Encinas backtracks on "consultation," says Oaxaca different but not why

After the good news from the PRD's national political commission that it would put the question on a possible alliance with the PRD out to a party base vote, Encinas now somewhat disingenuously says he has heard nothing of it, and will reject a PAN alliance regardless. So much for listening to the "people." Encinas also says the case of Oaxaca, where the PRD in a successful alliance ended the disastrous reign of the PRI, is different from Mexico State, though he does not tell us why. Wasn't the main objective to get rid of a 80-odd year PRI monopoly, which thanks to a barrage of dubious or outright illegal measures could only be defeated by a broad coalition?

I wish Encinas could be a bit more independent from AMLO; with all due respect for Encinas long political trajectory, anytime AMLO has said jump, Encinas has jumped. One can even regard his very candidacy at least partly as such; AMLO pushed him hard, in private and in public, when his utterly disastrous postulation of Yeidckol Polevnsky saw his own backers leave him.

AMLO´s candidate in Mexico State made up holocaust story

AMLO's choice as his candidate for governor in Mexico State, Yeidckol Polevnsky, has been criticized for a range of reasons, most obviously that she lost badly in her previous attempt (2005) and has minuscule chances of winning in 2011, but also for the reason that as federal senator, she has been very far from a champion of left causes, and has moreover displayed a range of what can only be described as personal failings. It was early revealed that Polevnsky had changed her name and lied about her family lineage, which still remains highly opaque to put it lightly, yet now a further v detail has come to light:

Luis Sánchez Jiménez, the leader of PRD in Mexico State and a former national deputy and mayor of Neza, claims that Polevnsky, in seeking to ingratiate herself with Mexico's Jewish community, made up a story that her grandparents died in the Holocaust.

I find there are few reasons to doubt this story; Sánchez Jiménez is, to use a quaint label, a most honorable man who enjoys great respect both within and outside the PRD, who, unlike Polevnsky and for that matter AMLO himself has an impeccable political trajectory within the political left.
(Let's not forget that AMLO remained a priísta during Mexico's fateful 1988 presidential election, only to later be convinced by Cuahutémoc Cárdenas to join what would become the PRD).

Yet to the leader of Mexico State's PRD chapter, enough is enough: The party is fed up with AMLO's attempt to force upon it Polevnsky as its candidate for governor. The recent revelation, as numerous others, further does not speak well of AMLO's judgment in his choice of Polevnsky as his anointed candidate.

AMLO's farce in Mexico State: Yeidckol Polevnsky would decline for Encinas

While Alejandro Encinas has repeatedly denied the possibility of being the candidate of the left in Mexico State, for the very simple reason that he does not meet the residency requirement of actually having lived in the state for quite some time, he apparently is having a change of heart these days, following rumors of heavy pressure from AMLO given the postulation of Yeidckol Polevnsky as his candidate, which has led to a rebellion among AMLO´s own ranks. It is hard to see that this will succeed, and moreover, this also would depend on whether the PRD wants him as its candidate: As Jesús Ortega, head of the PRD, succinctly stated regarding the candidacies: "it is not a matter of appearances for worshipers;  it is a democratic decision of party members." In other words, even if Encinas should magically find out that he still is eligible, his nomination is still not a shoe-in

Even so: Consider this. Yeidckol Polevnsky just declared  she would not hesitate to decline and back his bid. So when AMLO's "she's the one" handpicked candidate declares that she would immediately decline should another, and better, candidate appear, what does that say about her candidacy?

I am hard pressed to think of a more stark admission of her sub par qualities as a candidate.

Encinas reiterates: He will not be candidate, but backs Polevnsky

PRD's own santaclós lookalike, Alejandro Encinas, again made it clear he will not be a candidate for the left in Mexico State: For the umpteenth time, he has not been living there for quite some time, and as such does not fulfill the residency requirements. He does, however, use the occasion to note he has "40 percent support," though I doubt he'll try to push this one.

Sadly for the left, he does endorse the doomed, hapless candidacy of Yeidckol Polevnsky, though he clearly must know she doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of being elected in the state. Doubly sad, as he so obviously puts his loyalty a ultranza to AMLO ahead of a political project of the Left.

What is AMLO really doing? Photos like this makes one wonder

Having gone to great pains to identify Enrique Peña with reviled former President Carlos Salinas, showing at every possible occasion a blown up poster of the two together, it was more than a bit ironic that merely days after having been designated his candidate, pictures of a Yeidckol Polevnsky with Peña Nieto from an event this Monday would hit newspapers today. 

From La Jornada

180 degree turn: Yeidckol Polevnsky now denies being candidate

The sharp backlash to AMLO's "appointment" of Yeidckol Polevnsky as his candidate for governor in Mexico State is causing quite a turmoil in the AMLO camp: Now, Polevnsky  herself has made a pirouette and announced she is only a "proposal" and not a "candidate" - in sharp contrast to her stringent declarations the past couple of days where she demanded that the PRD line up behind her candidacy.

