Thursday, February 10, 2011

Ortega calls out Cárdenas and López Obrador for hypocrisy on electoral alliances

In a lengthy interview with El Universal, which makes for highly interesting reading, PRD national president Jesús Ortega has this to say regarding the electoral alliances the PRD under his leadership made with the PAN:
Here is where they think that one may lose one's principles making alliances of this nature. But el ingeniero (Cuauhtémoc) Cárdenas didn't lose his principles when we made an early alliance with the PAN in San Luis Potosi. Andrés Manuel (López Obrador) didn't lose his when we made early alliances with sectors of the PRI. I did not initiate the alliances with PAN; the first were in San Luis, Durango, Coahuila, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Chiapas. Since when did the PAN became a right-wing party  -since I became president of the PRD? That is ridiculous. Andrés says that  the PAN was formed to fight general (Lázaro) Cárdenas, yes, but why can't he remember when we made an alliance with Salvador Nava, who was from the PAN, and why doesn't he remember when he celebrated the triumph of Pablo Salazar or Toño Echevarria? [PAN-PRD alliance candidates in Chiapas and Nayarit]
Because that would completely contradict his discourse.

Coahuila opinion polls: Massive lead for PRI

The gubernatorial election in Coahuila (as in Nayarit and Mexico State) are almost five months away, so take these polls for what they're worth:




































Of note, obviously, the enormous advantage of Rubén Moreira, the brother of Humberto, who just took a leave of absence to become the PRI's national party president-elect. Yet also, the very small support for PRD and the PT vis-a-vis PAN, which strongly suggests that should an alliance be made, it seems far more logical that it would be headed by a panista. Jesús González Schmall, who is promoted by AMLO, barely registers with less than a percentage point; PAN Senator Guillermo Anaya Llamas pulls at this point nearly 16 percent.

L'affaire Aristegui draws international attention

While I'm happy that BBC would cover something else than Mexico's narco killings, I'd wish it to be on something more positive than the possible persecution of a journalist.

As the venerable British network reports in a very balanced piece,
"some columnists saying her sacking raises questions about the freedom of the media in Mexico.But others have said that the allegations about Mr Calderon are malicious lies."
There are indeed two very different issues meshed together here, as Héctor Aguilar Camín also noted in his column yesterday:

1) The company fires a worker for having broken their own ethics code, "reporting a rumour as fact"
2) The presidency of Felipe Calderón forced her company to fire her.

The firing of Arisegui was really stupid, and in my eyes a far too harsh of a reaction in any case. But that is something utterly different than whether the station fired her because of pressure from the Mexican federal authorities. Clearly, if Calderón's men put pressure on MVS radio to do so, it would be an outrageous scandal, which should result in serious consequences for the administration.

Yet does any evidence exist that MVS received orders from Calderón to fire Aristegui?

Too quickly, too many have immediately sought to jump on this very serious allegation, not needing a drop of evidence other than their own suspicions. I personally find it unlikely that he would take such a drastic step that, if uncovered, would likely drastically damage his public standing, not to speak of his legacy. Maybe I am too naive, but maybe those who regard this as a deliberate attack on the freedom of the media are also a bit too conspiratorial.

Fox can't keep his mouth shut: "Venezuela facilitates narco trafficking"

Calderón doesn't exactly have swell relations with Venezuela - as the Wikileaks have demonstrated, he maniacally sought to convince the United States that AMLO was funded by Hugo Chávez, which was of course utter nonsense - but statements like these by ex-President Vicente Fox certainly don't help either: On visit in the Dominican Republic, he claimed, without as far as I can see offering a shred of evidence, that the government of Venezuela is facilitating (facilitar, even "helping" or "promoting") drug trafficking.

If you have evidence, Chente, cough it up. If not, ¡Cállate Chachalaca¡