Carmen Aristegui fired from MVS radio, likely for Calderón alcoholism rumours

Yesterday, MVS radio abruptly announced that Carmen Aristegui, a star of the network and one of the leading journalists in Mexico, was fired from her job. There was not even any "resignation-for-personal-reasons" dressing; MVS gave as reason that she "had broken the ethics code of the company."

It is very likely due to this statement, said after radical PT  and PRD deputies hung up a banner alluding to Felipe Calderón's rumored - with emphasis on rumored - alcoholism

"Really, the Presidency of the Republic itself should give clear, crisp, formal answer in this regard. There is nothing offensive  - it seems to me - when someone, if this is the case, is going through a problem of this kind... Does Felipe Calderón have a alcohol problem? Again, this deserves a serious response, formal and official from the Presidency of the Republic itself."

Without knowing much of this case or these rumors, as a matter of principle I tend to disagree with the logic of such statements. Why is the president forced to prove a negative - to prove something that he isn't? To put it this way: Following this logic, does he also have to prove he is not the flying spaghetti monster?

That said: Did Aristegui really deserve to be fired from saying what she did? I think not.

Marcos Covarrubias wins in Baja California Sur

With 97 percent of the PREP completed, Marcos Covarrubias has a 6.5-percent lead over the runner-up, PRI's Ricardo Barroso Agramont, and 40.22 of the vote total. Given that the PRD had run the state since 1999, the third place for its candidate Luis Armando Díaz is a tough defeat. Yet also from the PRI, which has now lost the first two state elections of 2011.

Both PAN and PRD have declared themselves the winner in Baja California Sur gubernatorial election

Both PAN and PRD have declared themselves the winner in Baja California Sur gubernatorial election.

Note that in this state election, exit polls were not allowed - so where they get their data from, only they must know. In the meantime, be sure to check out the PREP, which provides the preliminary results as they come in.

For the record: BCS is the least populated state in Mexico. It has been run by the PRD since 1999.

El Jefe Diego: Alliances are "political transvestism"

Now we know what "El Jefe Diego," or Diego Fernández de Cevallos, thinks about the PAN-PRD alliances: He recently described them as "political transvestism." In this, in perfect agreement with Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

When you know that the two arch-enemies Diego and AMLO are both against something... I'd say it is yet another signal that you might be doing the right thing.

PRD's aspiring candidates for mayor of Mexico City come out of the closet

It may regarded the official start of the campaign to be the PRD's mayoral candidate for Mexico City: Six prominent PRD members in Mexico City held their first public debate this Saturday. They were:

* Laura Velázquez, secretary of economic development
* Benito Mirón, secretary of work
* Armando Quintero, transport secretary
* Martí Batres, secretary of social development (and said to be AMLO's favorite)
* Mario Delgado, education (and said to be Ebrard's favorite)
* Alejandra Barrales, local deputy and head of the ALDF city legislature.

One dark-horse candidate mentioned increasingly the past weeks  as a back-up candidate by Ebrard did not participate: Manuel Mondragón y Kalb, head of public security.

With the possible exception of Mondragón, it seems fair to say that all of PRD's main hopefuls are now officially out of the electoral closet.

SME to Peña Nieto: Are you in or are you not?

SME, the Mexican Electricians Syndicate, has for a while openly flirted with the PRI and governor of Mexico State, Enrique Peña Nieto - this, despite the fact that mayor of Mexico City Marcelo Ebrard has been extremely tolerant - many will say too much so - with the union, which has shut down traffic in Mexico City and caused disturbances on countless occasions the past year or so.

Clearly, Martín Esparza has been trying to sell the SME to the highest bidder, and has no qualms about going to the PRI. However, after a march to Toluca, capital of Mexico State, by more than 10,000 esmeistas,  Esparza also declared that it is time for Peña Nieto to decide whether he is in on the bargain or not: The votes of SME, in return for his support for the creation of a new company the SME would control. Unless he received a favorable reply from Nieta, Esparza warned, "every one will vote according to one's own interests."

SME is, to be sure, free to advance its interests in any legal manner and seek support from whatever source it desires, yet it should by now be clear that Esparza is certainly not motivated by any ideological convictions, yet will sell himself to anyone if it will further his own interests and power.

I hope SME's ardent outside defenders take note.

Workers against worker: SME thugs attack CFE workers

I was about to write a post criticizing the SME when I saw that Ciro Gómez Leyva beat me to it, though using considerably harsher language than I would have utilized: The Milenio commentator refers to the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) and its leader Martín Esparza as "Blackshirts" and "Mussolini" respectively.

Gómez Leyva's point, for all its crude language and false comparisons, was nonetheless this: The SME are increasingly acting as pure thugs, utilizing violence against their detractors.

And the point I want to make: Their detractors are none else than... their fellow workers! Specifically, SME members, in a demonstration in the Reforma avenue in Mexico City,  spotted a group of workers from the CFE, a company that has taken over some of the duties from the now-extinct Luz y Fuerza company, whose workers SME had unionized. Several CFE workers had the living daylights beaten out of them, and some had to go to the hospital. The CFE, to recall, is a state company that was founded by President Lázaro Cárdenas back in the 1930s. CFE workers are affiliated with the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Electricistas de la República Mexicana (SUTERM).

If Esparza has condemned the violence committed by his men, it certainly has passed below my radar screen. The actions of the SME and their proclivity for violence has long been condemned by a range of actors; their utter hypocrisy in claiming to fight for workers rights while violently beating up other workingmen whose only crime is to have sought a job with the CFE, should equally be denounced.