Movimiento Antorcha Campesina: Very far from a "social movement"

Recently, Milenio reported that the Antorcha Campesina, or the "Torch of the Peasant," has in 2011 carried out twice the number of demonstrations than in 2011, so far totaling 265. More than 300,000 persons have participated in the marches, which have created chaos in the streets of Mexico City - despite the organization hailing from Mexico State. Some of the demonstrations have turned into week-long encampments in central parts of the city.

What do they want? Ostensibly, funds from the federal government for the development of their communities, though they often target institutions and buildings of Mexico City. Beyond what are pretty much blackmail techniques - give us money, or we'll create chaos - the organization has also on occasions been highly prone to violence, and has since its murky origins in the 1970s as a quite paramilitary organization, been absolutely controlled by the PRI. The Mexico State branch of PRI has now increasingly used the Antorcha as shock troops to embarrass both the current and past PRD administrations of Mexico City, as well as the federal PAN government (see a useful graphic below for a comparison 2010-11), rallying thousands of participants through clientelist means, and then sending them off in hundreds of buses  to DF. As a thank-you from the PRI-led Mexico State government, they are allowed to run a scheme of thousands of pirate taxis in particular in the municipalities in the Valle de México in that state.

(in June 2009, in the Azteca stadium, when the Antorcha celebrated its 35th anniversary, the main person of the event was Enrique Peña Nieto. They also operate in many other states, though always against PAN and PRD governments.)

This is an absolute perversion and abuse of the mechanisms of popular demonstrations that under the guise of "freedom of expression" essentially terrorizes a big part of the city's population. Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has been cautious toward the organization, likely not to provoke any further chaos, given the almost limitless right of Mexicans to hold demonstrations, even when it seriously affects a great number of people negatively. PAN has recently urged the law to be changed, in order to regulate the marches, which to me seems a fair demand: There simply must be some kind of balance between an organizations right to demonstrate vs. shutting parts of an entire city down - as indeed other democracies maintain.

AMLO disqualifies new head of Mexico's Electoral Tribunal

Mexico's federal electoral tribunal, TEPJF, may have a new president in Alejandro Luna Ramos, but Andrés Manuel López Obrador already has disqualified him as belonging to the "power mafia," and that he will thus not serve to guarantee impartiality in the 2012 elections.

Disqualifying the Electoral Tribunal even before the 2012 contest has officially begun certainly is not a promising sign.

TEPJF president Luna Ramos is the only remaining judge on the tribunal from the 2006 presidential election, which AMLO continues to claim, with no evidence, was fraudulent. TEPJF voted unanimously to declare Felipe Calderón the winner in 2006, though it did acknowledge many irregularities.

A recent article in Proceso by Álvaro Delgado, which is highly critical of Luna Ramos, is also worth a read, even if a tad tendentious.

A defeat for Elba Esther Gordillo in Oaxaca: Piñeyro is out

After much pressure, governor Gabino Cué of Oaxaca fired his Government Secretary, essentially his second-in-command, Irma Piñeyro Arias. A former gubernatorial candidate for the PANAL party who dropped out in favor of Cué, she is an ally of the powerful SNTE head Elba Esther Gordillo. Her resignation is as such a defeat for Gordillo, and a victory in particular for the "dissident" wing of SNTE in Oaxaca, Section 22, which has long demanded her resignation. New Government secretary is Jesús Martínez Álvarez, who was notably governor briefly in the mid-1980s.

New surprise head of Mexico's Electoral Tribunal: Alejandro Luna Ramos

Alejandro Luna Ramos was elected, by oral vote by his fellow peers, as the new head of Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación (TEPJF), by 5 out of 7 magistrates (His sister, Margarita Beatriz Luna Ramos, is a Supreme Court judge).

Outgoing TEPJF president María del Carmen Alanís, failed to achieve her reelection. Not only that; in a quite shocker vote, her reelection was backed by only one vote: her own. She has been considered by many to be a tad too friendly to the PRI. Relations have been at times quite acrimonious between Alanís and the other TEPJF members. As far as 2012 goes, a broader consensus for the new head of Mexico's highest electoral court can only be a positive thing.

Michoacán: Government Secretary says reconcile with drug gangs

A quite notable lack of harmony from the Michoacán state government: The Government Secretary, Rafael Melgoza, suggested that the drug gangs should "reconcile" with the people and community.

Also these people who are engaged in this illegal activity have to reconcile, it sounds bad to express this phrase, but they need to reconcile, they must reconcile these illegal activities that they perform  with the interests of peoples and communities."

Shortly thereafter, the state government, led by Leonel Godoy, sent out a press bulletin distancing itself from what was said by its Government Secretary, essentially the second in command of the state government.

Mexican political parties: They've cost 37 billion pesos since 2000.

Since the coming of democracy in Mexico in 2000, the costs to Mexican taxpayers of financing the country's political parties have been close to 37 billion pesos, Centro de Documentación, Información y Análisis of the Mexican congress reports.

* In this period, nine parties disappeared, despite receiving 1.9 billion pesos in subsidies
* PAN has received around 10, the same as PRI, while PRD has received 5.7 billion.

However, minor parties receive a disproportionately high amount: The Green Party, which has absolutely nothing to do with environmentalism but is a franchise party at the service of the highest bidder, has received over 3 billion pesos. PT: 2.5 billion pesos, and Convergencia 2.2. PANAL of Elba Esther Gordillo received almost 1.2 billion pesos, despite existing only since 2006.

It seems to me the state subsidy to parties is in quite a few cases perverted by minor parties who are in it primarily for one reason: To get their hands on this money. This is about as far away from the original goal as possible, namely to further democracy by ensuring a plurality of party options. I strongly support state subsidies of parties, but this is undermining the entire practice.

State level changes 2008-2010 show rising poverty in PRI states

Here's a graphic from Milenio that shows 1) the  number of social program beneficiaries (Oportunidades, 70 y más, Empleo temporal and Liconsa), a proxy for the number of poor, 2) the percentage of poverty in the poorest states, and the most interesting, 3) the change in poverty rates from the crisis in 2008 until 2010 - not all states had more poor, but those run by the PRI tend to have the worst numbers, with exception of PAN-run Guanajuato. See graphic: