No surprises in terms of who they are, but their statement is noteworthy nonetheless in terms of making a point: The internal PRD factions (technically termed corrientes de opinión) Nueva Izquierda, Foro Nuevo Sol, Alternativa Democrática Nacional, Izquierda Renovadora en Movimiento, and Unidad y Renovación, formed a coalition called "Demócratas en Movimiento" to back Marcelo Ebrard for the 2012 PRD candidacy.
All, with the partial exception of UNYR, belong to the social democratic or democratic socialist factions of the PRD, and their backing of Ebrard has hardly been a secret (UNYR was formerly a very pro-cardenista faction and at times appeared quite "radical," yet is now largely centered around the Transportation secretary of Mexico City, Armando Quintero).
The earlier spats between Ebrard and particularly Nueva Izquierda in 2007-09 to me always appeared pointless - e.g. Ebrard backed AMLO's candidate for the party presidency in 2008, even though he was much closer ideologically and programatically to these social-democratic and socially liberal factions. Ebrard and NI were always natural allies, and Ebrard did not distance itself from the new group, but naturally embraced it, as he should - AMLO, lest we forget, have a 5-year head start on Ebrard, having built his new movement since 2006.
What is important is that all these five factions - NI and ADN by far the largest of them - together have an absolute majority within the PRD, including on its national council, should the PRD decide to determine its 2012 candidate through a vote there.
Showing posts with label Alianza Democrática Nacional (ADN). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alianza Democrática Nacional (ADN). Show all posts
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Monday, December 6, 2010
The PRD's "G-8" group: A gift to Enrique Peña Nieto that just keeps on giving
G-8 is the name of eight factions in the PRD adamantly opposed to the current leadership of Jesús Ortega and his social-democratic Nueva Izquierda faction, which together with his allies Alianza Democrática Nacional and Foro Nuevo Sol have majority control of the party. Yet this does not matter to the "radicals" of the G-8, who repeatedly has demonstrated an utter lack of ability or willingness to accept the results of votes or elections that do not favor them, resorting instead to coercioan and outright physical aggression to get their will through.
Now, the G-8, which are ultra-loyal to Andrés Manuel López Obrador (though many for very pragmatic and opportunistic reasons), have declared they will not wait until March, when a new PRD leader will be elected, but will physically attack the PRD headquarters where Ortega's office is located, and moreover seek to have Ortega kicked out of the PRD altogether, and also to have the secretary general of the PRD, Hortensia Aragón, removed.
What is one to make of these tactics? They certainly reveal a segment of the party that is simply unwilling to accept any defeats, yet far to willing to resort to violence. They are profoundly anti-democratic at heart. Ortega refers to them as reminiscent of the brownshirts of Nazi Germany, and the comparison is sadly not far off.
The most important of the G-8 group is the infamous Izquierda Democrática Nacional (IDN), created by René Bejerano, who remains its leader though he himself was kicked out/renounced from the PRD after the dollar-stuffing scandals of 2004. Ortega has accused Bejarano of being behind the latest offensive, as well as other lopezobradoristas such as Gerardo Fernández Noroña, and Mario Di Costanzo, and notably Mexico State governor Enrique Peña Nieto.
What is clear is that Dolores Padierna wants to be become the next PRD president, which will surely doom the party given her abysmal public image. Moreover, given that Mexican voters are long fed up with the intolerance and violence of the more radical elements of the PRD-AMLO backers, and above all of the incessant infighting of the party, the current debacle will certainly have only one sure winner: Peña Nieto.
Now, the G-8, which are ultra-loyal to Andrés Manuel López Obrador (though many for very pragmatic and opportunistic reasons), have declared they will not wait until March, when a new PRD leader will be elected, but will physically attack the PRD headquarters where Ortega's office is located, and moreover seek to have Ortega kicked out of the PRD altogether, and also to have the secretary general of the PRD, Hortensia Aragón, removed.
What is one to make of these tactics? They certainly reveal a segment of the party that is simply unwilling to accept any defeats, yet far to willing to resort to violence. They are profoundly anti-democratic at heart. Ortega refers to them as reminiscent of the brownshirts of Nazi Germany, and the comparison is sadly not far off.
The most important of the G-8 group is the infamous Izquierda Democrática Nacional (IDN), created by René Bejerano, who remains its leader though he himself was kicked out/renounced from the PRD after the dollar-stuffing scandals of 2004. Ortega has accused Bejarano of being behind the latest offensive, as well as other lopezobradoristas such as Gerardo Fernández Noroña, and Mario Di Costanzo, and notably Mexico State governor Enrique Peña Nieto.
What is clear is that Dolores Padierna wants to be become the next PRD president, which will surely doom the party given her abysmal public image. Moreover, given that Mexican voters are long fed up with the intolerance and violence of the more radical elements of the PRD-AMLO backers, and above all of the incessant infighting of the party, the current debacle will certainly have only one sure winner: Peña Nieto.
