Free Ipads! Just give us your data, Mexican Green party says

This is truly repugnant. The Mexican "Green Party" is offering Ipads, Ipods, and refridgerators  - or, the chance of winning one of these items - in return for sending you their personal information - full name, address, etc.

Senator Arturo Escobar insisted that such practices does not need the permission of the Interior Ministry, as it is technically not a lottery, because no tickets are handed out.

He also denied that the PVEM has been handing out any flyer announcing this dubious practice, despite El Universal having revealed this in its investigation. Escobar is a man whose lack of sincerity, integrity and credibility rivals that of Sarah Palin, so I'll trust El Universal on this one.

There are few things I would like more to see happen in Mexican politics than the revocation of PVEM's party registry. May this be one more nail in its coffin.

If we don't get a bishop, we change religion:

Interesting religious dynamics in San Luis Potosí: An entire people changes religion following miserable customer service from the catholic church.

The Pames / Xi'iuy are an indigenous people found in  San Luis Potosí, among the very few surviving in the state. They make up around 3 percent of its population. Following multiple complaints and petitions to the catholic church to send them a priest or bishop, which were all apparently ignored, the Pames decided to simply change their religion toward a denomination that was indeed willing to send a religious minister to their area: The Anglicans.

They lined up to get baptized, and celebrated their new religion as it should be, with a party and dances.

From La Jornada

Strongest accusation yet from Calderón of PRI collusion with narcos

It even reached the New York Times ("Mexican President: State Was Left to Drug Cartel"):
Calderón is suggesting that the PRI-run government of the state of Veracruz might have pacted with the narcos:

"I believe Veracruz was left in the hands of the Zetas, I don't know if it was involuntary, probably, I hope so"

Wow.

As one might expect, the PRI was not happy about these comment, though its response to what are truly explosive allegations was remarkably muted ("lamentable," "politicized," etc).

Is it just 2012 heating up, or does the government really have something on PRI and narco collusion?

Calderón meets again with Javier Sicilia

A second summit was held in Chapultepec castle yesterday where Felipe Calderón again met with Javier Sicilia, leader of Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, as well as other prominent social activists.

Since the last meeting three months ago, Sicilia appears to have ramped up his discourse:

.. an atmosphere of violence and horror is polluting words and speeches. There is a greater threat we are detecting and that citizens are condemning, that of authoritarianism and its most brutal face, fascism.

Honestly, fascism? I wonder if, in retrospect, Sicilia will see the irony of his own words: Hurling around such labels, which serve absolutely no constructive purpose rather than to provoke, polarize, and distort reality, are also polluting the dialogue he himself has been so central in promoting.

AMLO in Spain

Spain is the country with the second largest investments in Mexico, and AMLO just went there for his first-ever trip to promote his presidential candidacy. The main message appears indeed to have been directed toward business sectors:

We think that we should not continue privatizing what little remains. It has been excessive. But that does not mean that the the country's public economy will be nationalized. We can't have a state which stifles civil society initiatives, but nor are we in favor of diluting the state and that only a group with dark intentions, such as in our country, dominates.

So in sum, no nationalizations, though there are good and bad capitalists. Let's see if the Spanish investors are convinced. Not sure if they necessarily bought his characterization of both Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon as "traitors" to democracy.

On abortion, youth gives a tad of hope for the future - of sorts

According to an UNAM poll, while among adults, 55.5 percent agree that women who have an abortion should be punished, "only" 44 percent of youth (defined between 12 and 29 years).

61 percent of youth are against gay adoptions, vs. 69 percent of adults.

More info on the survey, which appears to have involved more than 50,000 respondents, here.

1-800-call-God, a la mexicana: Catolitel

This is a very bad idea. The Archdiocese of Mexico, through its venomous spokesperson Hugo Valdemar, announced the launch of Catolitel, or a call center where citizens can phone in to partake in the church's wisdom in matters religious and moral, but as well as practical matters in life.

Why bad? Because the Archdiocese of Mexico, given but not limited to its protection of pederasts and rapists, its incessant harassment of gays, and its ludicrous and damaging fight against any type of birth control, is truly the last institution in Mexico that should give anyone advice about any topic remotely connected to the living world.