Sunday, July 17, 2011

Doña Ifigenia Martínez: More dangerous that PAN continues than PRI returns

Ifigenia Martínez is a grand dama in many ways. She was the first woman to hold a range of offices in Mexico - all the time while a priísta - such as ambassador to the United Nations, and graduated as an economist with a master's from Harvard - the first mexicana to do so. On a personal note: I also had the chance to interview her at lengths a couple of years back, and found her a most wonderful and endearing lady, who was very sharp, but from whom it was nearly impossible to extract a straight answer to any of my questions. I found it remarkable that someone of her age and position would be so guarded.

With the years, Doña Ifigenia notably returned to active politics, and is now a federal deputy for the PT, or Workers Party, often considered a more "radical" party than the PRD. In an interview she said she regards the PRI's return as much less of a threat than a continued rule of the PAN.

I find this baffling, and not only given the macroeconomic indicators, where most every study I've read suggests the christian-democratic PAN has been far more successful in alleviating poverty than the PRI:
As a founder of the Corriente Democrática, a progressive current within the PRI that included Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Porfirio Múnoz Ledo that eventually ditched the PRI to later form the PRD, her preference for the PRI over PAN is even more perplexing and, might one add, disappointing.

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