PRD, as part of its "refoundation" process, opted months ago to ditch its old membership registry, wildly bloated and outdated, with a new membership drive that had as its main goal to attract 1.8 million new members.
The party is actually well on its way as the campaign, started last summer, has signed up 1.128 million members, of which 64 percent are new. The party has reached and even superseded its goals in 318 municipalities.
Yet there are also a few worrisome trends for the party:
-55 percent of its members are concentrated in Mexico City and Mexico state
- In seven states, including two where gubernatorial elections will be held this year, the party has barely signed up 2,000 supporters: Baja California Sur (run by PRD!), Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Colima, Chihuahua, Campeche, and Baja California (North).
Also interesting to note: The average age of its members is 41 years, and 64 percent are women.
The campaign will resume in January, and run until May.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Mexico at its very worst: An incident in Cancún and the Mexican Green Party
So you have a case of a young man, Free Bronkhorst, a foreigner to add, who is being physically attacked by another man, Iván Ferrat Mancera, in Cancún, on Oct. 11 in 2009. Video cameras capture the incident, which seemingly show Ferrat Mancera and a companion as the the initial aggressors.
(Bronkhorst´s family and friends has uploaded the videos on youtube.com, and runs an advocacy Web site for Free)
Yet what happens? Ferrat Mancera, as it turns out, is the brother of Alain Ferrat Mancera, head of the local branch of the Mexican Green Party (PVEM) and - I am not making this up - the local city councilor for tourism! - and Bronkhurst, a Dutch national, is the one ending up in jail, where he will spend the next 14 months.
Bronkhurst, finally, was just released around Christmas, after paying a 163,000-peso bail, yet he might return to the dock should the Ferrat Mancera family appeal the verdict.
I certainly do not know the details in this case, but let´s pose the question: Does anyone think that the fact that Iván Ferrat Mancera is the brother of a powerful PVEM politician, had nothing to do with the fact that Bronkhurst, rather than Iván, ended up rotting in a Cancún jail?
(Bronkhorst´s family and friends has uploaded the videos on youtube.com, and runs an advocacy Web site for Free)
Yet what happens? Ferrat Mancera, as it turns out, is the brother of Alain Ferrat Mancera, head of the local branch of the Mexican Green Party (PVEM) and - I am not making this up - the local city councilor for tourism! - and Bronkhurst, a Dutch national, is the one ending up in jail, where he will spend the next 14 months.
Bronkhurst, finally, was just released around Christmas, after paying a 163,000-peso bail, yet he might return to the dock should the Ferrat Mancera family appeal the verdict.
I certainly do not know the details in this case, but let´s pose the question: Does anyone think that the fact that Iván Ferrat Mancera is the brother of a powerful PVEM politician, had nothing to do with the fact that Bronkhurst, rather than Iván, ended up rotting in a Cancún jail?
10 years of PAN governments: INEGI figures offer damning indictments
On their face value, I find CEESP's numbers to appear too high, yet the main point from INEGI's figures is clear: Calderón has presided over a big jump in the number of people working in the informal sector, following a trend by President Vicente Fox (up 1.73 million) before him.
Regarding actual unemployment, in a La Jornada article along the same lines, calculations indicate that unemployment quadrupled in the 10 years of PAN rule: 2.6 million with no unemployment, and a further 5.4 million who, in INEGI's categorization, have "desisted" or basically given up on seeking formal work.
Those underemployed, according again to INEGI, rose from 3 million to 3.7 million.
The moniker "Presidente del Empleo" has long since turned into a joke. Following INEGI's statistics, it appears an increasingly cruel one.
Even ambulances are politics: Egidio Torre, brother of murdered candidate Rodolfo, assumes as governor:
Egidio Torre Cantú, who took over as PRI candidate for governor in Tamaulipas when his brother Rodolfo Torre Cantú was murdered, also assumed as governor today - a whopping six months after the election.
During his election campaign, before his murder, Rodolfo had promised to provide a range of new ambulances to various municipalities in Tamaulipas, and Egidio made this a key event of his assumption, displaying on huge screens a caravan of 42 brand new units.
New ambulances - all well and good, to be sure, but did the actual ambulances really have to be painted in the far from subtle PRI colors?
In Mexico, I was early bemused over how one can quite easily tell the political party in power in each state due to the design of car license plates, who almost invariably are designed in the colors of the respective parties holding power. But really, did Egidio Torre Cantú really need to politicize even ambulances?
During his election campaign, before his murder, Rodolfo had promised to provide a range of new ambulances to various municipalities in Tamaulipas, and Egidio made this a key event of his assumption, displaying on huge screens a caravan of 42 brand new units.
New ambulances - all well and good, to be sure, but did the actual ambulances really have to be painted in the far from subtle PRI colors?
In Mexico, I was early bemused over how one can quite easily tell the political party in power in each state due to the design of car license plates, who almost invariably are designed in the colors of the respective parties holding power. But really, did Egidio Torre Cantú really need to politicize even ambulances?
