The spectacular fall of PRI in Mexico City

Ciro Gómez Leyva's column is following up on some very interesting polling in Mexico City: Just a couple of months ago, PRI's Beatriz Paredes Rangel was number one in the polls to be the next mayor of Mexico City, and in the process expected to pull a lot of votes for Enrique Peña Nieto as well.

Yet due to various factors - some extremely ugly infighting and fighting (literally) in the Mexico City PRI, which has some of the worst scoundrels in Mexican politics in its ranks, the ability of the left to pull together and present a great candidate, etc - PRI is plummeting again in Mexico City.

A recent poll gives Mancera 43, with only 16 percent (!) for Paredes. This is quite spectacular, and as Gómez Leyva points out, very, very bad news for PRI and Peña Nieto.

Emilio González Márquez finally steps down as PAN 2012 contender

The alcoholic, foul-mouthed, ultra-conservative governor of Jalisco, Emilio González Márquez (he of the "go fuck your mothers") finally threw the towel, leaving "only" three main contenders for PAN's 2012 nomination. 

His candidacy in a very loose sense reminded me of Michele Bachmann in the U.S.: Just like is only a question of time before she stands down, González Márquez's declination was really the chronicle of a declination foretold. 

A quick side note: Ciro Gómez Leyva calls his candidacy a "joke," which it truly was. However, I remember very well reading a column just a couple of months ago where the same and increasingly self-absorbed columnist made an argument along the "you better take him seriously" lines, which I found wholly unconvincing then. Quite amazing that he has already forgotten this, if indeed he has.

Is Mexico's defense minister a crack head?

Ciro Gómez Leyva dedicates his column in today's Milenio to the affaire Calderón ivrogne (OK, I liked the rhyming bit), and notes,

"If tomorrow someone invents that the Secretary of Defense is addicted to crack and rat poison, would it be his duty to go out and reject this lie because he has a hundred thousand soldiers under his command? What are we talking about here?"

For the record, I don't think Mexico's defense minister is a crack head and rat poison addict.

But he hasn't confirmed that he isn't.

Workers against worker: SME thugs attack CFE workers

I was about to write a post criticizing the SME when I saw that Ciro Gómez Leyva beat me to it, though using considerably harsher language than I would have utilized: The Milenio commentator refers to the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) and its leader Martín Esparza as "Blackshirts" and "Mussolini" respectively.

Gómez Leyva's point, for all its crude language and false comparisons, was nonetheless this: The SME are increasingly acting as pure thugs, utilizing violence against their detractors.

And the point I want to make: Their detractors are none else than... their fellow workers! Specifically, SME members, in a demonstration in the Reforma avenue in Mexico City,  spotted a group of workers from the CFE, a company that has taken over some of the duties from the now-extinct Luz y Fuerza company, whose workers SME had unionized. Several CFE workers had the living daylights beaten out of them, and some had to go to the hospital. The CFE, to recall, is a state company that was founded by President Lázaro Cárdenas back in the 1930s. CFE workers are affiliated with the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Electricistas de la República Mexicana (SUTERM).

If Esparza has condemned the violence committed by his men, it certainly has passed below my radar screen. The actions of the SME and their proclivity for violence has long been condemned by a range of actors; their utter hypocrisy in claiming to fight for workers rights while violently beating up other workingmen whose only crime is to have sought a job with the CFE, should equally be denounced.

Meet Cristina Díaz, the PRI's (very likely) new secretary general

Given that Humberto Moreira appears set to run opposed as candidate for the PRI presidency, it seems safe to assume that Cristina Díaz, his running mate, will be PRI's next secretary general.

Here's a useful biography.
While Cristina Díaz has a long trajectory within the PRI - e.g. state party leader in Nuevo León, three-time federal deputy, many, as Ciro Gómez Leyva, ask: "Why did they choose Cristina Díaz?" The point made by Gómez Leyva is that while her trajectory may be long, it is not a particularly distinguished one.

Díaz, for her part, declared "I will not be a decorative figure." Which unfortunately appears a tacit acceptance that this is exactly what she will be. }

Humberto Moreira leaves Coahuila - with huge debt

Yesterday Humberto Moreira took a long-anticipated licensia, best regarded a "leave of absence," to "campaign" for the PRI presidency. The quotation marks represent just that: Given that no competitor exists for the position, this is most definitely a shoe-in, or a "candidate of unity" as the priístas have called it.

Yesterday Milenio revealed the enormous debt that most outgoing PRI governors leave behind; today, Ciro Gómez Leyva in his column repeated the theme, looking specifically at Moreira, who endowed the state with a minimum of 8 billion pesos debt, plus 5 billion more for a credit line approved by the PRI-dominant state congress, and likely billions more for local suppliers to the government.

(Gómez Leyva in turn refers to a column by Fernando Royo well worth reading).

(In addition, Moreira arguably deliberately underfunded Torreón, in the hands of the opposition PAN until mayor José Ángel Pérez Hernández stepped down this year, replaced by Eduardo Olmos Castro of the PRI.)

In Moreira's carefully constructed façade, cracks seem to appear.

Ciro Gómez Leyva: "Will Moreno Valle throw Mario Marín in prison?"

Rafael Moreno Valle will finally assume as as governor of Puebla in a couple of week's time. In that regard, political commentator Ciro Gómez Leyva asks a very pertinent question: Will the new governor send Mario Marín in prison? Marín is probably one of the most reviled governors in recent Mexican history, and new information keep popping up: In Lydia Cacho's colum, this excellent journalist is revealing new information she has uncovered regarding the "Precious Governor": Marín apparently has set up his own aviation company through his son Mario Marín García, using public funds as well as those donated from other PRI bigshots like former governor of Quintana Roo, Joaquin Hendriks, crafts of which have been involved in, according to Cacho's sources in the DEA, at the very least transporting druglords and contraband, and possibly for smuggling young girls as part of pedophile and prostitution networks.
We only know fractions of the dirty dealings of this despicable governor: May more soon come to the light of day, and may Mario Marín end up rotting in prison.

"Noroña's penis": Ciro Gómez Leyva

I commented yesterday on the antics of Gerardo Fernández Noroña, the former PRD-turned-PT diputado who is seen as one of the most "radical" of the andresmanuelistas,  or ultra-loyal backers of former presidential candidate  Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). In today's Milenio, Ciro Gómez offers a quite humorous commentary on the PT legislator: 

"What is one to say about the machismo of the new diva of political vaudeville, Gerardo Fernandez Noroña, who shouts that those who are looking for him will find him, who is telling Genaro García Luna to his face that he is a murderer. Wow! The brave Noroña, with immunity from prosecution. I suppose that to maintain this level, in the next appearance he will take out his penis and demand a right of reply."

More here.