Partido Convergencia, 1999-2011

The Partido Convergencia ceased to exist yesterday, at least by that designation:

It changed its name to Movimiento Ciudadano, took AMLO's eagle for its party logo, dissolved its national executive committee, and converted its party president into a "national coordinator." It also opened up 50 percent of its candidacies to non-party members, or "citizens."

It has essentially remained the personal outfit of former PRI governor Dante Delgado Rannauro, who created the party as a means to return be governor of Veracruz, but after 2006, when its registry was in clear danger, threw his lot with AMLO and the party drastically "radicalized," despite being very non-programmatic and even center-right in most of its previous pronouncements, when it also often allied with PRI and PAN on the state level. It has a handful of senators yet saw its number of deputies reduced in half in 2009, when it competed on its own list rather than on a common one with the PRD, and is close to electoral extinction .

Hence,  Movimiento Ciudadano.

It's on: Attendance key as Ebrard launches his Fundación Equidad y Progreso

Ebrard recently launched a new foundation, the Fundación Equidad y Progreso, whose thinly disguised mission is to work for Ebrard's 2012 candidacy. The official opening was important first and foremost in terms of who attended: While the backing of the dominant PRD faction Nueva Izquierda of Ebrard was hardly a secret, it was all but confirmed by the attendance of PRD group leader in the senate, Carlos Navarrete, at the event.

Yet more notable was the official confirmation of the break-up between AMLO and Convergencia, a quintessentially opportunistic party nominally on the left but whose main purpose remains to promote whatever benefits the interests of its founder, Dante Delgado Rannauro. Delgado's presence at Ebrard's foundation all but confirm that AMLO lost the backing of Convergencia, which now appears lined up behind Ebrard. As both AMLO and Ebrard have agreed to some kind of poll or vote among the general citizenry regarding who should be the left's candidate in 2012, the backing of Convergencia is quite significant. While I doubt it will happen anytime soon, it is certainly not unthinkable that AMLO's seemingly arch-loyal backers in the Partido del Trabajo (PT) will do the same.