Noroña, a cliche waiting to happen

Gerardo Fernández Noroña is for many the face of the most radical, intransigent sectors of the Mexican left, improbably elected federal deputy in 2009 for the North Korea-praising Workers Party (PT), but before that a long-time radical as head of a social movement-based group within the PRD.

His antics both in the PRD, which he left in 2008, and as a deputy are many (he once threw himself around he feet of president Ernesto Zedillo and refused to let go), but he is perhaps most known as an ardent defender of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and a proponent of the "fraud" claim of 2006.

Now the cliché is served on a silver platter: más papista que el Papa, more catholic than the pope:

In response to AMLO's recent declaration that he has "forgiven" Felipe Calderón,  for 2006, Noroña (as he is most commonly known), now threatening to break with AMLO unless he explains what he means by that - is it a recognition of Calderón's legitimacy as president? - and demanding that he show congruence and firmness. Yes, AMLO is not radical enough for his political children.

 AMLO being accused of going soft on Calderón, by one of his own - it is hard to know what historical analogy to pick given the range of options.

Let's for now stick with the French one: Noroña, the Jacobin. I am not even the slightest surprised.

AMLO reproaches chamber of deputies banner episode: Wrong message

To his credit, AMLO spoke out against the idiotic charade by Gerardo Fernández Noroña and friends in the Chamber of Deputies. The national legislator, with help from a couple of other PT and PRD legislators close to AMLO,  unveiled a huge banner with the text, "Would you let a drunkard drive your car? No, right? Why then would you let one run the country."

AMLO, in a meeting yesterday, said whether he is a drunk or not is a "personal question" and that one should be "respectful." Rather than displaying such a banner, AMLO said, "what they should have put is that "Calderón is a usurper."

The episode, which led to shouting and insults and threats of fistfights, eventually shut down congress.

How about not interrupting legislative sessions in congress with any banners at all?

Greatest joke of the day: Noroña, "dickheads," and Belaunzarán

It's hard to think of more polar opposites of people still nominally coinciding on the political left: Fernando Belaunzarán, one of PRD's most important intellectuals, and Gerardo Fernández Noroña, the rabble-rousing former PRD spokesperson-cum-national deputy for the PT. Here's a little incident that recently happened, according to Belaunzarán's blog:

"As we were both to attend the Political Science Congress at the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, I invited the deputy Gerardo Fernandez Norona to, instead of having two separate presentations, for the benefits of the student we would have a debate to contrast our positions. He could have refused and nothing more, but chose to insult: "I don't debate with pendejos," to which I replied, "but I do, and invite you to the debate."

Noroña's response?  Hurling a glass of red wine at Belaunzarán (he missed).

"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. 

PT deputy Fernández Noroña at it again: Calderón a "drunkard."

Professional rabble rouser Gerardo Fernández Noroña, who was spokesperson for the PRD, loudly resigned from the party, and then became a national deputy for the Workers Party (Partido del Trabajo, PT), produced yet another memorable moment in San Lázaro, in relation with the appearance of the (admittedly inept) Secretary of Communication and Transportation, Juan Francisco Molinar Horcasitas in Congress. Noroña dixit:

"In this spurious cabinet there are three secretaries that are even worse than Calderón. They are Molinar Horcasitas, Javier Lozano and Genaro García Luna, and are of a cynicism, a shameless, a bad abominable chore, you should be in prison, and they will be, because in life all is temporary... and moreover they need to be like this, they need to be like this in order to take a job from a drunkard like Calderón."

OK, so Noroña, who rejects the legitimacy of Calderón at any and all occasion, can be quite entertaining in his antics. Yet how much good does these insults do to make Mexico a better place - and to make the Chamber of Deputies a more respected institution?