Massive show of force in Guerrero: 40,000 show up for Ángel Aguirre's campaign launch

On Sunday, Acapulco was pretty much paralyzed as more than 40,000 sympathizers of Ángel Aguirre's campaign for governor swamped the city, from the three parties PRD, PT and Convergencia that make up the coalition Guerrero nos Une behind Aguirre. It was quite an impressive show of force, and demonstrates that Aguirre, despite having been a priísta until very recently, was a clever choice in order to try to maintain the state for the PRD.

Interesting as always who was there and who was not: Gabino Cué Monteagudo, governor-elect of Oaxaca, Alejandra Barrales, president of the Mexico City Legislative Assembly (ALDF), Luis Walton Aburto, national president of Convergencia, and of course Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, chief of government of Mexico City.

It is notable how Aguirre seeks to capitalize on the Ebrard connection and if not exactly ride on the coattails, definitely latch on to the extremely popular and highly successful programs initiated by Ebrard and his predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City, pledging to the crowd to copy Ebrard's programs such as school stipends, uniforms, and supplies; assistance to single mothers; medical assistance for the elderly, and so forth. Ebrard, of course, is equally using the occasion to promote his own candidacy, to seek to catch up on the 5-6 year head-start campaign advantage that AMLO has on him.
Ebrard dixit:

"Ángel Aguirre wants schools to have free uniforms and supplies for all the children of the state. We already did it in Mexico City; we handed over one million two hundred thousand uniforms per year, because all the children are equal. Because of this we are helping him, and we know he is going to honor his promises"

And who was not present? Andrés Manuel López Obrador. I cannot recall the last time AMLO and Ebrard shared a stage, and it will hardly happen in the near future as they are fighting out the battle for the presidential nomination of the left, through proxy wars in above all Mexico State, where AMLO virulently fights against any alliance with the PAN, while Ebrard is strongly backing it. In Guerrero, notably the left is united, and there is no alliance with PAN, which presents its own candidate, former mayo of Taxco Marcos Efrén Parra Gómez, PAN's only stronghold in the state. It would have been a powerful show of unity of the left had AMLO showed up to throw his considerable weight behind Aguirre, yet although he has let it be known that he backs Aguirre's candidacy, he will not campaign for any candidate that is not explicitly his own.