Mexico falls as Huntelaar’s late penalty gives Netherlands 2-1 win Sports, B-1
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Cockfighting raids records could prove to bite King
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epublican Gov. Susana Martinez and her Democratic challenger, Gary King, both say they are committed to openness in government. Yet both have been sued by critics who allege that they refused to release emails pertaining to the public’s business. Allegations of unwarranted secrecy are about to get worse for King, the state attorney general, who is supposed Milan to enforce New Simonich Mexico’s public Ringside Seat records law. An old case against him regarding controversial cockfighting raids has come home to roost. In 2009, Marcy Britton of Albuquerque sought all emails pertaining to King and his Animal Cruelty Task Force. This month, after nearly five years of legal wrangling, King’s office released about 24,000 of the emails that Britton’s attorney requested. Britton already was suing King, claiming he violated the public records law by intentionally withholding emails. His office had previously released several hundred. She says the belated disclosure of thousands more emails makes her suit against King even stronger. Britton, 65, is a self-described animal rights activist. She says King’s Animal Cruelty Task Force actually was a vigilante group that trampled the constitutional rights of Hispanic ranchers and slaughtered their animals on speculative claims of cockfighting. The motive for the raids, Britton said, was to generate publicity for King and a politically influential group called Animal Protection New Mexico. King’s task force effectively was led by a volunteer named Heather Ferguson, who at the time was the lobbyist and legislative director for APNM. King was friendly with the organization, even lending the name of his office to its private hotline for complaints about animal cruelty. Ferguson, a civilian, directed police to obtain warrants for the task force’s raids on ranches. She also participated in the raids. She wore a handgun at
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OPERA REVIEW
Tomas Aguilar of Santa Fe, a referee with La Liga soccer league, cries after watching Mexico lose to the Netherlands in the World Cup on Sunday. ‘It hurts a lot,’ Aguilar said. ‘Mexico is where I come from. The hurt is from my heart.’ LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Home team
heartache By Robert Nott The New Mexican
T
he Dutch may have been cheering wildly in Fortaleza, Brazil, on Sunday when the Netherlands’ Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored his team’s winning goal in Sunday’s World Cup game against Mexico, but in Santa Fe, Tomas Aguilar hung his head and cried. “It hurts a lot,” Aguilar said Sunday morning at the city’s Municipal Recreational Complex on Caja del Rio Road, where about 20 men watched the game play out on a 42-inch flat-screen TV adjacent to the complex’s soccer field. “Mexico is where I come from. The hurt is from my heart.” Mexican national Cesar Vernal, who organized the screening, summed it up in two words: “Terrible. Awful.” But just 40 minutes earlier, the small crowd of Santa Fe soccer players and fans, many of whom played in a match themselves earlier that morning, expressed joy and pride as Mexico’s Giovani dos Santos scored Mexico’s first and only goal around the 47-minute mark in the second half of the game. At halftime, the recreational complex crowd was predicting with confidence that Mexico would hold the lead. The men and teens watching animatedly spoke of the way their team had kept possession of the ball, gaining more shots at the Netherlands’ goal. That the Mexican team missed a number of opportu-
nities during that first half did not discourage the fans, although now and again, some of them smashed empty plastic water bottles against their heads in mock frustration. As the World Cup plays out on television screens worldwide, soccer fever runs high everywhere. But in Santa Fe County, where more than 50 percent of the residents are Hispanic or Latino — according to 2012 census data — a win for Mexico would have been a boon for cultural pride and national spirit. Victor Campos, a Santa Fean from Zacatecas, Mexico, said it is important for the world to see Mexico present itself well in the World Cup. Watching the team battle Cameroon, Brazil and Croatia to get a shot against the Netherlands and the chance to move forward to the quarterfinal stage, he said, left a lot of Mexico’s fans “emotional about each game.” Bernal, who manages the city’s La Liga soccer league, comprising about 70 teams of men and women, said the league postponed its regular 10 a.m. match Sunday to watch Mexico play. He estimated that about 60 percent of his league’s players are from Mexico, and another 30 percent are from South American countries. The men gathered around the television set under a tent attached to Luis Ortiz’s food truck. Ortiz, who is from Guatemala, said every nation takes pride in World Cup matches. “Soccer is the most important sport in the world,” he said. “Baseball is only for the USA. Football is only for
For soccer fans in Santa Fe, Mexico’s loss, World Cup elimination was difficult to watch the USA. But soccer is continental.” That the match turned so quickly in the Netherlands’ favor so late in the game seemed to throw everyone at the field. With just a few minutes to go in regular time, the Netherlands’ Wesley Sneijder scored a goal, evening the score. Shortly thereafter, Mexico was penalized after player Rafael Márquez brought down the Netherlands’ Arjen Robben in the penalty zone, giving Huntelaar the chance to make the winning goal via a penalty kick. Within seconds of the match’s end, the TV at the field was turned off and unplugged, and the men returned to the field. There was a soccer game to play. Later in the day, Bernal said he was feeling a little bit better about the loss. “You win some and you lose some,” he said. But Aguilar, overcome with grief, said he could not come up with the words to express his disappointment, or what the loss means to fans of the Mexican team. “Our team played good. They could have taken it. That last penalty didn’t seem fair,” he said. Mexico’s coach, Miguel Herrera, agreed and argued after the match that Mexico was robbed by the referee’s call. Mexico is now out of the World Cup. The Netherlands will play Costa Rica, which defeated Greece in a match Sunday afternoon, in the quarterfinals. Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.
