Peña Nieto´s institutional engineering to block PAN-PRD alliances reaps growing storm

Enrique Peña Nieto's decision to send the Green Party (PVEM) to seek to block a PAN-PRD alliance in Mexico State, beyond yet again exposing the utter cynicism of the PVEM (which Jesús Ortega rightfully denounces as his "lackeys") is instructive for a range of reasons. Most obviously, it gives a hint at the lengths to which Peña Nieto is willing to go to get the presidency in 2012. To recall, just a few days ago he used the occasion of his fifth Informe to compare the alliances to organized crime. While Peña Nieto sheepishly backtracked and claimed he was not only "respectful" of the alliances buteven "favored" them, this recent legislative onslaught, condemned by national PAN and PRD leaders, may as Ciro Gómez Leyva commented in Milenio, be his "first error." I can think of quite a few more, though it certainly exposes Peña Nieto as a man willing to do anything to reach the presidency, and the "New PRI" he purports to represent as nothing different than the Old PRI. I hope this growing scandal will get the attention it deserves.