Monday, August 29, 2011

Good NACLA overview of the Mexican left

NACLA's Fred Rosen has a good overview of the PRD and the Mexican left here.

Hilarious Denise Dresser "prayer" on the Humberto Moreira scandal

Denise Dresser's criticism of PRI president Humberto Moreira in prayer form is simply a must read, published in this week's Proceso.

Ominous sign for 2012: Mexico's electoral institute feuds

More on the internal troubles of Mexico's Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE), from a La Jornada report:

Not only is IFE, responsible for arranging Mexico's federal elections, missing three councilors yet to be appointed by congress, but finds itself completely divided 3-3 in bitter internal feud. The main protagonists are IFE president  Leonardo Valdés vs. Marco Antonio Baños and  Francisco Guerrero, who now fight about virtually everything, in an increasingly bitter tone. The latter two are close to PRI and operate essentially as the party's agents, yet Valdés is also facing criticism from PRD, originally positive toward his election, and PAN, for his leadership style, and decisions taken.

A very, very ominous sign for 2012 that begs repeating.

Unorthodox political recruitment

The Zacatecas branch of Mexican Workers Party (Partido del Trabajo PT) is organizing a beauty contest in order to recruit youth to the Morena movement of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Yes, a beauty contest.

In order to become a Miss Morena Zacatecas, here are the requisites: "beauty of face and body," single, between 18 and 25 years old and a minimum height of 1.65 meters.

PT's party leader David Monreal (brother of Senator Ricardo Monreal), who is, as it were, under investigation from the state congress for not accounting for 6.5 million pesos in spending as mayor of Fresnillo, said,

"We hope that many zacatecanas participate. The main purpose is to change our country. We want to stop the social, economic and political deterioration."

I'd say the PT is engaging in a bit of social deterioration itself. Could the party, if it tried, appear any more sexist and shallow?



Gregorio Sánchez, essentially free

It was the first time one had ever been used in Mexico, and now ex-mayor of Cancún, Gregorio Sánchez can remove the electronic bracelet he's been wearing for the past couple of weeks. The case against him is still on, yet he is now free to go wherever he wants - before, he was limited to an area in Mexico City.

To boot: Sánchez had also been complaining that the incessant beeping from the bracelet, which apparently was low on batteries and possibly not even working, kept him awake at night...

Notably, Sánchez said he will not return to politics, but dedicate himself to business. Will it perhaps be in the tele-evangelical business? He has long been an evangelical pastor and has been emphasizing this identity while in prison, insisting on more than occasion that god speaks through him, appearing with his similarly white-dressed followers with a bible under his arm.

While we're still awaiting the final dropping of the case against Greg, it seems to me this is about as close to the end as we have ever been. It has been a thorough embarrassment for many, and not only the Attorney General (PGR), and many can't wait to put this whole debacle behind them.