Hubris be thy name: Carla Humphrey, wife of Roberto Gil, rejected as IEDF head

The arrogance of Carla Humphrey finally brought her down: It is now clear that she utterly blew her chances of becoming president of the Instituto Electoral del Distrito Federal (IEDF), the important electoral institute for Mexico City, by accompanying her husband Roberto Gil when he registered to become a candidate for the national presidency of PAN last week. El Universal reports that outgoing President Claudia Zavala, who was elected in 2008 with no possibility of reelection, changed the preference she had declared for Humphrey last week, in favor of Gustavo Anzaldo, who with Zavala's vote got the necessary majority to be the new president of IEDF. 


Whether it was a case hubris or just sheer stupidity is hard to ascertain, but it is a quite remarkable display of arrogance that Carla Astrid Humphrey Jordan didn't think her blatant display of partisanship would not have repercussions, with the added insult to injury that she was not only a member of the electoral institute but moreover sought to be its president. Following Zavala's changed vote, Humphrey angrily declared, 

"Your attitude, councilor Zavala, does not affect me, but weakens the deliberative and decision-making processes of the institute.You, by changing the meaning of the word you gave at a meeting of the council members, vioalte the institutes internal life, its autonomy."

It is quite remarkable to hear Humphrey, whose actions, if elected, would have risked destroying any perception of IEDF's autonomy and impartiality, accuse Zavala of weakening the institute. 

Yet the issue does not stop there: 39 deputies of the Mexico City legislature, from PRD, PRI, PT, PVEM, and PANAL, in a far-to rare display of agreement, presented to the assembly's legislative commission a request to have Humphrey removed as an IEDF legislator all together. 


And PAN?PAN meekly retorted that the other parties were engaging in "machismo." 
It is hard to believe the panistas believe their own charge. Oh, the joys of schadenfreude.

Will Calderón impose his third party president of PAN? Gil grovels, but why?

Lest there should there be any doubt, any doubt at all, that Roberto Gil Zuarth is a calderonista, or Felipe Calderón's candidate to be president of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), here's Gil proclaiming to the world that he is... well, a calderonista:

"I am a calderonista, I have affinities for the President, I know him, I hold him in esteem, I have affection for him, he is part of my personal loyalties... I do not renounce nor deny my admiration for Felipe Calderón."

Even though some of the words used here in my poor translation sound perhaps less homoerotic in the original Spanish, this is just over the top, particularly as a main criticism of current PAN president César Nava, as well as his predecessor German Martínez, was exactly that they were mere impositions by Caldéron - and that in a party that always proudly proclaimed its independence and refusal to succumb to the powers-that-be, even if they were from the PAN.  


Should there be any more doubts that Gil is the anointed candidate of Mexico's president, Gil added for good measure that he would "preserve the legacy of Calderón." I find that disturbing on so many levels.


But there is also something here that doesn't quite add up. Why go to so extreme lengths to identify with Calderón? One possibility is that while Gil's afinidades for Calderón are probably real, he knows that his candidacy might be formally rejected as he only has 2 years and 4 months in the party, and in may step a Gustavo Madero, a man who is also a calderonista but who is not shouting it out like Gil, which may make him more palatable to more PAN councilors whose, well, affinity for Calderón is waning. This includes the 85-100 members of PAN's national council who those in the know reckon to be members of El Yunque.


(Yet I admit this is starting to sound a bit like El Universal's house conspiracy theorist Ricardo Alemám, who like an old clock who has stopped at least twice a day will eventually be correct)

The impeachment papers of Jalisco Governor Emilio González Márquez

The impeachment papers filed with Chamber of Deputies by PRI federal deputies from Jalisco, can be accessed here. Thanks to cyberpueblo.com, a social-political networking site that contains a wealth of information and prime material, including eye witness reports and videos, regarding the now-infamous case of Tenacatita beach, which lead to the impeachment petition being launched against Jalisco Governor Emilio González Márquez days ago. 

