Manuel Bartlett, now with... Morena!

Manuel Bartlett, former Puebla governor, is in many ways the epitomy of the old-style prinosaurio or PRI dinosaur. Many know him from the infamous fraud in 1988, when he doubled as both head of the interior secretariat and head of the federal electoral commission arranging the elections and producing the results, which were most likely drastically altered to favor Carlos Salinas.

I am working on a book and have been re-reading up on much recent political history, and found it interesting how Bartlett, who became Puebla governor 1993-1999, nearly derailed the crucial 1996 electoral reform in Mexico. When PAN won the Huejotzingo municipality in a state election in 1995, the state electoral commission, pushed by Bartlett, annulled the PAN's victory and handed it back to PRI. Due to this outrage, PAN left national negotiations over electoral reform, with the result that President Ernesto Zedillo himself had to intervene to push Bartlett to acknowledge PAN's victory.

Fast forward to the present. We now learn that this old PRI hack is now in negotiations to become a candidate for the senate in 2012.

Yet as whose candidate?

None other than that of AMLO's Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (Morena).
In terms of political conversions and opportunism, this one is hard to beat.

Humberto Moreira's Coahuila treasurer arrested

Bad news for PRI president and former Coahuila governor Humberto Moreira: Javier Villareal Hernández. who was the treasurer of his government, was arrested yesterday, accused of, among other acts,  falsifying official state documents so as to obtain financial credit for the heavily indebted government led by Moreira.

Moreira has pathetically denounced this and related events as part of a "dirty war" against him, not giving any substantial answer or rebuttal to the charges. His situation as PRI president is becoming ever more untenable.

More details as well from El Universal

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas gets Mexico's highest medal, call for army to barracks

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas finally received the Medalla Belisario Domínguez, and used the occasion to call, in his speech, for  withdrawing the army in the fight against Mexico's drug cartels, and instead leave it to a civilian law enforcement body. Wise words.

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.