Friday, June 24, 2011

Luis Walton defends Convergencia changes

Luis Walton, president of Convergencia, said that proposed changes to "restructure" the party doesn't mean "that one is handing the party over to Andrés Manuel López Obrador," nor that is a desperate means in order to not lose its registry. 


These are the strongest indications yet that
1) the party is being handed over to Andrés Manuel López Obrador
2) the changes are a desperate means to conserve the party registry.



Nayarit: No excuses for AMLO, yet betrayal of party

In Nayarit, the PRD is not running in alliance with the PAN. Its candidate, Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo, has been a man of the left his entire life, never a priísta, and rejected the suggestion he would decline in favor of PAN's candidate, Martha Elena García.

Yet AMLO, rather than backing the PRD candidate, travels to Nayarit to back Nayar Marroquín, candidate of PT and Convergencia. Not only is it a completely useless undertaking - his vote intention is minimal - but he will also take votes from the PRD candidate. So why is AMLO, a former party president and the PRD's 2006 candidate, doing this? This time there is absolutely no excuse, as in the past, where he opposed PAN-PRD alliance candidates.

This is the true face of AMLO showing: A man who have absolutely no compunction about betraying his old party, as long as it benefits his own, highly personalistic project.

Calderón didn't know of the operation against Jorge Hank Rhon?

Felipe Calderón told Javier Sicilia he didn't know of the operation against Jorge Hank Rhon, where the army apprehended the former Tijuana mayor on weapons charges.

Calderón rails against narco-criminal-backing bishops, "brood of vipers"

In Calderón's meeting with Javier Sicilia - which I cannot see was anything but a very positive event - the Mexican president, from the centre-right quite christian-democrat PAN party, notably railed against unnamed Mexican bishops of the catholic high clergy who expressed their support for the criminal thug Jorge Hank Rhon, rightly referring to them as "vipers."

He didn't mention any names, but it was an obvious allusion to e.g. the bishop of Mexicali, José Isidro Guerrero Macías, and Mexico State's bishop Onésimo Cepeda, who both expressed support for the briefly incarcerated Hank, whose values should go against anything the church claim to stand for - e.g. 19 children, multiple divorces, likely ties to drug trafficking, etc, yet whom several bishops have said they are praying for - literally.

Calderón, a quite fervent catholic, said there are "certain characters who serve as models of holiness" yet are a "brood of vipers."

I am with Felipe on this one.

On a related note: I wonder what columnist-journalist Carlos Marín, who has ridiculed critics of Onésimo Cepeda, thinks of his embrace of Hank, who lost his US visa and is accused of involvement in the drug trade. Not problematic in the slightest?

Queretaro: PAN Deputy Salvador Martínez Ortiz, a cold wind from the dark ages

Salvador Martínez Ortiz, a PAN deputy in the Queretaro state congress and head of its Family Commission, declared, basking in his moral superiority, that gays cannot be legislators - from any party, mind you - or hold any public office because they undermine family values and the "natural law of cohabitation."

To boot, Martínez Ortiz was interviewed during the international day of sexual diversity.

I don't think someone who believe a gay person is unfit for office is... well, fit for office. May his political career be a short lived one.

Ebrard suggests PEMEX-PETROBRAS partnership

Lula da Silva is in Mexico, and he met with both Marcelo Ebrard, where Ebrard notably proposed a strategic partnership between the Mexican oil company PEMEX and the Mexican Petrobras:
"I would find it very interesting to make a strategic alliance with them, for  they have developed technology for deepwater exploration. I do not see why we can not make a strategic alliance with them; this would suit Mexico and other countries a lot."
Indeed!

Lula also met with Alejandro Encinas in a separate meeting, expressing support for his run for the Mexico State governorship.