Saturday, May 7, 2011

AMLO accepts Ebrard's proposal on candidate debates and time frames

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) accepted the proposal by Marcelo Ebrard to hold two debates in October, and then decide in Novemeber who should be the left's candidate in 2012. AMLO also reiterated that should Ebrard come out on top, he will back him.

One clear issue remains to be settled: While Ebrard wants a national poll to be held to determine who has the most support among the electorate, AMLO wants a primary open not only to PRD but to his Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional, or Morena movement. Herein, in this "detail," the devil lies.

Baja California: 22 years in prison for miscarriage, yet finally released

In Baja California, a woman was in 2008 sentenced to 22 years in prison for infanticide, or the killing of her baby, despite all evidence indicating that she suffered a miscarriage.

Now, after suffering three years in prison, it was finally announced by the state supreme court that she should be let go, following massive pressure from her legal representatives and civil organizations: No evidence whatsoever existed that she had killed her baby, yet the poor woman, now 22, had to languish for three years.

How many more share a similar fate in Mexico's prisons, in particular the states run by the PAN and PRI?

PRD campaign in Mexico State: Remarkable unity

In a remarkable display of unity, PRD leader in Mexico State, Luis Sánchez Jiménez, appeared together with the left coalition candidate Alejandro Encinas for the start of the latter's campaign.

Remarkable, because Sánchez Jiménez, who was the vice president of the chamber of deputies and a man I had the pleasure of interviewing on many occasions, was also a big proponent of a PRD-PAN alliance in the state, and complained bitterly of the campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to scuttle said alliance, which he did succeed in doing.

Luis Sánchez was, to boot, appointed officially as Encinas' campaign coordinator, though it remains to be seen if this will merely be de jure rather than de facto - something akin to Jesús Ortega's position as the nominal head of AMLO's 2006 campaign.

Yet regardless, in Sánchez' words: "I am an institutional man and I think institutions is something that Mexican politics urgently needs."

¡Órale! If only the PRD had more people like Sánchez. You lose, but then you rally behind your party candidate regardless.

Also of note: El Universal reports that even Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas will appear with Encinas. While I regard a photo of AMLO-Encinas-Cárdenas a remote possibility, it would be of immense importance for the party, which still stands a chance, however small, of winning the state.

Ebrard wants PRD to decide on candidacy the coming November

Marcelo Ebrard, in a speech held in honor of the 22nd anniversary of the founding of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), said he wanted the party to decide who should be its 2012 candidate - himself or 2006 candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) - by the coming November.

Ebrard also suggested that two debates be held between him and AMLO in October. Then, the candidacy will be decided by some kind of poll or open primary.

AMLO, for his part, has earlier agreed to the PRD deciding on the candidacy by late 2012.
Yet he notably did not attend the PRD's anniversary celebration, and has no direct excuse for not doing so, given that the remaining PRD-PAN alliances in Nayarit, Coahuila and Hidalgo look increasingly defunct.