Clouthier on Vázquez Mota: Quote

Manuel Clouthier said he would not seek a PAN senate seat from Sinaloa given differences with the national PAN leadership.

Then, he noted of Josefina Vázquez Mota that he knows "what she is made of" given that he was her colleague for two years in the Chamber of Deputies:

"she has an extraordinary ability to deceive people"

Ouch.

PAN leaves the Clouthiers out in the cold

Manuel Clouthier, commonly known as "Maquío," was the PAN's 1988 presidential candidate, and a very decent man - he actively joined the possible yet defrauded winner Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in denouncing the fraud, until his own party quieted him down and made deals with president-elect Carlos Salinas.

His family, from their stronghold in Sinaloa, has continued in politics (Maquio died in a mysterious car crash in 1989): Both his son Manuel and his daughter Tatiana have been active in the PAN.

Yet they have been highly critical of Calderón's armed onslaught against the drug cartels and the manner in which is being fought. That is likely the main cause why Manuel was recently rejected as a senate candidate for PAN for 2012, despite his very significant political weight in Sinaloa.

The fight has been long brewing with the PAN, and a break with this emblematic neopanista family with its party seems very imminent: Don't be surprised if in a few weeks we'll see Manuel Clouthier Carrillo as a candidate for AMLO's 2012 coalition.