AMLO's erklärungsproblem: PAN-PRD alliance in Mexico draws broad support

AMLO continues his tireless quest to sink the PAN-PRD alliance in Mexico State, denouncing the top PRD leadership as in cahoots with Calderón and utterly unrepresentative of the party as a whole, which he claims is universally rejecting a PAN-PRD common candidate.


Yet this weekend, the state branches of the PRD and PAN in Mexico State held their first mass meeting to debate the possible alliance, which also attracted a considerable contingent of PT and Convergencia supporters. The leadership of the these two parties had actually earlier announced their presence in the event, held in Nezahualcóyotl, but pressure from AMLO very likely forced them to desist from attending. 


The Mexico State rumor mill has it that quite a few cadres from at least Convergencia are actually keen to join the PRD-PAN alliance, even though Convergencia n Friday presented Alejandro Gertz Manero, who was President Vicente Fox' first Secretary of Public Security, as its own candidate. In attendance was also Gabino Cué, the Convergencia candidate who won the Oaxaca gubernatorial elections heading an alliance that also included PAN, though Cué notably distanced himself from the leadership in that event, making it clear that he supports a PAN-PRD alliance in Mexico State.


Similarly , the PAN-PRD event yesterday also drew another highly popular alliancistas , the highly popular Xóchitl Gálvez, who most recently ran as gubernatorial candidate in Hidalgo, elections whose outcome are still disputed (The PT, to be sure, also backed her, until AMLO then commanded the party to desist).


All in all I think it is fair to say that AMLO's claim that the supporters of a PAN-PRD alliance are only found at the very top echelon of the PRD, is simply not true. In Mexico State, given the increasing support for a common candidate to beat the PRI, he has, in fine German, an erklärungsproblem.

For all intents and purposes, it's official: Calderón's sister Luisa María wants to govern Michoacán

It was ostensibly a mere celebration of her 54th birthday, but the cries of “¡Cocoa gobernadora!, ¡Cocoa gobernadora!" left little doubt that event held in honor of Luisa María Calderón Hinojosa was all but an official declaration of her candidacy to be PAN's candidate for governor of Michoacán in 2011. 


A range of federal and local deputies were in attendance, as well as the three federal secretaries (Economy, Bruno Ferrari; Health, José Ángel Córdova Villalobos; Environment, Juan Rafael Elvira Quezada) and the governors of Guanajuato and Morelos, Juan Manuel Oliva Ramírez and Marco Antonio Adame Castillo, though also prominent local priístas, stoking further suspicions that Calderón's ambitions to place his sister as governor of this home state is leading to local alliances with the Michoacán PRI state branch. 

Yet the festivities came to a an abrupt end with the news that Eduardo Villaseñor Meza, a local PRI notable, was hit and killed by a truck as he was leaving the party.