Calderón meets again with Javier Sicilia

A second summit was held in Chapultepec castle yesterday where Felipe Calderón again met with Javier Sicilia, leader of Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, as well as other prominent social activists.

Since the last meeting three months ago, Sicilia appears to have ramped up his discourse:

.. an atmosphere of violence and horror is polluting words and speeches. There is a greater threat we are detecting and that citizens are condemning, that of authoritarianism and its most brutal face, fascism.

Honestly, fascism? I wonder if, in retrospect, Sicilia will see the irony of his own words: Hurling around such labels, which serve absolutely no constructive purpose rather than to provoke, polarize, and distort reality, are also polluting the dialogue he himself has been so central in promoting.

Javier Sicilia, to his discredit, dismisses the next elections

Here is where we part: Poet, writer, and activist Javier Sicilia, head of the Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, dismissed the upcoming national elections as an "ignominy," or a disgrace, as no parties are listening to the citizenry, and so on.

Say what you want about Mexico's parties - or those of any country - but what on earth do we have for alternatives to electoral democracy? Dismissing elections beforehand simply because you reject the existing party options - or that the parties are not immediately accepting your agenda - is irresponsible, pure and simple.

I accept that Sicilia has a right to dismiss all the parties and the upcoming national elections in Mexico.

I also have a right to dismiss that message.