Monday, September 27, 2010
AMLO's supporters physically blocks the PRD from reaching 2/3 majority in favor of alliances
Another farce. This is in the simplest terms what happened: Just as the PRD state council was inching toward an overwhelming majority vote in the PRD mexiquense or Mexico State party branch in a vote over whether to join in an alliance with the PAN, AMLO's supporters decided to take the council directorate by force to stop the vote count when it was inching close to a whopping 2/3 majority in favor of the alliances. Ahain, AMLO's supporters, in Mexico State represented by the corrientes or party factions Izquierda Democrática Nacional (IDN), Grupo de Acción Política (GAP) and Unión de Izquierdas (Unir), demonstrated they have no intention of accepting the result of any vote they do not win. The andresmanuelistas resorted to direct action - physical force - when the vote reached 168-86, or just one vote short of a 2/3 majority.
As the votes were counted and it was clear that a majority of the PRD's state council favored an alliance with PAN in order to beat the PRI, AMLO's supporters protested and demanded the state council should rather vote with a 2/3 majority. While this has been standard practice in the national council, it is not stipulated that the state councils also have to vote with a 2/3 majority. Even so, the pro-alliance forces, above all the factions Nueva Izquierda (NI) and Alianza Democrática Nacional (ADN), gathered a surprisingly high number of votes: the count had reached 168 in favor to 86 in against, or just one vote right short of a 2/3 majority. AMLO's supporters then proceeded to storm and "take" the speaker dais, effectively blocking the vote, and a fistfight ensued. The state leadership declared a 15 day recess.
(It's rather remarkable to read the same news event covered in La Jornada, which these days has absolutely no shame when it comes to twisting the facts in favor of AMLO; in their coverage, PRD "suspended the council after the corrientes ADN and NI didn't reach the necessary votes to approve the resolution that would permit the PRD to ally with PAN." It's a pity that La Jornada's activism has become of such a degree that it is increasingly useless as a news source to cover PRD and AMLO events.)
So the issue will unfortunately not be settled yet. AMLO continues to hurl accusations that the PRD has fallen under President Felipe Calderón's spell, and threatens to postulate his own candidate should the PRD and PAN run a common gubernatorial candidate. To recall: in 2005, AMLO campaigned incessantly for the PRD-candidate, a non-party businesswoman forced upon the party by AMLO, who moreover rode roughshod over the state PRD organization and instead preferred using his own paid Redes Ciudadanas, or paid canvassers directly loyal to him. Even when the state PRD backed the candidate, Yeidckol Polevnsky, she barely pulled 22% of the votes. Whether he truly believes that an "independent" candidate promoted by him would do better in 2011 is a moot question; he will go to any lengths to sabotage the official PRD as long as they do not blindly follows his will. In AMLO's words, should the state council approve the alliance, they will remain only with "shell":
As the votes were counted and it was clear that a majority of the PRD's state council favored an alliance with PAN in order to beat the PRI, AMLO's supporters protested and demanded the state council should rather vote with a 2/3 majority. While this has been standard practice in the national council, it is not stipulated that the state councils also have to vote with a 2/3 majority. Even so, the pro-alliance forces, above all the factions Nueva Izquierda (NI) and Alianza Democrática Nacional (ADN), gathered a surprisingly high number of votes: the count had reached 168 in favor to 86 in against, or just one vote right short of a 2/3 majority. AMLO's supporters then proceeded to storm and "take" the speaker dais, effectively blocking the vote, and a fistfight ensued. The state leadership declared a 15 day recess.
(It's rather remarkable to read the same news event covered in La Jornada, which these days has absolutely no shame when it comes to twisting the facts in favor of AMLO; in their coverage, PRD "suspended the council after the corrientes ADN and NI didn't reach the necessary votes to approve the resolution that would permit the PRD to ally with PAN." It's a pity that La Jornada's activism has become of such a degree that it is increasingly useless as a news source to cover PRD and AMLO events.)
