PAN, now with code of ethics

This is just too funny: Barely a few weeks before the PAN will leave the federal government, beat by the old ruling party it ousted in 2000, the rightwing party has suddenly pronounced a new ethics code that aims to set up the "complete autonomy" of the party vis-a-vis the federal government.

According to the document,

The structures of governance should not be confused with the party structures. The permanent temptation of reproducing the model of the party of the state should be rejected institutionally. 

Yes, it is a hell lot easier to discover that one's party should be autonomous of the government - and not merely reproducing the vices of the PRI, where the party and the state were most often inseparable - just as you are about to leave.

It would ring a lot less hollow if the PAN - which copied so many of PRI's nefarious practices and in the end almost fully corrupted its once-vaunted party organization - would have attempted any such move during any one of the twelve years it actually held national power.

Source:
Panistas se imponen código de ética. El Universal, Oct. 7, 2012

Mexico 2006 ballots finally to be destroyed

With the final decision of IFE, Mexico's institute responsible for organizing elections, to destroy what remains of the ballots used in Mexico's contentious 2006 election, that saga seems to be coming to an end.

IFE's general council also agreed to destroy the 2012 ballots.

A couple of years after the fraudulent 1988 election, PRI and PAN conspired, following a deal with Carlos Salinas and Diego Fernández de Cevallos, Diego, to have the ballots burned so as to remove forever any possibility of finally knowing the extent of the fraud that brought Salinas to power.

Yet one should be very careful with any analogies to 2006 here. In 1988, all opposition candidates claimed that fraud had taken place, and much evidence surfaced to back the claim. After July 2, 2006, AMLO was the sole candidate to claim fraud took place - as he claimed in 2012 as well. Yet not one single investigation has uncovered the slightest evidence that AMLO won more votes than Calderón, or that any massive fraurd took place where ballots were altered in any systematic way favoring the PAN candidate.

It is understandable that this is still a touchy issue for many, especially those individuals and organizations who have repeatedly sought access to the 2006 ballots. Yet IFE has pretty good reasons for wanting them burned. The institute is, for sure, required by law to dispose of electoral material after the final verdict has been passed on an election, but other motives are quite mundane: Money. It has so far cost the institute more than half a billion pesos to store them, and half a billion pesos more for the army to store them.

And the clincher: Despite the billion pesos spent, much of the ballots are already so rotten and decayed that they are useless in any case.

But the larger point should not be forgotten: Even if much of the ballots were not already destroyed, there is no reason to think that any full recount would alter the result in any significant way.
It seems to me that it is therefore time to let go.

Source:
Acuerda el IFE eliminar boletas. El Universal, Oct. 4, 2012

PAN party may slash membership in half

Mexico's rightwing party the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), is doing exactly what its left counterpart the PRD undertook last year: A purge of its party rolls, long outdated and bloated, and prone to manipulation. It's about time.

The party's devastating internal fights over national candidacies ahead of the July 1, 2012 federal election exposed a party that is only a shadow of its former self: Massive corruption, vote-buying, coercion, and a rash of truly indigestible candidates, whose incompetence and corruption should ban then from even serving as ticket takers at the local movie theater, let alone national lawmakers.

While he turned a blind eye to much of this, in order to at least try to curb the practices of clientelism and vote-buying, PAN leader Gustavo Madero, is launching a campaign where members will have to reaffirm their membership, and where the burden thus falls on the individual member to do so: Prove that you exist and that you are an active member so that we know you're real -and the burden of proof falls on the member, who will have to appear in person with party and voter credentials at their local office, or else.

Jan. 6, 2012, the party will publish its "updated" membership rolls. Madero suggested its membership rolls may well be cut in half. It will be very interesting to see what states these "ghost members" will particularly appear in. My money is on Veracruz and Nuevo León in particular

Source:
Inicia PAN depuración de padrón de afiliados. El Universal, Oct. 1, 2012
AN puede reducir 50% su padrón. El Universal, Oct. 2, 2012

The plagiarizing senator with no shame

This is just plain embarrassing, and should be grounds for disqualification for even being considered a national political candidate, let alone for a senate seat: Plagiarism in your academic thesis.

But alas, PAN still decided to nominate María del Pilar Ortega Martínez as a suplente, or alternate/substitute candidate, as it were for the late Alonso Lujambio, which means she was just "promoted" to occupy his senate seat for the remainder of the 6-year term, which has just started.

The short story: Ortega Martínez was in 2008 revealed to have handed in a thesis for Harvard University, no less, that was simply lifted from the works of others, and to boot put together in final form by her own staff! Reportedly  dr. Kelly Gallagher of Harvard as a consequence sought to have her expelled from the university. I wonder what kind of interventions took place behind the scenes to protect the then-federal deputy.

