Now we know (as if we didn´t already): AMLO is going for 2012.

In a mass meeting at the Zócalo today, AMLO dispensed with any ambiguity and declared he is a candidate for 2012.

He has every right to, to be sure, and his "Legitimate Government" ad its 2-3 million or so adherents clearly forms the basis of a mass electoral movement.
I remember clearly two years ago when he and other members of this outfit explicitly denied that the members of the Legitimate Government would ever form the basis of an electoral movement. Clearly this was false. He either had a change of heart or intended so from the very beginning - it's hard to tell. 

Regardless, while he has a democratic right to be a candidate, it does not speak well of AMLO that he is not a man of his word. In his recent book, as well as on countless other occasions, he declared he would not seek power for the sake of power, but rather decline in favor of a "better positioned" candidate, if one existed. This has now been proven an utter lie.  
Rather than sticking to the deal, it is now clear that AMLO´s project is about one man: himself. To hell with anyone else; he is the only one capable of salvaging Mexico. The many posters carried by his supporters that stated, "Only the people can save the people," really mean: Only AMLO can save the people. And he would therefore completely risk splitting the left vote in the process. 


From the first speeches by state representatives of the Legitimate Government to the many signs around the Zócalo, it was clear this was the launching of his candidacy. 


The antipathy toward the PRD leadership was clear. When some of the speakers mentioned the "Chuchos" (Jésus Ortega and Zambrano, leaders of the majority faction that now controls the PRD), many were booing. While the Convergencia and PT leaders were up there with AMLO, as far as I could see no one from the PRD 


His speech was pretty much a rehash of his "Alternative Proyect for the Nation" from the previous campaign, slightly updated. Of new proposals was to democratically elect Supreme Court Judges, and there was also a focus on "moral values" and of the family.
The latter drew my thoughts to Roger Bartra´s earlier characterization of AMLO as a conservative populist


Well, now we know. AMLO broke his earlier promises and has now launched his campaign for 2012 without waiting for anyone else. The next question will be: When and in what matter will he leave the PRD. 

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo against "vulgar pragmatism"? Please....

It is often noted that Porfirio Muñoz Ledo has held pretty much every high office in Mexico with the exception of the presidency. His political trajectory is certainly notable, as is his historic role in the democratic transition and the creation of the PRD. 

Muñoz Ledo, now 77, is reflecting on his life in a recent column in El Universal. Yet to hear this ultrapragmatic turncoat warn against "vulgar pragmatism" is a cruel joke. Muñoz Ledo was pretty much out of the public sight when he saw a chance to jump on AMLO's Legitimate Government project, rescuing him pretty much from political obscurity. In the process, the old social democrat - he was pretty much responsible for enrolling the PRD in the Socialist International - drastically radicalized, even warning of (calling for?) La Ruptura Que Viene. He left the PRI to join the PRD, then left the PRD to seek the presidency on the ticket of the now-extinct conservative PARM, then stepped down to support the PAN and Vicente Fox - for which he was rewarded with a nice ambassadorship - and now has resurfaced as a national deputy for the "Workers Party," the PT - which is absolutely anything but a workers party, but a purely opportunistic assemblage being utilized by - and is utilizing - AMLO. 

Happy birthday Porfirio, may you live long and well - but please, don't call the kettle black. 

Bit step forward in SME/Luz y Fuerza conflict

Legislators from all over the political spectrum rightly hailed the resumption of direct dialogue between the Mexican Syndicate of Electricians, SME, and the recently appointed interior minister, José Francisco Blake Mora. It is a big step forward from the intransigent and utterly unproductive line of former interior minister Fernando Gómez Mont. Good riddance, again.  

Ebrard: "I don't have anything to do there"

Ahead of Sunday's mass rally at the Zocalo, Ebrard made it clear that he would not attend, and as well that the Zócalo "does not belong to anyone" - even AMLO. Self-evident truths, and there is no particular reason why Ebrard should attend the rally, which starts at 10 am Sunday, but in today's political climate everything will be read in the light of the increasing tensions between Ebrard and AMLO. For instance, Ebrard's insistance that AMLO's rally (which could be the start of his presidential campaign, in particularly if he leaves the PRD) is merely  "a meeting like every other."

Ortega until 2011?

Ebrard and a range of governors are pushing for PRD President Jesús Ortega to stay on until August 2011, when the last round of state elections ends before the 2012 presidential election. 


Before the andresmanualistas and bejaranistas start howling "¡Continuismo! it is worth recalling that while Ortega's 3-year tenure was supposed to start in March 2008, when he won the internal PRD elections, this heavily disputed and dirty election was not settled until November 2008 by the courts.  It therefore makes quite sense that he would serve for the period for which he actually was elected.  


A bit more from La Jornada here. 

New "social democratic" party in DF

Senator René Arce, aware that his chances of becoming the PRD's mayoral candidate in Mexico City evaporated after the Iztapalapa debacle in 2009, has now declared he will form a new party. Arce's claims that the new party will "not be founded on populism, the returning of favors and clientelism" rings rather hollow given his group's resorting to these very same mechanism's in their former stronghold of Iztapalapa. 


The new party, which apparently will attract a range of former perredistas and members of the now-extint Partido Socialdemócrata, will nonetheless likely serve to hurt the PRD's chances of retaining Mexico City. 

When the shoe is on the other foot: PAN government impugns IFE

Here's a first: For the first time since the IFE's creation, the Federal government takes IFE to court (the TEPJF) for its recent resolution on President Felipe Calderón's electoral interference. (IFE decided Calderón had violated the constitution  by proselytizing ahead of the July 4 elections).