Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Leftist sectarianism a la mexicana

Gerardo Fernández Noroña is at it again. The rambunctious former spokesman for the PRD, who bailed his old party when his favored candidate Alejandro Encinas failed to win the party presidency in 2008, is a living manifestation of the sectarianism of the Mexican left. Now a diputado for PT, Noroña appearently threatened to "expose" what he claims to be shady property deals by PRD Vice Coordinator Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, if the PRD supports a proposal for a general value-added tax.


(Acosta Naranjo, to recall, is a noted member of Nueva Izquierda, the faction that currently controls the PRD's national secretariat). 


Beyond the accusations itself, which I find highly dubious given Noroña's credetials, what happened to the calls for unity on the Mexican left?


La Jornada puts its usual pro-AMLO, pro-Encinas, anti-Nueva Izquierda spin on the issue.
Yes, value-added tax on its own is regressive taxation that hurts the poor more than the rich, but the point is exactly what the added revenue generated by the IVA is used for. If it is used for extensive social programs, the whole picture changes regarding whether IVA is truly a "tax on the poor." Don't expect Noroña to capture this anytime soon.




AMLO: “La mafia que se adueñó de México… y el 2012"

I finally got to read through AMLO's new book, La mafia que se adueñó de México… y el 2012.
It is neither excessively long nor a tough read - as all of AMLO's books it's highly accessible.
I also would recommend it for several reasons. The writing is passionate, with wonderful descriptions of his travels through Mexico - AMLO has visited every single one of Mexico's municipalities - every 2456 of them, - probably a first in Mexican history. His passion for Mexico is heartfelt. AMLO also visited every one of Oaxaxa's districts of uso y costumbre, and his stories from Oaxaca are particularly stirring in their compassion for Mexico's poor.

Yet in my opinion one may also see glimpses of a darker side of López Obrador. He resolutely defends his rather extreme behavior during the 2008 petroleum reform, where he called upon thousands of his followers to literally seek to block the petroleum form, through keeping legislators out of congress, because the reform did not include 12 (or 17) words that he demanded to be inserted. In the book, he rather amazingly claims that had it not been for this mobilization, the entire petroleum industry would have been privatized, which defies belief. There is more than an element of delusions of grandeur here.

Other observations:
- He goes remarkably soft on Carlos Slim, despite being the richest man in Mexico.
  (see Denise Dresser's excellent "Open Letter to Carlos Slim" in Proceso.)
- He says nothing of the highly reactionary Mexican Catholic Church, this caste of elites that for centuries has done so much to block social progress in Mexico

And the clincher: One chapter section is entitled, "Who will be the candidate?" where he repeats the deal made with Marcelo Ebrard that the PRD (and presumably PT and Convergencia) will rally behind whoever is ahead in voting intentions, be it AMLO or Ebrard.

Yet mere weeks after book's publication, in what appears a panicked response to his failed predictions of carro completo for the PRI on July 4, he completely contradicted himself by stating that, no matter what, he's "going for 2012."

While he appeared to backtrack days later, I remain personally convinced that there is a higher likelyhood that hell will freeze over rather than AMLO declining in favor of Ebrard - or any other candidate of the left.

PRD history lesson from Senator Graco Ramírez

Given the heavy criticism from both AMLO and CC of the PRD-PAN alliances, it is worth recalling, as does PRD Senator Graco Ramírez, that both PRD ex-presidents also advocated them in the past.

While the alliances were certainly controversial within both parties, members of the PRD corriente or party faction Nueva Izquierda rightly criticized the two caudillos for opposing the alliances while doing nothing to help the PRD in the states where the party ran alone. AMLO, for his part, only campaigned for Senator Dante Delgado in Veracruz, where the founder and former president of Convergencia - and, to be sure, former priísta governor of Veracruz - only finished third.

Both AMLO and CC appeared convinced the aliances would fail spectacularly. In the end, only their predictions did.