Sunday, January 16, 2011

Why PAN's party characteristics speak against Josefina Vázquez Mota 2012

Josefina Vázquez Mota would be a terrific candidate for PAN in 2012. Yet as Jorge Zepeda Patterson in an excellent column today argues, the PAN's own history and characteristics speak against her candidacy, and primarily because her name is Josefina and not José. A couple of cases in point

* PAN, despite its 72-year long history, has never had a woman governor
* PAN, despite its 72-year long history, has never had a woman party leader

And not to forget: In Calderón's government, of the 21 most important ministries and secretariats, only two are held by women.

PAN has still a very long way to grow off its born-with disease: Misogyny.

PRD-PT warn against arrival of "shock troops" in Baja California Sur gubernatorial election

Members of the alliance Sudcalifornia para Todos - the parties PRD and PT - warned against the arrival of "shock groups" in Baja California Sur ahead of the state's Feb. 6 gubernatorial election.

While we only have the assertions of mayoral candidates  Ricardo Gerardo Higuera and Antonio Agúndez Montaño that outside groups are coming to BCS to create havoc in the state, place, the recent violent events in Guerrero ahead of that state's election should certainly put one on alert that something similar might happen elsewhere.

Surreal development in Guerrero campaign: PRI admits attack, then backtracks

A most extraordinary development in the Guerrero gubernatorial campaign:

Ernesto Vélez Memije is a member of Manuel Añorve Baños' campaign to be governor of Guerrero. Following the brutal attack that left a key PRD member of the opposing campaign of Ángel Aguirre Rivero in a coma, Vélez appeared on television and admitted that the attackers were priístas, but alleged that the PRD member, Guillermo Sánchez Nava, had actually "provoked" the attackers.

(PRD's campaign manager, Jesús Zambrano, has presented what he argues is a leaked PRI plan to use violence to destabilize Guerrero and suppress vote participation ahead of the elections)

Sánchez Nava, to recall, caught a group of apparent PRI sympathizers tearing down election material for Aguirre; when he photographed them, they beat him unconscious.

The interview as such was extremely important, even though Vélez' main point was in essence "Yes, but he made us do it, and it is really his fault."

Then happened the strangest thing. Vélez later the same day obviously regretted what he said, and now argued that Mario Moreno Arcos, a PRD federal deputy, had enticed him to admit the PRI attack, offering him a position in a future Aguirre cabinet. Beatriz Paredes Rangel, the national PRI leader, to her discredit also went on the offensive to deny that the attackers were from the PRI.

This case stinks to heaven. It seems so utterly clear that Vélez is lying - the gist of the interview was an attack on the PRD - with his claim that he was pressured/bribed to say what he did. At the very least, it would mean that he accepted the bribe, then regretted - hardly something that speaks well of him.
But again: The interview was above all an attack on the PRD, and it seems clear that higher ups pushed him to come up with this pretty crazy and absolutely unbelievable cover story.

The worst part:

How can Beatriz Paredes Rangel, of whom one might expect more dignified behavior, subscribe to what is obviously an outright lie, and a poor one at that? Note that new PRI president Humberto Moreira has kept his mouth pretty much tightly shut; his handling of this, his first crisis as PRD national leader, speaks very poorly of his judgment, while his failure to clearly and immediately condemn the political violence speaks ill of his moral backbone.