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Santa Fe Bandstand Railyard Reunion Band, bluegrass/country, noon-1 p.m.; James Carothers and The Renegade Mountain Band, 6-7 p.m.; modern-country artist Simon Balkey, 7:15-8:45 p.m.; the Plaza, no charge, visit santafebandstand.org for the summer series schedule. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
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By James M. Keller The New Mexican
S
ome operas pretty much take care of themselves dramatically, but others need serious help from their stage directors. In the latter category falls Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, a four-character comedy that does not always display inherent clarity as it unfurls around its single, malicious practical joke. Laurent Pelly’s new production, which opened on Saturday night at The Santa Fe Opera, is desperate to show everyone a good time, but it does not make this opera more lovable in the process. Jam-packed with sight gags and silly walks, its lowbrow approach evokes the aesthetics of a sitcom, although in this case a sitcom that would have little chance of progressing beyond a pilot episode. The punching bag in this tale is Don Pasquale, an aging bachelor who is preventing his nephew Ernesto from marrying the young widow Norina. He decides to get married himself, and his friend Dr. Malatesta rigs up a scheme whereby Don Pasquale will be mock-wedded to Malatesta’s sister (introduced as Sofronia, just out of the convent). Once married, she will make his life miserable, he will be eager to escape the marriage and this will pave the way for Ernesto to marry Norina, who has been masquerading as Sofronia. “Why is Dr. Malatesta so angry at Don Pasquale that he would do this?” asked some novice operagoers who were accompanying a friend of mine for the evening. Why, indeed? And, I would add after enduring this production, why should we care if Ernesto and Norina get together or not, as they are presented independently as unlikeable characters and we never see them demonstrate affection for each other until strikingly late in the game? I am not a partisan of having dumb shows acted
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Richard Joseph Baca
Index
‘Pasquale’ a kind of rom-com, Italian style
Classifieds B-6
Mayor’s transition team sees room for improvement in IT Report recommends department take steps to run more efficiently By Daniel J. Chacón
The New Mexican
When a network cable at Santa Fe City Hall is frayed, an employee in the Information Technology and Telecommunications Department will replace it. Ideally, the department also would examine cables in every
Comics B-12
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035
Crosswords B-7, B-11
IT area of the city government at least once a year, as well as set aside funding for replacements. The example illustrates how the department currently functions in a silo rather than as a comprehensive program utilizing best practices, according to a report from one of the nine groups of Mayor Javier Gonzales’ transition team. “While far from being exemplary, IT at the [city of Santa Fe] is not in immediate danger of catastrophic failure,” the group that examined the city’s information
Life & Science A-9
El Nuevo A-7
Opinions A-11
eDITOR’S NOTe u This is the final article in The New Mexican’s series on Mayor Javier Gonzales’ 140-page transition team report. Find all of the transition team stories online at www.santafenewmexican.com.
technology concluded in its report. “The fundamental deficiency of the program is its lack of inherent discipline required to stand up a high quality, efficient IT program.
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From left, Alek Shrader portrays Ernesto, and Andrew Shore stars in the title role in Don Pasquale. COURTESY KEN HOWARD/THE SANTA FE OPERA
Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 181 Publication No. 596-440