AMLO in Spain

Spain is the country with the second largest investments in Mexico, and AMLO just went there for his first-ever trip to promote his presidential candidacy. The main message appears indeed to have been directed toward business sectors:

We think that we should not continue privatizing what little remains. It has been excessive. But that does not mean that the the country's public economy will be nationalized. We can't have a state which stifles civil society initiatives, but nor are we in favor of diluting the state and that only a group with dark intentions, such as in our country, dominates.

So in sum, no nationalizations, though there are good and bad capitalists. Let's see if the Spanish investors are convinced. Not sure if they necessarily bought his characterization of both Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon as "traitors" to democracy.

On abortion, youth gives a tad of hope for the future - of sorts

According to an UNAM poll, while among adults, 55.5 percent agree that women who have an abortion should be punished, "only" 44 percent of youth (defined between 12 and 29 years).

61 percent of youth are against gay adoptions, vs. 69 percent of adults.

More info on the survey, which appears to have involved more than 50,000 respondents, here.

1-800-call-God, a la mexicana: Catolitel

This is a very bad idea. The Archdiocese of Mexico, through its venomous spokesperson Hugo Valdemar, announced the launch of Catolitel, or a call center where citizens can phone in to partake in the church's wisdom in matters religious and moral, but as well as practical matters in life.

Why bad? Because the Archdiocese of Mexico, given but not limited to its protection of pederasts and rapists, its incessant harassment of gays, and its ludicrous and damaging fight against any type of birth control, is truly the last institution in Mexico that should give anyone advice about any topic remotely connected to the living world.

Mexico 2012 poll for PAN's candidate: Big MO for Josefina Vázquez Mota

The poll comes from Gabinete de Comunicación Estratégica, a polling company I must admit I do not fully trust to be devoid of political considerations, but here it is regardless: Josefina Vázquez Mota now has apparently majority support within the PAN to be her party's presidential nominee, and the momentum. Cordero is only growing very slowly, and Creel appears to have peaked:

From Milenio 

Ebrard proposes "coalition government"

Marcelo Ebrard yesterday said that Mexico needs a constitutional reform so that a coalition government is possible.

This is highly relevant, but begs the question(s): What exactly does he have in mind?
A parliamentary regime? A semi-presidential regime?
Ebrard suggests "to separate the head of state from chief of government," which sounds very much like a variation of one of these two regimes. Does it also refer to a coalition government of PRD-PAN?

He also speaks of the need for legislative majorities. Indeed, no governing party has had a majority in Congress since 1997. Does that mean a more formalized legislative alliance? A common program, common legislative slates?

Hopefully more is to come here, as this is potentially really significant stuff.

AMLO's Wilson Center appearance: A wasted opportunity

I watched AMLO's presentation at the Wilson Center in DC today, via Web cast, and can't say I'm too impressed. As expected, the speech was very general in character and contained nothing new - summaries can soon be found elsewhere. Two quick commentaries on what bothered me in particular.

1) One the one hand, AMLO at times clearly states what he is "going to do" - as president. One act will be to get rid of Elba Esther Gordillo as head of the teachers union, building refineries, etc. Great - and applause followed. But almost in the next breath, when confronted by an El Universal reporter who point out that this sounds like his official presentation of his campaign platform, AMLO is very quick to respond that, oh no, this is not a campaign act at all, he is merely presenting the program of MORENA, his civil association. He again demonstrates that the laws that bind other candidates simply do not apply do him.

2) The Q & A was also a completely wasted opportunity. The quality of the questions left much to be desired (and Peter Hakim took far too long to get to his point, which I and it seems AMLO as well lost) - and the last "question" was particularly embarrassing, as some academic, rather than using the important occasion to ask a concrete question, wasted the privilege by just expressing how she is honored to be with AMLO. But even those questions that did have some nutritional content and were quite concrete, had no effect on AMLO rather than eliciting long-winded, meandering banal generalities. "Will you pact with narcos?" "What the country needs is education, values, spiritual values, bla bla bla."

Given that AMLO was quite concrete earlier when he spelled out what he would do, it seems to me that it is not for fear of being accused of campaigning that he cannot give a straight reply to any concrete questions, but rather, when called out in front of an audience, he simply does not have any good answers.

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.