More quotes on Yeidckol Polevnsky: Backlash continues

From the Mexico State branch of the PT, Sergio Velarde:
"W have nothing against the senator and it is nothing personal, but she has no roots nor identity with the left in Mexico State"

From the Mexico state branch of Convergencia, Daniel Ríos:
"We are against the manner in which the designation was made, and we do not want to walk together with  Yeidckol, because when she ran [in 2004-5] she showed a total disregard of the state, and six years later we see who has done nothing for the entity, so now we have to be more cautious in the designation."

Expect AMLO to dismiss the reaction to his dedazo as the work of Salinas.

Yet the best quote goes to Yeidckol Polevnsky herself, in more than a bit of unintended irony:
"The PRD will need to back me because one cannot impose on the party bases an alliance that nobody wants." Indeed one can't.

AMLO's dedazo and brazen lie fractures his own coalition

AMLO's top-down heavily personalistic style has finally caught up with him: He is facing a significant rebellion even within his own and most loyal ranks, given his imposition of Yeidckol Polevnsky as "his" candidate for Mexico State in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

According to Daniel Ríos Ávila of Convergencia, AMLO had during his recent "Loyalty Tours" in Mexico State promised a poll/consultation/primary where leaders of Convergencia, PT, and PRD loyal to AMLO would together come up with the best-positioned candidate. This was to take place in January. Yet merely three days after the mass meeting in Toluca where AMLO concluded his 125-municipality tour, it was announced that he had already settled on Yeidckol Polevnsky after conducting his own "poll," apparently. Absolutely no figures have been released here; AMLO's allies were simply to take him on his word, which he already broke by his unilateral decision and appoint Yeidckol Polevnsky in the worst PRI-style dedazo - a party, to recall, that AMLO had belonged to his entire life until well after the infamous July 7, 1988 election, when Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas convinced him to finally ditch his old party.

Now, key allies such as Senator Óscar González says that the Partido del Trabajo (PT) "do not regard well the candidacy of Yeidckol Polevnsky; it doesn't satisfy us."

Leader of the Mexico State PRD, Luis Sánchez Jiménez, points out that, irony of ironies, Polevnsky, a non-party business woman, has long expressed deep admiration for Governor Enrique Peña Nieto, and recalls that she already had her go in 2005, when she came in a poor third, even after PAN.

As Sánchez Jiménez, a popular politician who himself would be a terrific choice as candidate, notes:

We do not accept nor will accept her as a candidate ... we are not obliged to accept impositions of her or anyone; we do not accept the authoritarianism of the former head of [Mexico City]," meaning AMLO.

It seems that many of AMLO's own followers are also reaching the same conclusion.

AMLO's logic, seemingly increasingly removed from reality

It is increasingly harder to follow AMLO's tortous logic, which if taken at face value is hardly logical at all.
Consider the statements he made yesterday regarding the recent surprise announcement that Yeidckol Polevnsky will be his candidate for governor in Mexico State: "They will not agree to this, those who have as candidate Peña Nieto for the presidency of the republic, that is obvious."

That is obvious? AMLO is presenting his own candidate, before any other party has done this, a candidate that lost badly in 2005 and came in third after PRI and PAN, at the height of AMLO's popularity, and the only thing "obvious" is that his candidate will split the vote for the left - PRD will present its candidate, likely with PAN - thereby ensuring the victory of Governor Enrique Peña Nieto's successor.

Does anyone in their right mind think that Peña Nieto is opposed to Yeidckol Polevnsky's candidacy? It is hard for me to believe AMLO truly does so, but if he does:  Estaría mal de sus facultades mentales. That is obvious.

Yeidckol Polevnsky is the chosen - emphasis on chosen - one

So Yeidckol it is. Less than a week after AMLO declared that the best candidate for Mexico State would be chosen by a poll, AMLO's collaborators let it be known that Yeidckol Polevnsky has been chosen to be AMLO's candidate for Mexico State governor. I've offered some opinions on Polevnsky before and her chances, which are minuscule. Here I will only make three comments:

1) The PAN and the PRD in Mexico State, as well as on the national level, have voted to "explore" a possible common candidate for Mexico State governor. None, however, has been decided upon yet; indeed, the coalition itself has not been set in stone. 

2) AMLO, however, has already decided that no matter what, he will present his own candidate, which of course will split the left's vote and favor Peña Nieto, without even bother to wait for the official campaign period to start. Those pesky rules simply do not apply to him; he has already barnstormed every municipality in  Mexico State and will now do it again, to back his candidate - in the fullest possessive meaning of the word.

3) There was no internal primary or vote among AMLO's followers; Polevnsky was simply "decided upon" in what appears to have been a commissioned opinion poll among the general electorate, though I am not sure about this yet. In any regard, the fact that the candidate's program, the "10 Commitments," was already drawn up and decided by AMLO before the candidate was elected, speaks volumes: Polevnsky is a pure figurehead whose own, and minimal, qualifications do not matter at all: The candidate could have been Winnie the Pooh as long as he had pledged allegiance to AMLO's program and pulled ahead in the polls, and this process has only served to highlight and not obscure this. 

With these considerations in mind: I hope that Mexico State's voters see AMLO's conception of representative democracy for what it is:  Hollow, plebiscitarian, and top-down. 

