PRI's ugly face in Mexico City: Cuauhtémoc Gutiérrez de la Torre, King of Garbage

Milenio refers to him as "possibly the most feared priísta in the capital." He is Cuauhtémoc Gutiérrez de la Torre, also known as the King of Garbage in Mexico City, a title and position he inherited from his murdered father, Rafael Gutiérrez Moreno. Now he wants to be president of the Mexico City branch of the PRI, where his group is the main rival of PRI Senator María de los Ángeles Moreno. Gutiérrez has mala fama for being extremely violent, and is fittingly close to local PRI deputy Cristián Vargas, the infamous Dipuhooligan of the Mexico City local legislature, involved in numerous violent events and disturbances, not to speak of threats and hate speech against e.g. the gay community.

Back to Gutiérrez (picture below): He, and his mother, control a large group of pepenadores, or those of extreme poverty who eke out a living by sifting through and collecting garbage, and has vigorously fought against the implementation of a more modern garbage collection system in Mexico City. The pepenadores are held down and controlled by a brutal and exploitative mafia. Gutiérrez has personally faced a plethora of accusations, including that he hired 20 female assistants and demanded sexual favors in return for pay raises. Thanks to his own personal fortune, he has been able to buy quite a bit of support and moreover bankroll the PRI in Mexico City.

From Milenio     

Gutiérrez´ plans to become head of the PRI in Mexico City faced a temporary setback when the Federal District Electoral Tribunal cancelled the PRI's convocation for the internal election (registration of candidates), arguing procedural errors. The motion was backed by Juan Carlos Vázquez, Gutiérrez main opponent, and the candidate of Senator Moreno.

It certainly will be in the PRD's interest that Gutiérrez eventually win the contest: It is hard to imagine a more discredited, repugnant public face of the PRI for the 2012 election for mayor, which would likely severely damage a Beatriz Paredes Rangel candidacy, should she run.

Movimiento Antorcha Campesina: Very far from a "social movement"

Recently, Milenio reported that the Antorcha Campesina, or the "Torch of the Peasant," has in 2011 carried out twice the number of demonstrations than in 2011, so far totaling 265. More than 300,000 persons have participated in the marches, which have created chaos in the streets of Mexico City - despite the organization hailing from Mexico State. Some of the demonstrations have turned into week-long encampments in central parts of the city.

What do they want? Ostensibly, funds from the federal government for the development of their communities, though they often target institutions and buildings of Mexico City. Beyond what are pretty much blackmail techniques - give us money, or we'll create chaos - the organization has also on occasions been highly prone to violence, and has since its murky origins in the 1970s as a quite paramilitary organization, been absolutely controlled by the PRI. The Mexico State branch of PRI has now increasingly used the Antorcha as shock troops to embarrass both the current and past PRD administrations of Mexico City, as well as the federal PAN government (see a useful graphic below for a comparison 2010-11), rallying thousands of participants through clientelist means, and then sending them off in hundreds of buses  to DF. As a thank-you from the PRI-led Mexico State government, they are allowed to run a scheme of thousands of pirate taxis in particular in the municipalities in the Valle de México in that state.

(in June 2009, in the Azteca stadium, when the Antorcha celebrated its 35th anniversary, the main person of the event was Enrique Peña Nieto. They also operate in many other states, though always against PAN and PRD governments.)

This is an absolute perversion and abuse of the mechanisms of popular demonstrations that under the guise of "freedom of expression" essentially terrorizes a big part of the city's population. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has been cautious toward the organization, likely not to provoke any further chaos, given the almost limitless right of Mexicans to hold demonstrations, even when it seriously affects a great number of people negatively. PAN has recently urged the law to be changed, in order to regulate the marches, which to me seems a fair demand: There simply must be some kind of balance between an organizations right to demonstrate vs. shutting parts of an entire city down - as indeed other democracies maintain.