So the issue will unfortunately not be settled yet. AMLO continues to hurl accusations that the PRD has fallen under President Felipe Calderón's spell, and threatens to postulate his own candidate should the PRD and PAN run a common gubernatorial candidate. To recall: in 2005, AMLO campaigned incessantly for the PRD-candidate, a non-party businesswoman forced upon the party by AMLO, who moreover rode roughshod over the state PRD organization and instead preferred using his own paid Redes Ciudadanas, or paid canvassers directly loyal to him. Even when the state PRD backed the candidate, Yeidckol Polevnsky, she barely pulled 22% of the votes. Whether he truly believes that an "independent" candidate promoted by him would do better in 2011 is a moot question; he will go to any lengths to sabotage the official PRD as long as they do not blindly follows his will. In AMLO's words, should the state council approve the alliance, they will remain only with "shell":
"If the PRD leaders have not dignity, we are going to show them that those from below, the militants and sympathizers, we don't want a pact with the PAN."To hell with any democratic votes within the party itself, to hell with respecting PRD's organs and institutional processes: AMLO will take his followers and go. And Enrique Peña Nieto will be smiling ever broader.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
AMLO will seek to retake control of the PRD this weekend
Despite having failed to have Alejandro Encinas elected as PRD president in 2008 - a cochinero that took 8 months to resolve, and nearly tore the PRD apart - AMLO is going again on the offensive to retake control of the PRD, through calling upon his followers, loyalists or opportunists alike, to kick out the national PRD leadership.
This weekend, the movement-advocates within the PRD - those who are often labeled as "radicals," yet who like AMLO are often socially conservative and want the PRD to remain intimately tied to AMLO - are launching a direct attack on the leadership of Jesús Ortega and his social democratic Nueva Izquierda faction, which currently controls the party.
Eight corrientes have signed on to a declaration that calls for Ortega to step down in December 2010, but that also attacks the recent alliances with PAN. Judging by the statements of some, the goal is also to simply have Ortega ousted as leader this weekend.
Ortega, to recall, only started his 3-year presidency in December 2008 and his three-year term would then end in 2012. More important still, party disunity and yet another harrowing internal fight - the 2008 internal election took eighth months to resolve, and nearly destroyed the party - is simply the last thing the PRD needs. Especially given the hugely important elections in Guerrero and above all Mexico State next year, it seems hard to fathom that Ortega's opponents are going on the war path. Yet this infighting can only be understood from the logic of movement-advococates: While Ortega and Nueva Izquierda, along with his principal ally Alianza Democrática Nacional (ADN), seek to build an institutionalized organization autonomous of its old strongman, AMLO and the movement-advocates want the PRD to remain a loose movement-like party that is chiefly a tool at the disposal of a "cause," which, it is now clear, remains AMLO's presidential bid. Amazingly, AMLO and the movement-advocates are willing to risk yet another brutal internal party war by launching their nth attack on Ortega.
This weekend, the movement-advocates within the PRD - those who are often labeled as "radicals," yet who like AMLO are often socially conservative and want the PRD to remain intimately tied to AMLO - are launching a direct attack on the leadership of Jesús Ortega and his social democratic Nueva Izquierda faction, which currently controls the party.
Eight corrientes have signed on to a declaration that calls for Ortega to step down in December 2010, but that also attacks the recent alliances with PAN. Judging by the statements of some, the goal is also to simply have Ortega ousted as leader this weekend.
Ortega, to recall, only started his 3-year presidency in December 2008 and his three-year term would then end in 2012. More important still, party disunity and yet another harrowing internal fight - the 2008 internal election took eighth months to resolve, and nearly destroyed the party - is simply the last thing the PRD needs. Especially given the hugely important elections in Guerrero and above all Mexico State next year, it seems hard to fathom that Ortega's opponents are going on the war path. Yet this infighting can only be understood from the logic of movement-advococates: While Ortega and Nueva Izquierda, along with his principal ally Alianza Democrática Nacional (ADN), seek to build an institutionalized organization autonomous of its old strongman, AMLO and the movement-advocates want the PRD to remain a loose movement-like party that is chiefly a tool at the disposal of a "cause," which, it is now clear, remains AMLO's presidential bid. Amazingly, AMLO and the movement-advocates are willing to risk yet another brutal internal party war by launching their nth attack on Ortega.
Yet while eight corrientes or internal party factions have signed on to the war document against its leadership, they do not appear to have the votes: Only IDN, led nominally by Dolores Padierna but de facto by her disgraced husband René Bejarano, has a significant number of councilors, but all the others, including Izquierda Social of Martí Batres, who holds the powerful portfolio of secretary of social development in Mexico City, and Red de Unidad Nacional de las Izquierdas (RUNI), which was recently launched by AMLO ultraloyalist Alejandro Encinas and also attracts some old cardenistas, have still very little presence on the PRD's National Council, and it seems doubtful they will get the 160 or so votes required to oust Ortega.
Miguel Borbosa, who took over as national coordinator of Nueva Izquierda after Jesús Zambrano, in turn, accused some of the Ortega opponents within PRD to be tied to Enrique Peña Nieto. To be sure, should Ortega be ousted, the PAN-PRD alliance in Mexico State will tumble, and Peña Nieto is almost certain to have a priísta succeed him as governor of Mexico State. As such, Peña Nieto can only hope that Andrés Manuel López Obrador's attack on Ortega will be successful. Regardless, expect quite a ruckus this weekend.
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