AMLO's 10 Commitments. Mexico State tour completed; new one to start soon.

For all those who might have harbored a suspicion that AMLO might be bluffing  - he never does - with his earlier announcement that he would back a separate candidate in the upcoming Mexico State gubernatorial election, Sunday's rally in Toluca should lay these doubts to rest. Having completed yet another tour of Mexico State's 124 municipalities, the last one remaining was the state capital. Here, in front of a crowd of thousands of supporters, he announced his candidate will be chosen by a "poll." As it stands, the four choices appear to be Horacio Duarte (PRD), Alejandro Gertz Manero (Convergencia), Yeidckol Polenvsky (PRD), and Óscar González Yáñez (PT). The chosen one will need to literally sign on to AMLO's program - talk about candidate independence! - that he has deemed "10 Commitments." They are:

• Promote job creation
• Establish unemployment insurance
• Loans and grants for rural producers
• Meal centers/eateries
• Universal pension to elderly
• Medical care to people without social security
• Scholarships to students from poor education
• Construction and improvement of housing in deprived areas
• Programme of public services in poor neighborhoods
• Better roads and construction of three subway lines

As soon as the candidate is chosen - and this could be by opinion poll, a primary, or, in AMLO's conception of democracy, a public plebiscite of hand-raising - AMLO will hit the road again for another round of Mexico State's 125 municipalities. He is truly putting everything in this fight against his old party, and clearly believes that should a PAN-PRD candidacy, to which he is utterly opposed, come out winning, his chances at the 2012 presidency are shot.

Daughter of pro-tobacco pro-AMLO Senator Yeidckol Polevnsky works for big tobacco

Yeidckol Polevnsky,  from Mexico State, is among the most pro-AMLO of PRD's senators, which is hardly surprising since Polevnsky owes her current job to him: In 2005, he pushed this businesswoman with a very questionable past to be the PRD's candidate for Mexico State governor, yet even though she ended up third - even behind PAN - AMLO still forced through her candidacy to be a federal senator, despite this woman having absolutely no political experience. Amazingly, AMLO has repeatedly dropped her name as a possible candidate he will support to be governor of Mexico in 2011.


Yet a new scandal is brewing, which should surprise no one who has followed Polevnsky: She, with a handful of other legislators, recently voted against a 7-peso hike in tobacco taxes, though giving no justification. Notably, all the PT, Convergencia and PRD legislators voting against the tax were pro-AMLO. 


Now, El Universal reveals that Polevnsky's daughter Shirley Almaguer Camacho holds a high position in the Mexico branch of British American Tobacco, which sells leading branches in Mexico. Would that affect her vote? Surely not, says the senator.


According to the newspaper,

Senator Polevnsky denies that her rejection [of the law] is based on her daughter's position, but rather that she as former vice president of Canacintra understands the business sector: "Legal certainty - you cannot change legislation all the time. How serious would legislators be if we changed the story all the time?"

Q: "Does your daughter's position affect your positions?

A: "Absolutely not. There is no conflict of interest; their work does not influence my work. I deny this accusation"

Three comments 


1)  On its face, her response is idiotic. The senator should have excused herself from any vote on this legislation due to these family ties, which she certainly did not reveal to anyone until El Universal discovered them. It is highly worrisome that senators will vote on legislation and even chair committees on issues where they are clearly partial. 


2)  Her answer sounds like it was mouthed by a neoliberal rightwinger rather than a senator from a party that defines itself as socialist. She votes against a tobacco tax in the name of giving business sectors more certainty? As a senator, it is her damn role to change legislation!


3) Senator Polevnsky's behavior seriously questions AMLO's judgment, as he continues promoting this legislator, who clearly has a conflict of interest and sounds more like a neoliberal rather than a progressive, as a likely candidate for governor in Mexico State in 2011. Her credibility as a leftwing, progressive senator is shattered. In the process, that of AMLO is also taking a serious hit. 

¡Qué alguien me explique! Why did AMLO senators vote against the tobacco tax?

Yeidckol Polevnsky, Rosalinda López, Josefina Cota Cota and Francisco Castellón Fonseca are four of the PRD senators who on numerous occasions have professed their loyalty to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and among a group of PRD and PT senators who most recently declared they would back AMLO as a presidential candidate.

Two days ago, however, when the Senate ratified the proposed rise in 7 pesos - a mere 50 U.S. cents - increase in tobacco taxes per cigarette pack, the four legislators voted against it - the only ones from the PRD to do so.  In addition, three Convergencia senators, a party that also has declared its ultraloyalty to AMLO, did the same - Ericel Gómez Nucamendi, Francisco García Lizardi and Eugenio Govea Arcos.
From the Partido del Trabajo, ostensibly diehard andresmanuelistas, its senate coordinator Ricardo Monreal abstained from voting, while his PT colleague Javier Obregón Espinoza voted in favor.

Why? Why on earth would these ostensibly "radical" politicians vote against raising the tobacco tax?
¡Qué alguien me explique!

a) Is it that AMLO is particularly pro-smoking?
b) Can it be that these "radical" senators are really corrupt opportunists, bought and paid for by the tobacco industry?
c) ????

You make your pick.