AMLO: Recount 2006 votes!

It's déjà vu all over again. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) asked that a citizen organization carry out a full recount of the votes in the 2006 presidential election, to know, once and for all, who won in 2006.

What a splendid idea. Let's forget, for a second, that AMLO never filed a full petition with the electoral tribunal to have all the votes recounted, only in the areas where he lost - despite the calls in the street of "vote  by vote, ballot box by ballot box." And let's forget as well that there where two recounts in the areas where AMLO had expected to pick up greatly, but didn't. And that in the five years that have followed, no evidence has surfaced that in any way corroborates a fraud. Out with all that, for a second.

I wholly support AMLO's idea. In fact, why not arrange a public ceremony where AMLO signs a document promising to respect the outcome, whatever it is, of that vote. That is, should he lose it, he will NOT resort to other arguments along the "well-the-boxes-were-stuffed-beforehand" line but actually, if the recount does not favor him, he commits himself to apologizing for the enormous costs his protests have created, the division and rancor the fraud claims have furthered, and so on.

Mexican "Green party" goes for Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012

It was hardly news, and moreover the presentation of it was quite botched, given another event held nearby by Marcelo Ebrard. Jorge Emilio González Martínez of the PVEM "Green party" (in quotation marks as it was long kicked out of the Green International, and is a party fully devoid of any pro-environmental agenda) announced that the PVEM will back Enrique Peña Nieto as its presidential candidate in 2012.

It was an embarrassing spectacle: The official occasion was the informe or activities report, so to speak, of Senator René Arce Islas, elected on a PRD label yet ditched it for the PRI and is now.. a PVEM senator!
Embarrassing for many reasons, including that Arce was in the middle of his speech yet was forced to stop it when Enrique Peña Nieto showed up. The former Mexico State governor, for his part, expressed support for Beatriz Paredes Rangel as the PRI's contender in 2012 to be mayor of Mexico city. This is exactly, however, what Arce is going for, and the equivalent of a cold shower on those ambitions.

Mario Delgado: Ebrard's favorite to be next Mexico City mayor

Technically it was only an event in "defense of education," so Mario Delgado's presence was quite natural given his position as education secretary in Mexico City. Yet given that his boss Marcelo Ebrard was there as well (the two arrived together, doing the hand-shaking pasarela together), along with key PRD elites such as Jesús Ortega and even historic leftwing leaders such as Salvador Martínez della Rocca , this is about as close to a formal endorsement by Ebrard of Delgado as his favored successor as it gets.

Martínez della Rocca, a 1968 student leader and political prisoner, referred to Ebrard as "chingón" - essentially, "fucking great." There you have it.

Senator Carlos Navarrete, a rival for the nomination, has recently stepped up his criticism of Ebrard, and won't be very happy about yesterday's event