Mexico's party leaders - gossip time!

El Universal had recently a very informal survey, one might say, of the heads of Mexico's political parties. For political junkies (whatever that expression really means), it is quite amusing reading. And not quite gossip either - as the information is actually true. Sadly.

We learn that:
- Jorge Kahwagi Macari, until recently PANAL leader, has a 10-million dollar yacht, and lives in a 5,500-meter square house. A true representative of the teachers that comprise the PANAL party, in other words.

- Jorge Emilio González Martínez, the "niño verde,"nominally head of the PVEM, the Mexican Green Party, which is anything but, just took his girlfriend who is half his age (she must be-according to the article, she just finished the preperatoria(!) to Disneyland. And that despite being a party leader, he did not attend or head any political event in 2010. Rather, he goes daily to play tennis in the wealthy Bosque de las Lomas area where he also lives, or to the Sport City in Santa Fe. And he proudly wears the most expensive designer clothes out there, including Brioni Suits. What a genuine representative of the post-materialist Green agenda!-

- Luis Walton Aburto, leader of the nominally left party Convergencia, which all of a sudden threw its lot with AMLO to become a "radical" party, is ultra rich, from owning gas stations and private schools. He also proudly tells us that he gains tons of money. What a great representative of los de abajo, of the downtrodden and poor!

There are those who come significantly better off. Humberto Moreira at least has a good sense of humor; PAN's Gustavo Madero is quite the wine connoisseur, PT's Alberto Anaya is as unpretentious as one can get,  with crooked glasses and worn shoes, and PRD's Jesús Zambrano still shops at the corner store in Culhuacán, a very modest zone where he still lives, and likes to drink and play guitar with Carlos Navarrete and Guadalupe Acosta.

What more info does one need? To the polls!

Luis Walton defends Convergencia changes

Luis Walton, president of Convergencia, said that proposed changes to "restructure" the party doesn't mean "that one is handing the party over to Andrés Manuel López Obrador," nor that is a desperate means in order to not lose its registry. 


These are the strongest indications yet that
1) the party is being handed over to Andrés Manuel López Obrador
2) the changes are a desperate means to conserve the party registry.

The tragicomedy of the PT and Convergencia's conception of democracy

As is known by now, the PRD is likely to arrange an open poll in Mexico State to decide whether the party should go in alliance with the PAN, and who should be its candidate. Given that likely candidate Encinas has endorsed it, all should be fine. Let democracy work. Right?

Well: Then there's the case of the pejista ultra-faked-loyalty to AMLO, Partido del Trabajo and Convergencia, who display a quite particular understanding of democracy. Their respective leaders, Alberto Anaya and Luis Walton, said while the consultation has not yet been set in stone, they would willingly participate in it, but they would not endorse it should the outcome be a "Yes" to a PAN alliance...

Read: "Yes, we'll participate, but only accept the result if we win."

That said, this absurd statement is unfortunately very much in tune with Andrés Manuel López Obrador's own conception of democracy, which little resembles how the most of the world conceives of it.