Saturday, April 7, 2012

One rare smart thing said by Vázquez Mota on the trail

Josefina Vázquez Mota's campaign to me appears a near disaster of poor organizations and erratic statements and behaviors from as much the candidate herself as the campaign staff. She seems to me utterly unprepared for the presidential office, and I truly hope the anti-PRI vote will go to the left instead. For whatever AMLO's faults, he appears a million times better prepared than the PAN candidate.

Yet one thing she does deserve credit for: Calling out the equally unprepared TV-created media phenomenon Enrique Peña Nieto for his constant signing of his "pledges" or "promises" or "compromises" or whatever to Mexican citizens, in front of a public notary.

Disregarding the fact these "compromises" are essentially about small micro projects the federal government is or will fund regardless, Vázquez Mota declared she won't sign anything - voters can take her word for it. Indeed, if EPN needs to sign these promises, what does that say about his commitment to the spoken word? And what about the promises he makes but doesn't sign? Are they effectively mere campaign lies?

AMLO reaches out to the EZLN

On the campaign trail in Chiapas just before the Easter break, AMLO made a call to "the rebels of 1994" to participate in his electoral movement. The plaza reportedly fell completely silent as he touched upon the topic of  EZLN, without mentioning the zapatistas by name.

El Universal's description of it as a call for "reconciliation" is not entirely accurate, as reconciliation must go two ways. AMLO has always reached out to EZLN, but the latter responded, in the parody of leftwing secterianism that if unfortunately descended into behind its messiah-complexed Subcomandante Marcos, with givin the PRD the finger (literally) and denouncing it as worse than PAN and PRI, and, to boot, "fascist" - coincidentally the same term the more reactionary wings of the Mexican Catholic church likes to fling around.

In 2006, EZLN openly campaigned against any participation in the 2006 federal elections. I'm not sure to what extent that struck a blow for anything, let alone against the imperialists.

So for a "reconciliation" to take place, the EZLN would also need to do their part.
Don't expect them to.