Fewer christians, more cristianos in Mexico

The percentage of what Mexicans call cristianos, meaning everything from mainstream protestant christians to evangelicals and snake-charming pentecostals, is rising:

Twenty years ago,  the percentage of non-catholic christians was 4.9; this figure has now risen to 7.6 percent, according to INEGI figures,  apparently to the detriment of the catholics, who now make out 83.9 as compared to 89.7 in 1980. That is at least the gist in this interesting El Universal article on the subject: They are simply better at the recruitment of new followers (or invest more man power: There are now almost two non-catholic pastors for every catholic priest, or around 21,000 to 40,000, according to the interior ministry).

From what I gather, this development also applies to other countries in Latin America, particularly in Central America, though I have also anecdotal evidence from Argentina: When I was doing field work for my doctoral dissertation there, my ninety-something old neighbor in Barrio Norte (where I happened to live in an apartment that belonged to the Guevara family) for months insisted on 1) helping me clean my kitchen, although she had never set foot inside, and 2) talking about her evangelical church, which I occasionally endured as she would now and then keep my interest by throwing in a Che (whom she referred to as el asesino) anecdote.

Calderón comment makes front pages: PAN open for non-party presidential candidate

It's quite a feat: Calderón made the front pages of La Jornada, Milenio, and El Universal today. The reason was this statement:

“From now on, I respectfully suggested that we all devote ourselves to see, in every electoral district, in every state, and in every elected office, who truly, a party member or not, can answert to the attribute of being the the best, because what is at stake is nothing less than the future of the country, and not only the future of the government of PAN."

One should not jump to the conclusion that PAN has decided to go for a non-party presidential candidate for the 2012 contest, and the declaration was really made in the general context of Calderón giving the "go!" for the 2012 presidential context.

Yet notable it is, regardless of how one looks at it, in particular with Gustavo Madero, the PAN's national leader, soon thereafter declaring that he will push for the party to change its internal rules so as to "open it up to the citizenry."

After Ernesto Cordero basically shot himself in the foot with his idiotic recent comment on how-to-survive-on-6000-pesos, does Calderón have a particular non-PAN candidate in mind?