AMLO: No more talk of my candidacy.

As anticipated, AMLO´s declaration two years ahead of 2012 that he would see the presidency resulted in complaints that he was breaching electoral law, which after the 2007 electoral reform only allows for three months of "pre-campaigning." AMLO dismissed the complaint in a quasi-legalistic and fallacious manner, arguing it only applies to candidates of parties. Hence, since AMLO is not yet a candidate of a particular party, he argues he has every right in the world to campaign two years ahead.
Again, even if this were the case, legally speaking - and I am quite certain it is not -  it also shows an utter disrespect for the spirit of the law. Regardless, the criticism must have had some impact, as he recently declared on tour in Zacatecas (to back up his candidacy, to be sure, but disguised as "book promotion) that he would "not talk any more of his candidacy¨.".I am not holding my breath.

Peña Nieto and the church

Mexico State Governor Enrique Peña Nieto recently declared that his government and the (catholic) church has “common objectives.” That is putting it mildly. For years Peña Nieto has shamelessly courted the support of the religious right, jumping on its most regressive of social positions. I say shamelessly not principally due to the utter incongruence with the PRI’s historic secularism and reticence toward mixing religion and politics (though much of this did, to be sure, come to an end during the government of Carlos Salinas), but his breaching of electoral law to announce his love for the church. The most infamous that comes to mind is Peña Nieto's trip to the Vatican, duly covered by Televisa, where he "presented" to the pope his new wife-to-be, Angélica Rivera, and where functionaries of Mexico State lined up to get the pope´s blessing.  

Expect more expressions of love from Peña Nieto's faction of PRI to the church in the months to come. 

(His first wife died under what still appear to be rather unclear circumstances. Without exaggerating this point, it is worth having a look at this video clip, where he can´t seem to recall her exact cause of death).