If elected, AMLO will appoint Adolfo Hellmund López as his energy secretary. Yet another nod to the Monterrey business group: Hellmund is a businesman with a Master's from MIT.
I wonder what his North Korea-praising allies in the PT think of this choice.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Moments in poor photo shopping exposed - check out on youtube
This is almost worthy of Stalin's photo shopping himself in (and Trotsky out of) old Russian photos:
Look at this quick video.
Yes, that is Marco Antonio Morales Liévano, a nephew of Elba Esther Gordillo, seemingly photoshopping himself into a picture next to PRI presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, in order to boost his chances of winning the nomination for PRI candidate for mayor of Comitán, Chiapas.
Would you want this guy to be your mayor?
The original picture from El Universal
Look at this quick video.
Yes, that is Marco Antonio Morales Liévano, a nephew of Elba Esther Gordillo, seemingly photoshopping himself into a picture next to PRI presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, in order to boost his chances of winning the nomination for PRI candidate for mayor of Comitán, Chiapas.
Would you want this guy to be your mayor?
The original picture from El Universal
Political drama: Break PRI-Gordillo
Front page in all main Mexican newspapers: PRI president Pedro Joaquín Coldwell announced the PRI's electoral alliance with PANAL is over.
This is very dramatic political news: It has been known for a while that grassroots discontent in PRI surged given the extremely generous terms in favor of PANAL, the party controlled by teacher union head Elba Esther Gordillo, and the PVEM, the misnamed "Green party." As for the latter, there was much criticism of the blatant nepotism from Gordillo, who wanted both her daughter and son-in-law as candidates for the senate- as well as a disproportionate number of other senate and legislative seats.
Yet crucially, as far as I can see, this means that any alliance for a common candidate for presidential election - that Gordillo would back Peña Nieto - is also over.
Coldwell, who confirmed the alliance with the PVEM (for now?), said of Gordillo and PANAL: "It is not a rupture, it is an amicable separation." That is simply not true: This is a huge political rupture.
Just a few days ago, we also learned that PRI Chiapas Senator María Elena Orantes López renounced from the PRI, after weeks of wavering, wreaking havoc on the local as well as the national party organization.
I can't wait to learn more about the background for this. Did Gordillo get a better offer from PAN? Did she push it simply too far, and PRI realized her support just cost it too much?
But the good news is, from my point of view: The 2012 race just got a lot more competitive. A lot.
This is very dramatic political news: It has been known for a while that grassroots discontent in PRI surged given the extremely generous terms in favor of PANAL, the party controlled by teacher union head Elba Esther Gordillo, and the PVEM, the misnamed "Green party." As for the latter, there was much criticism of the blatant nepotism from Gordillo, who wanted both her daughter and son-in-law as candidates for the senate- as well as a disproportionate number of other senate and legislative seats.
Yet crucially, as far as I can see, this means that any alliance for a common candidate for presidential election - that Gordillo would back Peña Nieto - is also over.
Coldwell, who confirmed the alliance with the PVEM (for now?), said of Gordillo and PANAL: "It is not a rupture, it is an amicable separation." That is simply not true: This is a huge political rupture.
Just a few days ago, we also learned that PRI Chiapas Senator María Elena Orantes López renounced from the PRI, after weeks of wavering, wreaking havoc on the local as well as the national party organization.
I can't wait to learn more about the background for this. Did Gordillo get a better offer from PAN? Did she push it simply too far, and PRI realized her support just cost it too much?
But the good news is, from my point of view: The 2012 race just got a lot more competitive. A lot.
Assault on Abortion rights in Mexico - The Nation
A belated mention of an article I highly recommend, from The Nation and written by Mary Cuddehe:
"Mexico's Anti-Abortion Backlash."
"Mexico's Anti-Abortion Backlash."
Rosario. She was 20 and had recently completed a nine-month probation sentence. Her story was shocking to me at the time. She had taken abortion pills, fallen ill with nausea, gone to the hospital and been reported to the police. She said the staff had mistreated her, calling her names, completing the abortion surgically without anesthesia (which is standard) and allowing medical students into the room to take pictures with their cellphones..More than half of Mexico's states, mostly in PRI-PAN legislative alliances, have passed a ley aborto equivalent to the wacko "life at conception" laws recently defeated in the state of Mississippi. The article in particular highlights the state persecution of citizens in run by one of the most reactionary and ultra-right sections of the PAN political elite. Keep in mind, however, that most of the extremist legislation passed when alleged "progressive" Beatriz Paredes was PRI's national leader. She may well hold progressive views, but did not lift a finger to stop her party, traditionally quite secular, from allying with the traditionally pro catholic PAN.