Guerrero 2005-2010: 46 members of the PRD murdered under Zeferino Torreblanca

As the government of  Zeferino Torreblanca nears its end in Acapulco, La Jornada's correspondent in Guerrero state sums up the total death toll of perredistas, or members of the leftwing  Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), murdered during his government: 46. The most prominent fatality is clearly Armando Chavarría Barrera, assassinated in August 2009, who was a very likely gubernatorial candidate to succeed Zeferino (For more on Chavarría's murder, see this post). Yet the range of murdered activists include everything from former mayors to prominent peasant and social leaders, to groups of voters - for the 2009 federal elections, in the municipality of Coahuayutla, close to Michoacán and in the Costa Grande, 12 indigenous purépecha identified with the PRD  were gunned down on their way to vote. 


The tragic irony is of course that Guerrero's governor Torreblanca was until recently identified as a PRD governor. While he recently loudly denounced the party for the simple reason that the PRD, moreover well aware of Torreblanca's unpopularity within the party and with voters as a whole,  refused to allow him to impose his own candidate to succeed him. 


It would not be prudent to signal Torreblanca as the architect behind the PRD murders - I personally do not believe he had anything to do with any of them, and for sure no evidence has surfaced to indicate this. Yet the ineptitude of Torreblanca's police and prosecutorial appointments have been appalling, as the murders continued unabated and unresolved (including Chavarría's), while the governor seemed more busy with sending police forces to repress street demonstrations by social forces protesting his government's ineptitude and general indifference to the plight of social activists, constantly harassed and frequently murdered, in the state of Guerrero. 

It's all in the family: The Fernández de Cevallos family, that is.

For a glimpse into what must surely be one of Mexico's most dysfunctional families - and not only because its head, "El Jefe" Diego Fernández de Cevallos, one of Mexican politics' most sinister character, is still kidnapped  - the outstanding journalist Lydia Cacho expands on some disturbing news over the weekend, where one of Fernández de Cevallos' sons, David, broke into the house of his wife, armed and accompanied by thugs who may or may not have been federal police, to violently snatch away his two children, despite the fact that his wife had been granted temporary custody over them. 

I really recommend that you read Lydia's column where she details this and preceding events, which appears a quite disturbing case of domestic violence and spousal abuse. 

The apple, and the tree...

PAN deviates from its usual script: Infighting over party presidency goes public

The Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), in stark contrast to, say, the PRD, has always been known for its orderly transitions from one party president to another. One of the major reasons for this, in this blogger's opinion, is the fact that PAN uses a majority vote by its 381-member national council, while PRD, despite attempts at reform, insists on open election by mass vote, which with no exception has turned into disasters.

However, even with such an institutional mechanism, the leadership fight within the PAN is looking increasingly bitter. The party has now five official candidates: Roberto Gil, Gustavo Madero, Francisco Ramírez Acuña, Cecilia Romero, and Blanca Judith Díaz. Last week, Senator Judith Díaz impugned the candidacy of Roberto Gil on the grounds that he has been a member of PAN for less than three years, and is such does not fulfill the requisite to be a leader of the party. According to party statutes, a minimum of three years is required to be a member of the national council, though no mention is made of the president - though given PAN's history as a highly institutionalized and follow-the-rules party, it is so obvious that the party president should also fulfill this requirement that it is not even put in writing. Why, after all, should this apply only to councilors, but not to the party's president? 


(Note, however, Federico Berrueto's groveling column where he bends over backward [or forward, if one prefers] in a pretty pathetic attempt to downplay and dismiss this criterion).


Following the last-minute declaration by Roberto Gil to be a candidate, all the other candidates have now teamed up against him, arguing that the membership criterion must be "analyzed." In response, outgoing party president César Nava said that the national executive committee will send the case to the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF), the country's highest electoral court, which also has rules on internal affairs of Mexico's political parties. 


As a side note, though an important one, the PRD and PRI are up in arms, and understandably so, after Gil's wife Carla Astrid Humphrey Jordan - yes, that is her real name - accompanied her hubby for the PAN registration event. Ms. Humphrey is also an electoral councilor of the state electoral institute in the Federal District (IEDF), who moreover is seeking to become president(!) of the institute - despite this quite blatant evidencing of her lack of distance to the PAN - which is quite literal, as she is sleeping with the man who might be PAN's national president!


As for the PAN's presidential struggle, by appealing to this external institution, it is quite notable that the party is deviating from its usual cool script in that it is no longer able to solve its own internal differences. Should his opponents succeed in blocking Gil, who is the candidate of Calderón, it will surely mean that calderonismo, already on the wane within the PAN, has lost its dominance over the party definitely. 

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.