Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Governor Zeferino Torreblanca of Guerrero is a very, very angry man

Days after the PRD made official its expected postulation of Ángel Aguirre as its candidate for governor in Guerrero, outgoing governor Zeferino Torreblanca amply demonstrated that he is very angry with the postulation. Torreblanca has been a very controversial governor of Guerrero, and appointed very few PRD cadres to important government positions, yet now declared, ahead of the very likely declaration that PAN (of little presence in Guerrero) will also line up behind Ángel Aguirre, that a PRD-PAN alliance is "a corporation" formed by "bandits, mercenaries, poisoners and cynics that are leaving with bags full of money," and launches a long tirade against the PRD.

Why so angry? The real reason is that Torreblanca's anointed one, Armando Ríos Piter, failed to make the cut in the poll that the PRD arranged to measure support for its precandidates, and the party thus chose Ángel Aguirre Rivero, until now a PRI senataor, as its gubernatorial candidate. In Mexican politics, there is little that angers outgoing governors more than failing to install their chosen successor. Expect Torreblanca to back Manuel Añorve Baños, the PRI candidate, in retaliation.

Torreblanca is not the only one to criticize the PAN-PRD alliances. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas yet again noted his opposition, as he declared this and other possible alliances in 2011 a "failure" and "a step backward." This is a position he shares with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, his one-time political godson, and former president Vicente Fox.

No comments:

Post a Comment