Saturday, October 15, 2011

Calderón meets again with Javier Sicilia

A second summit was held in Chapultepec castle yesterday where Felipe Calderón again met with Javier Sicilia, leader of Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, as well as other prominent social activists.

Since the last meeting three months ago, Sicilia appears to have ramped up his discourse:
.. an atmosphere of violence and horror is polluting words and speeches. There is a greater threat we are detecting and that citizens are condemning, that of authoritarianism and its most brutal face, fascism.
Honestly, fascism? I wonder if, in retrospect, Sicilia will see the irony of his own words: Hurling around such labels, which serve absolutely no constructive purpose rather than to provoke, polarize, and distort reality, are also polluting the dialogue he himself has been so central in promoting.

AMLO in Spain

Spain is the country with the second largest investments in Mexico, and AMLO just went there for his first-ever trip to promote his presidential candidacy. The main message appears indeed to have been directed toward business sectors:
We think that we should not continue privatizing what little remains. It has been excessive. But that does not mean that the the country's public economy will be nationalized. We can't have a state which stifles civil society initiatives, but nor are we in favor of diluting the state and that only a group with dark intentions, such as in our country, dominates.
So in sum, no nationalizations, though there are good and bad capitalists. Let's see if the Spanish investors are convinced. Not sure if they necessarily bought his characterization of both Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon as "traitors" to democracy.