It speaks to just how low the conservative PAN has sunk when it comes to the quality of their nominations for national office.

Here's a photo of the now-Senator. Sin vergüenza!

SPD Noticias

Source:
Suplente de Lujambio “plagió” en Harvard. El Universal, Sept. 26, 2012

Tribunal confirms last disputed Mexico City delegations

Mexico's highest electoral court TEPJF confirmed yesterday earlier verdicts of Mexico City's local tribunal: PRD retains its victory in Miguel Hidalgo, while PRI/PVEM won the delegation Cuajimalpa.

PRD was also close to winning Cuajimalpa, while it was also competitive in Benito Juárez, the only two delegations not run by the party after the 2012 local elections, which happened at the same day as the national election

The left's dominance in Mexico City, where it also has the mayor, is illustrated by this graphic over the city's 16 delegations: One for PAN, one for PRI, and 14 for the PRD.



Source:
Cuajimalpa al PRI; M. Hidalgo al PRD. El Universal, Sept. 27, 2012

Mexico's labor reform... screeches to a halt

Some quite interesting dynamics regarding president Calderón's proposed Labor Reform / Reforma laboral recently.

A few weeks ago, Calderón sent the reform to the Chamber of Deputies using the "preferred initiative" clause, which given changes to the Constitution a few months ago meant Congress had to act on it before the end of this month, or else it would pass automatically - essentially a "fast-track" provision.

It did. El Universal reports today that the labor reform has come to a screeching halt, where already key provisions have been changed or taken out by the the receiving commission.
Here's a nice graphic on the exact changes, so far:



The PAN has strongly backed the reform, the PRD and other left forces strongly opposed it, with the PRI quite split. PRD and PRI have also found positive aspects of the reform, though they certainly do not agree on what those are.

The PRD agreed to items such as democracy, accountability, and transparency within unions - a rarity in Mexico - but charged it a smokescreen to cover up the reform's real pro-business agenda. Indeed, it is a key component of the reform to loosen labor regulations, making it easier to hire and fire, but it is far from clear what this entails. Reuters noted the reform seeks to "often Mexico's antiquated labor laws and force its trade unions to become more transparent," though this reads a bit more like a government press release than an analysis of the reform. I have yet to find the full proposal online to look at it more closely.

The business council, the CCE, said it approved of the reform "without reservations" but also said it supported looking at proposals from the PRD.

AMLO claimed the reform was part of a deal between Calderón and Peña Nieto, but as usual whenever AMLO makes a declaration, he has little factual evidence for anything. It sure may be, though - and the interesting part is not so much that Peña Nieto did indeed back the reform, but that big sectors of the PRI, including the group around Manlio Fabio Beltrones, opposed sections of it on union transparency, exactly as they know well that these initiatives could greatly undermine PRI strength in the far from democratic unions still attached to the party. PRI unions have, for sure, greatly opposed the reform.

Why did Did Peña Nieto back it openly if he knew PRI would likely oppose it? Is he more of a reformist than imagined, or was it merely a ploy to buy some cover? It will in any case be very interesting to see how the relations will develop between the incoming president and his party, which is a far more heterogeneous coalition than they were last time the PRI held power, 1994-2000.

As for his initiatives, Peña Nieto may find that he will also have a formidable opponent in Congress in his very own party.

Source:
Sindicatos rechazan someterse a auditoría. El Universal, Sept. 3, 2012
PRD alista cambios a reforma laboral. El Universal, Sept. 19, 2012
Empresarios impulsan aval a iniciativa de FCH. El Universal, Sept. 18, 2012
PRD no se levantará de mesa de negociación. El Universal, Sept. 21, 2012
Oposición rechaza la reforma laboral. El Universal, Sept. 18, 2012
Iniciativa traerá frustración y resentimiento: AMLO. El Universal, Sept. 20, 2012
Mexico's Pena Nieto optimistic on labor reform bill. Reuters, Sept. 19, 2012

Vargas Llosa: No return of "perfect dictatorship"

Noted:

Mario Vargas Llosa, who after deeming the PRI regime a "perfect dictatorship" on live national television in 1990 was kicked out of Mexico the very next day, said recently he does not see PRI's return to national power in the form of president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto as a return to said "perfect dictatorship."

The Peruvian (and nationalized Spaniard) writer said he believed PRI would now "play in the diversity of democracy."

He also denounced Calderón's "drug war" as insensata, meaning foolish or even insane, and said he hoped Peña Nieto would change what he termed a strategy of repression:

We must look for alternative measures, such as those being proposed by many. Experiment with legalization, and instead of spending the huge sums on drug trafficking instead invest them in prevention, healing, and rehabilitation

Amen.

Source:
Vargas Llosa descarta regreso de la “dictadura perfecta”. El Universal, Sept. 19, 2012