Who would the Virgin vote for?

And we're talking about the Virgen de Guadalupe, no less. See for yourself:

An organization calling itself Voto Católico claim to know who the Virgin would vote for in the upcoming Mexico State gubernatorial election: It sure is not PRD, nor is it PRI. Go to its Web site, www.votocatolico.com, and you will be offered a "voting guide" on the, according to Voto, absolute most important subjects in this election, such as abortion, gay rights, and euthanasia.

The electoral propaganda is, of course, illegal, as following the most recent electoral reform in Mexico, no outside groups can contract political advertisements. Yet tell that to Voto - after all, who can argue against anyone knowing the electoral preferences of the good Virgin?

Michoacán: Senator Silvano Aureoles PRD's candidate for governor

Senator Silvano Aureoles appears to have triumphed in the internal PRD election in Michoacán to be that party's candidate for governor, and with a surprisingly big margin: Around more than double the votes than the runner-up, local deputy Enrique Bautista Villegas, and the PRD's national election commission says the lead is irreversible. According to La Jornada Michoacán, Bautista will, however, impugn the result.

One thing should be celebrated: There was absolutely no violence during the electoral process, where more than half a million participated.

With 67 percent of votes counted Aureoles has 108,000 vs. Bautista's 54,000. What is notable is that AMLO's preferred candidate - Fabiola Alanís Sámano - has so far only pulled around 13,000 or so. One fear within the PRDs now that rather than accepting the loss, Alanis will jump on a separate PT-Convergencia ticket in the state's general election in November.

The election was also a loss, of sorts, for the Cárdenas family - Bautista was their preferred candidate, as he was in 2007.

On Calderón's government secretaries / ministers of the interior

El Universal has a useful article on Calderón's secretarias de gobernación, equivalent of interior ministers, of which there have been four so far. The article highlights a worrisome point: Not only does this represent lack of continuity on the top - 13 months tenure on average - but also a constant reappointment of personnel below (the article suggests a number of 40 "key functionaries")

This can´t possibly be good for continuation of policy, and institutional learning.