Support for democracy sharply down in Mexico: The Economist/Latinobarómetro

Very worrisome figures from Mexico: In an Economist article, based on data from the Chilean Latinobarómetro, absolute support for democracy - "preferable to any other type of government" - is down to 40 percent, a whopping 9 percent drop from 2011. In fact, Only Honduras and Guatemala, with 43 and 36 percent respectively, score lower.

Here's the graphic, courtesy of The Economist:

From The Economist

Lula, in Mexico, scolds the PRD

Brazil's former president, the wildly popular Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is in Mexico for a range of meetings and conferences, and also to receive the newly instituted honor Amalia Solórzano de Cárdenas, named after the much-beloved wife of Lázaro Cárdenas. There, he used the occasion to scold the PRD, and deservedly so, for its almost complete lack of party unity, and specifically its inability to do its dirty laundry at home and not in public.

Wise words.

Michoacán governor election: PRI literally buying votes

From the "New PRI," which is looking every bit like the old PRI of Mexico's authoritarian past:

In Michoacán, PRI candidate for governor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa is literally handing out money at campaign events. It is no joke: From 500 to 1500 pesos, or around 40-120 dollars, to a range of people at campaign rallies. Both the PRD and PAN have launched complaints with the state electoral council.

And the best - worst, that is - part? Vallejo has absolutely no shame in admitting it: 

"Don't confuse a humanitarian act with handouts. Politics is for serving the human being, with principles and values, but when you look at this as something perverse, it is degenerated."

So Vallejo is not himself engaging in anything "perverse" by buying votes, but merely engaging in a humanitarian act. I am glad he cleared that up.

Guns for laptops in Chiapas

Citizens of Chiapas had the opportunity the past days to hand in their weapons in return for laptops, and military and state authorities received a total of 871 firearms the past couple of days.

Part of a drive to reduce the number of weapons in the state, the guns were destroyed in a public ceremony attended by Governor Juan Sabines and a military commander.

What a wonderful idea.

Drunk on power... literally

Federal deputies from the PRD, PT, and PAN complained over their legislative colleagues from the PRI, apparently particularly those from Mexico State, for drinking alcohol and being drunk in the Chamber of Deputies. The legislative session was even suspended as a results.

My apologies, but hard to resist the cliche: Given the leading position of their political boss Enrique Peña Nieto in the polls, and their successful blocking of Calderón's Political Reform and the appointment of the the three unfulfilled IFE councilor positions, is the PRI drunk on power as well?

More on PRD internal election, in bullet form

* The heads of the PRD factions meet to lick their wounds and attempt a "reconciliation," with new elections scheduled for next weekend in the five states where they were not held this Sunday.

* But Dolores Padierna/René Bejarano of the IDN faction, which has caused so much trouble and discredit of the party, was not there.

* Earlier, IDN claimed it had intercepted a trailer or two of handouts, but offered no evidence, nor did it report the alleged incident to the authorities.

* And in a very open attack on Ebrard, IDN even demanded that Ebrard leave the PRD!

* Former party president Jesús Ortega blamed IDN for the turmoil this past weekend, arguing it is part of IDN's strategy to discredit the PRD and Ebrard in order to promote the candidacy of AMLO.

* Pro-AMLO groups also demand the cancellation of election in other states where it appears their opponents won.

* The Mexico City government, through Secretary of Government José Ángel Ávila, denied that it had anything to do with the elections.

* Marcelo Ebrard, from Kuwait: The 2012 candidacy will not be decided by "whomever screams the loudest," the perennial strategy of Padierna et al.

* PRD in Mexico City, its main bastion, continues in an absolute mess, directly a result of the fights between pro-anti Ebrard factions.

All, in other words, is normal in the PRD

PRI president call for alliance with Elba Esther Gordillo and SNTE

PRI's scandal-ridden national president Humberto Moreira Valdés called openly for an alliance with the discredited SNTE teachers union and its "president-for-life" Elba Esther Gordillo.

Gordillo and her PANAL party might contribute 2-3 percent to the PRI's 2012 candidate.
Enrique Peña Nieto, to be sure, is also in favor.
So much, of course, for the "new PRI."

On a different note, yet another PRI elite calling for Moreira to step down as PRI president: Former Governor Miguel Alemán Velasco of Veracruz (the son of the former president), and still quite a big shot in the party.