Miguel Barbosa with whom, he said, he had been participating in the social struggle for 25 years.

“I have very good memories of him,” he said, and acknowledged that there was a time when they separated but later they met again, and despite the fact that a group from Morena sought to prevent him from competing again in the 2019 election, he revealed that It was he who prompted him to go again because they had frauded him in 2018.

López Obrador acknowledged that Barbosa had been the one with the idea of ​​calling a march on November 27 in defense of the Fourth Transformation.

The president withdrew after mounting honor guard with the family. Meanwhile, the governor’s body will be taken to his native Tehuacán where he is expected to be buried on December 15.