José Ángel Córdova Villalobos, a most reasonable guanajuatense

José Ángel Córdova, secretary of health, has long expressed interest in contending for the governorship of Guanajuato in 2012. Compared with most any other panista from Guanajuato, he comes across as a most reasonable man, in an interview in today's El Universal. On abortion, allowed in the Federal District:

Q: "Would you accept a law like in the Federal District?"

A: "In a given moment, if one governs, one governs for all, and laws are created by legislators, and one must respect the laws because we are a country of institutions."

Under the mantle of a "lesser evil" per excellance for the Yunque-infected, PAN-dominated state of Guanajuato: ¡Córdova, gubernador!

PRI's labor reform proposal not very credible.

PRI just presented its own labor reform proposal, which nominally appears to push the party far to the left on workers rights and compensation. 


Its main points, from Milenio:



My initial thoughts: Coming from a party that for decades only paid lip service to workers rights enshrined in the Mexican Constitution, and then in the 1980s and 90s together with the PAN did all they could to tear labor rights further apart in the name of the "free market" and "competitiveness," this proposal is simply not credible: Unless PRI's parliamentary group has suddenly made a sharp turn to the left, this reeks of electioneering, and little else. 

The caballada expands: Roberto Gil Zuarth registers for PAN leadership succession

The past weekend and week saw the additional registration for contenders for the PAN presidency of Senator Blanca Judith Díaz and Francisco Ramírez Acuña, former governor of Jalisco (2001-2006), briefly minister of the interior in Calderón's cabinet, and now a federal deputy. 


Yet it was the rather surprise announcement by Roberto Gil Zuarth yesterday that he would also seek the nomination that caused the greatest stir.  Roberto Gil Zuarth is considered quite a hot-shot in PAN and a quick riser - and he is barely 33 years old. Notably, former interior minister Fernando Gómez Mont, under which Gil served, accompanied him for his registration and declared he would consider returning to PAN, should Gil become its next president. Gómez Mont, to recall, loudly renounced from PAN over the electoral alliances with PRD, and then from the administration of Felipe Calderón this July. He has held a very low profile ever since. 


Until now, Senator Gustavo Madero and Ramírez Acuña have been considered the front runners, yet Gil appears closer to Calderón than any of them. 


There is one problem:  According to party rules, the party's national councilors, who will elect the president Dec 4-5, all need to have been members of at least five years of the party, and Gil only has about 2.5 years of membership in the PAN. His supporters retort that the rule only apply for councilors, and not the party president, and as such does not disqualify Gil. Yet  this is pretty disingenuous. Yes, the statutes may only stipulate the national councilors need five years of party membership and say nothing about the president, but a more plausible reading of this is simply that it would be even more unthinkable for a president to have less than five years militancy - after all, what is the logic of demanding it of the PAN council but not the president? Yet the time when PAN was a party that strictly adhered to the internal party rules or even obeyed the spirit of the statues, has long passed. To cite but the most obvious, Calderón himself blatantly intervened to  have his designates Germán Martínez and then César Nava appointed as party presidents.


In any event, should there be any doubt as to Calderón's preferences, Germán Martínez (2007-2009 PAN president) declared that Roberto Gil would represent calderonismo as well as post-calderonismo, as the tenure of head of PAN's excecutive committe would extend to 2013, after the presidential elections.  Ramírez Acuña and particularly Madero until now appeared the strongest contenders; now, many may place their money rather on Gil.

Santiago Creel, youtubeando

In a time were ever more Mexican politicians are youtubeando in order to try to circumvent  restrictions on "pre-campaigning" or the promotion of their political candidacies before the official start of the election season, Santiago Creel Miranda is the most recent addition to this practice. Creel is using YouTube to promote his money-laundering reform, in the process seeking to breathe life in a rather stagnant bid for PAN's nomination of presidential candidacy in 2012.

Beyond Creel's rather wooden appearance, the proposal at first hearing does seem to make quite sense to me, including a registrar for any transaction above 10,000 pesos, to combat organized crime.

AMLO's magical realism: "In 2006 we won by close to 10 percent... now we are going to win by 20 points"

I am not sure if it's correct to say that AMLO is getting ever more erratic and radical - the aftermath of the 2006 to me exposed him as a man who seemed incapable of accepting defeat. as well as any errors or his own making.


It is nonetheless striking to hear him today, four years after, when absolutely no serious academic study, no testimony, no evidence whatsoever has been presented that AMLO actually won in 2006, declare,

"I have my calculations and in 2006 we won with nearly 10 points, that was the extent of fraud that they did to us, and now we are going to win over them by 20 points because there are more people supporting us."

Where does this come from? Does he truly believe in what he is saying? I am not sure what is the most disconcerting, with regards to the future stability of Mexico's democracy - that he does, or that he doesn't.