... In 2009 in the southern state of Quintana Roo, a Mayan woman was wrongfully jailed for what turned out to be a spontaneous miscarriage, and in 2010 an 11-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather was denied an abortion because she was four months pregnant—one month past the allowable twelve weeks.Read this excellent and harrowing investigative piece of original reporting here.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Results of the poll that made Mancera candidate: Graphic
From Milenio: Notable is that Mancera is also ahead of PRI's Beatriz Paredes with upwards of 20 percent.
Watch live: Winner of poll to be left's Mexico City mayor candidate
Here's the live stream. Everything indicates it will be Miguel Mancera, after Alejandra Barrales cancelled her appearance and claimed "irregularities" in the poll to decide the left's candidate for Mexico city mayor 2012.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Two new political biographies: Marcelo Ebrard and Carlos Navarrete
Books in Mexico are indeed expensive, and not only in relative terms, but also in absolute terms: A thing paperback will easily go for 20-25 dollars, with much left wanting in terms of editing and organization. That does not stop me from spending way too much money on books on Mexican politics.
Two news ones I just went through: A biography of Marcelo Ebrard, and an auto-biography of Carlos Navarrete. The former I do not recommend; the latter I do.
The book by Alejandro Páez Varela on Marcelo Ebrard is not really that bad, and does offer some new insights on Ebrard, especially his trajectory in the 1990s. I did not know, for instance, that he went with Cárdenas in 1988, even if he stayed in the PRI, and the book also reminded he that he was an outspoken opponent of the FOBAPROA bank bailout in the late 1990s - something that likely endeared him to AMLO.
But the problem is this: There are too few sources, and the books is simply too thin, with large font, and virtually the entire book is printed elsewhere! That's right, as a chapter in the excellent edited volume Los Suspirantes by Jorge Zepeda Patterson, by the same editorial. Rip-off alert, indeed - and the chapter in Zepada's book is even better, as it has removed some unnecessary self-promotion by Páez' own projects. One additional weakness is that in the book, Páez lets his interview subjects simply talk, and presents their criticism of Ebrard (or praise) uncontested - there is little analysis and attempts to actually confront what they are saying, or corroborate their claims.
The second books is bye Senator Carlos Navarrete of the PRD, entitled De Frente. It is also pretty thin and clearly written with Navarrete's failed bid to be the lefts candidate for Mexico City in mind, but it is nonetheless a highly enjoyable read of Navarrete's political life, and includes some very interesting material on the Mexican left and the PRD. Did you know, for instance, that the PRD's parliamentary coordinator, ahead of Calderón's acceptance speech-ceremony in the Chamber of Deputies, which the PRD sought to block, had to make a last-minute desperate search to locate tear-gas granadesthat some deputies were planning to hurl during the ceremony (with likely injury and loss of life)? The coordinator, Javier González, successfully located the grenades, and stored them in his own car outside of congress...
There's also much more good recent material here, such as the 2008 oil reform of PEMEX, and AMLO's ridiculous blocking of a reform that his own advisers had largely drafted. Go and read it.
Two news ones I just went through: A biography of Marcelo Ebrard, and an auto-biography of Carlos Navarrete. The former I do not recommend; the latter I do.
The book by Alejandro Páez Varela on Marcelo Ebrard is not really that bad, and does offer some new insights on Ebrard, especially his trajectory in the 1990s. I did not know, for instance, that he went with Cárdenas in 1988, even if he stayed in the PRI, and the book also reminded he that he was an outspoken opponent of the FOBAPROA bank bailout in the late 1990s - something that likely endeared him to AMLO.
But the problem is this: There are too few sources, and the books is simply too thin, with large font, and virtually the entire book is printed elsewhere! That's right, as a chapter in the excellent edited volume Los Suspirantes by Jorge Zepeda Patterson, by the same editorial. Rip-off alert, indeed - and the chapter in Zepada's book is even better, as it has removed some unnecessary self-promotion by Páez' own projects. One additional weakness is that in the book, Páez lets his interview subjects simply talk, and presents their criticism of Ebrard (or praise) uncontested - there is little analysis and attempts to actually confront what they are saying, or corroborate their claims.
The second books is bye Senator Carlos Navarrete of the PRD, entitled De Frente. It is also pretty thin and clearly written with Navarrete's failed bid to be the lefts candidate for Mexico City in mind, but it is nonetheless a highly enjoyable read of Navarrete's political life, and includes some very interesting material on the Mexican left and the PRD. Did you know, for instance, that the PRD's parliamentary coordinator, ahead of Calderón's acceptance speech-ceremony in the Chamber of Deputies, which the PRD sought to block, had to make a last-minute desperate search to locate tear-gas granadesthat some deputies were planning to hurl during the ceremony (with likely injury and loss of life)? The coordinator, Javier González, successfully located the grenades, and stored them in his own car outside of congress...
There's also much more good recent material here, such as the 2008 oil reform of PEMEX, and AMLO's ridiculous blocking of a reform that his own advisers had largely drafted. Go and read it.
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