According to Facebook, Peña Nieto is already a winner

I decided to get rid of my personal Facebook account for a variety of reasons, yet thought of checking the followers of a few likely candidates for 2012 before I bid farewell:

The figures, in terms of "Likes," were as follows:

Marcelo Ebrard: 1,377

Josefina Vázquez Mota: 2,106

AMLO: 14,106

Manlio Fabio Beltrones 20,490

Santiago Creel: No public profile

Juan Ramón de la Fuente: No public profile

And Enrique Peña Nieto......  276,760

(Calderón, by comparison: 104,817)

Wow. Even though internet is clearly not restricted to the middle and upper classes, it seems the Golden Boy has reached deeply into this segment already. An entire decade has passed since the PRI held power. Many may not have forgotten, but many new have come of Facebook-age since, and are more than ready to embrace the "new" PRI, which, judging by Peña Nieto's actual behavior in power, looks just like the old PRI.

A rare sight: AMLO and his youngest son, now a political debutante

A rare image indeed: AMLO and his youngest son. Jesús Ernesto is AMLO's three year and seven months-old son from his marriage with his second wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez, for his Toluca rally. Courtesy of Milenio

A candidate with no shame: Leonel Cota registers as PANAL candidate

The former president of PRD and before that governor of Baja California Sur, Leonel Cota, must surely be one of the most opportunistic and desperate political candidates in that state's history. After his candidacy for the sweet spot as municipal president of the tourism (and high income) paradise Los Cabos, Cota huffed and puffed and loudly abandoned the PRD. (Quick note: He was even before that, until 1998 a prominent PRI member, until he lost the election to be its gubernatorial candidate).

Then, Cota sought the nomination of the PRI-allied Green Party (PVEM) - an archenemy of the PRD, to be sure, and even AMLO found this postulation regrettable. Cota then moved on to seek the nomination of Convergencia, which in BCS rejected a common candidate with PRD and PT. Yet apparently these negotiations went awry. And what did Cota do?

He now just registered as a candidate of PANAL! That's right, the teacher union-based PANAL, another arch-enemy of the PRD and particularly Andrés Manuel López Obrador. PANAL, headed by the notorious "Jimmy Hoffa in a skirt" Elba Esther Gordillo, whose mobilization of teachers on behalf of Calderón in 2006 was a big contributing factor to PAN's victory.

So let's see: Leonel Cota, first of PRI, then PRD, then PVEM, then Convergencia, then PANAL.
His recent moves has cemented his legacy as one of the greatest sinvergüenzas to have ever passed by the PRD.

Ciro Gómez Leyva: "Will Moreno Valle throw Mario Marín in prison?"

Rafael Moreno Valle will finally assume as as governor of Puebla in a couple of week's time. In that regard, political commentator Ciro Gómez Leyva asks a very pertinent question: Will the new governor send Mario Marín in prison? Marín is probably one of the most reviled governors in recent Mexican history, and new information keep popping up: In Lydia Cacho's colum, this excellent journalist is revealing new information she has uncovered regarding the "Precious Governor": Marín apparently has set up his own aviation company through his son Mario Marín García, using public funds as well as those donated from other PRI bigshots like former governor of Quintana Roo, Joaquin Hendriks, crafts of which have been involved in, according to Cacho's sources in the DEA, at the very least transporting druglords and contraband, and possibly for smuggling young girls as part of pedophile and prostitution networks.
We only know fractions of the dirty dealings of this despicable governor: May more soon come to the light of day, and may Mario Marín end up rotting in prison.

AMLO's 10 Commitments. Mexico State tour completed; new one to start soon.

For all those who might have harbored a suspicion that AMLO might be bluffing  - he never does - with his earlier announcement that he would back a separate candidate in the upcoming Mexico State gubernatorial election, Sunday's rally in Toluca should lay these doubts to rest. Having completed yet another tour of Mexico State's 124 municipalities, the last one remaining was the state capital. Here, in front of a crowd of thousands of supporters, he announced his candidate will be chosen by a "poll." As it stands, the four choices appear to be Horacio Duarte (PRD), Alejandro Gertz Manero (Convergencia), Yeidckol Polenvsky (PRD), and Óscar González Yáñez (PT). The chosen one will need to literally sign on to AMLO's program - talk about candidate independence! - that he has deemed "10 Commitments." They are:

• Promote job creation
• Establish unemployment insurance
• Loans and grants for rural producers
• Meal centers/eateries
• Universal pension to elderly
• Medical care to people without social security
• Scholarships to students from poor education
• Construction and improvement of housing in deprived areas
• Programme of public services in poor neighborhoods
• Better roads and construction of three subway lines

As soon as the candidate is chosen - and this could be by opinion poll, a primary, or, in AMLO's conception of democracy, a public plebiscite of hand-raising - AMLO will hit the road again for another round of Mexico State's 125 municipalities. He is truly putting everything in this fight against his old party, and clearly believes that should a PAN-PRD candidacy, to which he is utterly opposed, come out winning, his chances at the 2012 presidency are shot.

Another 2012 candidacy declared: Fidel Herrera Beltrán

Not exactly a surprise, yet as far as I can see the first time outgoing Veracruz Governor Fidel Herrera Beltrán has said so himself: He wants to be a presidential candidate in 2012.

Herrera Beltrán dixit: "I am eligible; it remains to be known if I am the chosen one."

Indeed it does.