The face of the "New PRI"? Guerrero gubernatorial campaign turns ever uglier
Cars and trucks circulating, many without license plates, filled with youngsters paid to create havoc: In Guerrero, ahead of the gubernatorial election this month, this is sadly the face of the state PRI chapter and/or the campaign of PRI candidate Manuel Añorve Baños, which has seemingly paid thugs to tear down and rob election material - posters, banners, etc - belonging to the candidate of the left coalition, Ángel Aguirre Rivero. The PRD-PT-Convergencia coalition is also accusing the Añorve campaign of exceeding campaign spending limits, including contracting helicopters, and of having a massive media presence.
Quite likely, current governor Zeferino Torreblanca, while elected on a PRD platform, is doing all he can, legally and not, to back Añorve, given Torreblanca's highly public and bitter break with the PRD when the party refused to allow him to appoint the party's candidate to succeed him.
Things are heating up in Guerrero ahead of the Jan. 30 elections - the first ones in 2011. While opinions polls are well guarded, Añorve and Aguirre appear to be quite tied, with Aguirre slightly ahead.
Quite likely, current governor Zeferino Torreblanca, while elected on a PRD platform, is doing all he can, legally and not, to back Añorve, given Torreblanca's highly public and bitter break with the PRD when the party refused to allow him to appoint the party's candidate to succeed him.
Things are heating up in Guerrero ahead of the Jan. 30 elections - the first ones in 2011. While opinions polls are well guarded, Añorve and Aguirre appear to be quite tied, with Aguirre slightly ahead.
A historic day in Sinaloa: Malova assumes as governor on the first day of 2011
It's a historic day in Sinaloa: 82 decades of PRI hegemony ended today with the assumption of Mario López Valdez, better known as "Malova," as governor.
True, and lest we forget Malova is an ex-priìsta who remains close to PRI´s 2000 presidential candidate, Francisco Labastida, a fellow sinaloense, but his assumption of power nonetheless represents a significant break with the old PRI structures that have maintained control of the state since 1929. This was only possible due to a very broad opposition alliance led by PAN and the PRD.
Here´s a useful interview El Universal made with Malova a couple of days back.
True, and lest we forget Malova is an ex-priìsta who remains close to PRI´s 2000 presidential candidate, Francisco Labastida, a fellow sinaloense, but his assumption of power nonetheless represents a significant break with the old PRI structures that have maintained control of the state since 1929. This was only possible due to a very broad opposition alliance led by PAN and the PRD.
Here´s a useful interview El Universal made with Malova a couple of days back.
AMLO´s candidate in Mexico State made up holocaust story
AMLO's choice as his candidate for governor in Mexico State, Yeidckol Polevnsky, has been criticized for a range of reasons, most obviously that she lost badly in her previous attempt (2005) and has minuscule chances of winning in 2011, but also for the reason that as federal senator, she has been very far from a champion of left causes, and has moreover displayed a range of what can only be described as personal failings. It was early revealed that Polevnsky had changed her name and lied about her family lineage, which still remains highly opaque to put it lightly, yet now a further v detail has come to light:
Luis Sánchez Jiménez, the leader of PRD in Mexico State and a former national deputy and mayor of Neza, claims that Polevnsky, in seeking to ingratiate herself with Mexico's Jewish community, made up a story that her grandparents died in the Holocaust.
I find there are few reasons to doubt this story; Sánchez Jiménez is, to use a quaint label, a most honorable man who enjoys great respect both within and outside the PRD, who, unlike Polevnsky and for that matter AMLO himself has an impeccable political trajectory within the political left.
(Let's not forget that AMLO remained a priísta during Mexico's fateful 1988 presidential election, only to later be convinced by Cuahutémoc Cárdenas to join what would become the PRD).
Yet to the leader of Mexico State's PRD chapter, enough is enough: The party is fed up with AMLO's attempt to force upon it Polevnsky as its candidate for governor. The recent revelation, as numerous others, further does not speak well of AMLO's judgment in his choice of Polevnsky as his anointed candidate.
Luis Sánchez Jiménez, the leader of PRD in Mexico State and a former national deputy and mayor of Neza, claims that Polevnsky, in seeking to ingratiate herself with Mexico's Jewish community, made up a story that her grandparents died in the Holocaust.
I find there are few reasons to doubt this story; Sánchez Jiménez is, to use a quaint label, a most honorable man who enjoys great respect both within and outside the PRD, who, unlike Polevnsky and for that matter AMLO himself has an impeccable political trajectory within the political left.
(Let's not forget that AMLO remained a priísta during Mexico's fateful 1988 presidential election, only to later be convinced by Cuahutémoc Cárdenas to join what would become the PRD).
Yet to the leader of Mexico State's PRD chapter, enough is enough: The party is fed up with AMLO's attempt to force upon it Polevnsky as its candidate for governor. The recent revelation, as numerous others, further does not speak well of AMLO's judgment in his choice of Polevnsky as his anointed candidate.
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