Four-and-a-half billion pesos: PRI left massive debt in state of Sinaloa

Yet another PRI governor leaves his state with a crushing debt:

Jesús Aguilar Padilla was the PRI governor of Sinaloa from 2005-2010; indeed, until position coalition candidate Mario López Valdez (Malova) won the Sinaloa gubernatorial election last summer, the state  had never switched hands from PRI.

Malova's administration now reveals that Aguilar Padilla left the state with debts of more than 4.5 billion pesos, in addition to a budget deficit of half a billion pesos.

The debts puts the state's finance in danger of collapse, according to Armado Villarreal Ibarra, secretary of state finances.

Aguirre promises 60% of positions for PRD, and will join the party

Ángel Aguirre Rivero, governor-elect of Guerrero, appeared at the national council meeting of PRD this weekend, where he even declared he would join the party as a member - in contrast to outgoing Governor Zeferino Torreblanca, a businessman who ran as a PRD candidate yet neither joined the party or in the end governed according to its principles. 

As for Aguirre, his statements seemed to go against those who merely dismissed his victory as one for the PRI and not the PRD, given Aguirre´s admittedly very recent membership in the party. Like scores of politicians before him, he ditched the party when it failed to nominate him for its gubernatorial candidate. 

Yet Aguirre declared that 60 percent of the government positions would go to the PRD, including the crucial portfolios of Attorney General; secretary of health; and secretary of social development. 

More important still, he made it emphatically clear that he will back the PRD in 2012 (despite his earlier friendship with Enrique Peña Nieto), whoever will win the party´s nomination. 

Martha Dalia Gastélum : Marcelo Ebrard's candidate for the PRD presidency

Martha Dalia Gastélum declared her interest in the presidency of the PRD this weekend. This would not be a bad for the party, and would be quite logical in several ways: She is identified today with the relatively new faction Izquierda Renovadora en Movimiento, which responds to Marcelo Ebrard, and as such is not tied directly to either the AMLO camp or the Ortega camp.

Gastélum was earlier part of the social-democratic faction Foro Nuevo Sol, but left/was expelled from FNS when she did not support the candidacy of Alejandro Encinas to be president of the PRD, back in March 2008. On a personal note, I also had the chance to have a long interview with her around that time for a couple of hours, and she struck me as a most reasonable person, highly analytical, and very balanced.

 Expect AMLO's people to oppose her strongly, though - while not belonging to Ortega's group, she did run with him in 2008 as candidate for secretary general. And more important: If Ebrard can have her elected PRD president, it will be a big boost for his quest to be the PRD's 2012 candidate.