Castro follows tradition by congratulating Enrique Peña Nieto

Cuban dictator Raúl Castro follows in the tradition - and office - he inherited from brother Fidel:

After the 1988 election, despite widespread and well-documented fraud accusations, Carlos Salinas received congratulatory calls from a few leaders who didn't want to bother awaiting the official certification of the election (after any and all complaints have been dealt with): From Ronald Reagan, and from Cuba's Fidel Castro.

Now, Enrique Peña Nieto has received quite a few more, even though AMLO has announced he will impugn the election, and PRI's victorywill then not be official - and Enrique Peña Nieto the president-elect - until early September. Among the first calls he received was from Barack Obama - and Raúl Castro.

Source:
Mandatarios felicitan a Peña Nieto. El Universal, July 7, 2012.

Trotsky's grandson

Esteban Volkov, Trotsky's grandson and the only living witness to his murder, is 86 years old and still going strong. A recent interview with Volkov in El País, is well worth reading, and not just for the fascinating personal context: There's also a note on current politics:

Volkov likes to be informed, read newspapers and surf the Internet. He applauds the indignados movement, "a raising of the youth's awareness about an archaic system."

(I also just happened to get hold of Salazar's "Murder in Mexico" and Dugrand's "Trotsky in Mexico," from an Irish bookstore of all places - great summer reading!)

Source:  Esteban Volkov, nieto de León Trotski: “Sin memoria no hay futuro”. El País, July 8, 2012.

PRI mayor's brother murders PRD councilman in Nuevo León

The dead body of Tomás Betancourt Gaytán was found with a clean PRI t-shirt on it.

Betancourt was a councilor in the Nuevo León town of Benito Juárez. He was coordinator of AMLO's MORENA electoral movement in the city, and right before the elections received a visit by four men who beat him up and kidnapped him. He was found dead two days later, two bullets in his head and two in his chest - but with a squeaky clean PRI shirt on him.

The man signaled as behind the murder is Mauro García Garza, a former police and brother of Luis Alfredo García Garza, who is currently the PRI mayor of Benito Juárez. He is now a fugitive.



Source:
Ligan a hermano de alcalde en NL con asesinato de regidor del PRD. La Jornada, July 7, 2012.