The national presidents of PRD and PAN, Jesús Ortega and César Nava respectively, signed a "letter of intent" where the parties committed to maintain an electoral alliance for the upcoming gubernatorial elections in Nayarit, regardless of whether the candidate will be a perredista or panista.
PRD has a very strong card: Federal deputy Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, a very congenial man who tends to be popular with most everyone and has moreover a reputation as an effective leader. Acosta Naranjo was just granted a leave of absence from the Chamber of Deputies, and has already started criss-crossing the state, which will hold elections July 3, 2011.
However, the wife of former governor Antonio Echavarría, Martha Elena García, also a PRD deputy, has declared she will also run for the nomination. To recall, PRD ran Nayarit 1999-2005, when AMLO enticed Antonio Echavarría to dump the PRI to join the PRD and run for governor under a broad alliance that also included the PAN - yes, the party that AMLO is now loudly declaring it is impossible to ally with anywhere at all given "principled differences." AMLO has, of course, opposed a PAN-PRD alliance in Nayarit in 2011. Of course, since 1999, much water has run under the bridge, such as the 2006 elections, which AMLO claims cheated him from victory. To be upset at PAN for 2006 is of course quite understandably, if you truly believe a fraud took place. Yet claiming "principled differences" is just pure hypocrisy, given AMLO's promotion of the previous PAN-PRD alliance in Nayarit.
Note that Martha Elena García already in 2005 wanted to become governor to succeed her husband - which should make alarm bells of nepotism ring loudly. The kicker: She was then not a PRD member, nor a PRI member, but sought the PAN nomination (!) - only the arch-opportunistic party Convergencia backed her candidacy then, which she desisted from, and renounced from the PAN. Her PRD credentials are, to put it mildly, wafer thin. Yet don't be surprised if AMLO backs her nomination: Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, a man who has never been a PRI or PAN member yet with a life-long pedigree on the political left, is also a member of the social-democratic PRD faction Nueva Izquierda, which AMLO loathes.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
AMLO: Calderón lies about Chàvez ties. He is probably right
According to leaked cable 231175, part of the Wikileaks cache, Calderón expressed worry to the United States that Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez was financing AMLO's and PRD's campaign - and as late as October 2009, reiterated fears of Venezuelan meddling in Mexican politics
To recall, during the 2006 electoral campaign this was turned into open swift boat-style campaign ads, where AMLO was deemed a "Danger to Mexico" with images of Chávez imposed. According to AMLO, "Calderón is a pathological liar." I am hard pressed to object. Absolutely no evidence has ever surfaced that the PRD or AMLO received as much as a bolivar in support from Chávez: It was a lie then, and it remains a lie today.
Yet why would Calderón still suggest this to the U.S. embassy? Two alternatives - you make your pick:
(Not that anyone should be forced to prove a negative - "prove to me that God did not create the earth in six days" - it think the Chávez-AMLO link is most easily dismissed from the fact that AMLO cares absolutely nothing at all about foreign relations, and hasn't the slightest interest in other leftwing governments of the region. One anecdote: During the infamous desafuero, or where Fox disgraced himself by trying to keep AMLO out of the presidential contest, then-ambassador from Brazil and a major big shot in the Brazilian PT wanted to hand over a letter to AMLO where Lula expressed his strong support for AMLO, yet AMLO didn't even take the time to meet him. Another story: When Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Mexico a few months back, AMLO didn't even take time off from his nth "tour-of-every-municipality" to meet him, because frankly, he doesn't give a damn.)
To recall, during the 2006 electoral campaign this was turned into open swift boat-style campaign ads, where AMLO was deemed a "Danger to Mexico" with images of Chávez imposed. According to AMLO, "Calderón is a pathological liar." I am hard pressed to object. Absolutely no evidence has ever surfaced that the PRD or AMLO received as much as a bolivar in support from Chávez: It was a lie then, and it remains a lie today.
Yet why would Calderón still suggest this to the U.S. embassy? Two alternatives - you make your pick:
1) Calderón truly believed Chávez was backing AMLO financially, and the Wikileaks as such merely reflect this fear.
2) Calderón did know this claim was false, yet still wanted the United States to believe Chávez was backing AMLO; the Wikileaks cable as such really reflects that Calderón wanted the U.S to hear.
(Not that anyone should be forced to prove a negative - "prove to me that God did not create the earth in six days" - it think the Chávez-AMLO link is most easily dismissed from the fact that AMLO cares absolutely nothing at all about foreign relations, and hasn't the slightest interest in other leftwing governments of the region. One anecdote: During the infamous desafuero, or where Fox disgraced himself by trying to keep AMLO out of the presidential contest, then-ambassador from Brazil and a major big shot in the Brazilian PT wanted to hand over a letter to AMLO where Lula expressed his strong support for AMLO, yet AMLO didn't even take the time to meet him. Another story: When Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Mexico a few months back, AMLO didn't even take time off from his nth "tour-of-every-municipality" to meet him, because frankly, he doesn't give a damn.)
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