Professor of Political Science & Sen. Wm. McMaster Chair in Gender & Methodology, McMaster University
Zapatistas to play Inter
Inter Milan has been sending money and medicine to Chiapas for some months now. Late last week, Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN suggested a match between Inter and the EZLN team. Inter accepted, though the details have not been decided. The announcement led to this cartoon on the front page of La Jornada.
From La Jornada.
And this archive photo of the EZLN team.
Also from La Jornada.
Another AMLO constituency: Aging prostitutes
In a strange irony, NPR’s ATC ran a story on Mexican Mother’s Day about aging prostitutes in Mexico City. (Some of the prostitutes have 11 or 12 children.) The women organized, and in response, Lopez Obrador donated an old building to create a shelter for prostitutes over 65, though funding is still needed to remodel the old building for use.
Thanks to Schroeder for the link.
I also have an earlier post about another organization working with sex workers in Mexico City.
Robot football
Football, in the sense that every other country of the world uses it. But this is robot football. At Georgia Tech.
Mexican politics update
That’s why you’re all here, after all. While I’ve been busy waiting for and interviewing politicians, politics as usual has continued. An update of the three biggest stories of the last two days:
1. Continued finger pointing and accusations.
The PRI claimed that there is a secret agreement now between the PAN and the PRD to punish the PRI. The President’s office replied by disputing any vendetta against the PRI.
The PRI is so defensive not only because of the administrations turn-around on the AMLO desafuero issue, but also because new fines have been announced in the Pemexgate case. [Yes, it is really called Pemexgate. Some political linguist would enjoy that.]
2. Pemexgate.
Pemex is the state-owned petroleum company. Pemexgate is the revelation that funds from the company were embezzled and/or used for PRI campaign expenses in 2000. The penalties in the case were finally announced: more than $2,000 million pesos ($US 181,000,000) in fines and prohibition of holding public office for 5-20 years for various Pemex functionaries.
The PRI claims that the case began during a bad period of PAN-PRI relations and then was left stagnant once the two parties began working together. The PRI claims that the recent announcement only occured because the PAN is now looking to form a political alliance with the PRD.
According to one of the articles, the PRI claims that the prohibitions against holding public office in the ruling were designed to exclude certain PRIistas from participating in elections, a la AMLO-desafuero. I’m not sure anyone will really buy that comparison. I doubt many will be sympathetic to the PRI’s complaints about political persecution.
The Secretary of State says its absurd to suggest that Fox and Lopez Obrador “arranged” the fines and other penalties. At the same time, it does seem convenient that AMLO has been calling for clean election financing in 2006. And then, a big case of dirty campaign financing by the PRI re-surfaces days later.
3. The First Lady’s children have been accused of financial improprieties, and the Chamber of Deputies is investigating whether the First Lady has used her position improperly. [I’m not going to bother with the links for this one….maybe later.]
Mance as a favicon
Brian made me a very cute favicon of our dog Mance. And, I’m very annoyed because apparently the GATech servers do not support fave icons. Errrggg.
Here it is:
(If you don’t see it, you have a lame browser. Upgrade to Firefox.)
I am auctioning off Brian’s favicon abilities to the highest bidder.
Update: It works now! Had to add code.
Working mothers
Muro, Matvei in El Financiero
Fox spokesman clarifies position on desafuero
Sort of. In a press conference, the President’s spokesman said that the President’s position on the desafuero was clear. The case against Lopez Obrador is closed. If you want to know what the AG meant by his statements over the weekend, you’ll have to ask him.
PRI trivia
Today, I interviewed a member of the CEN of the PRI. It’s the highest governing body. I can’t publicly share most of the things he told me, but I can tell you this. According to my source, Lopez Obrador wrote the only hymn (fight song, whatever) that the PRI has. Unfortunately, I could not find the words online. Even better would have been a video of humans dressed as some obscure bird singing the hymn.
The point of this trivia for my interviewee: to emphasize how many of the PRD leadership came from the PRI.
Mexico’s Dirty War
Students of Latin American politics regularly learn about the Dirty Wars of the Southern Cone military regimes in the 1970s. The learn that Mexico had a different type of authoritarianism, dominated by electoral fraud with an absence of military leadership. But Mexico had its own Dirty War, too, especially in the 1970s.
Following the demonstration and massacre of 1968, the early 1970s were a period of repression while the ruling party struggled to maintain their power. One of the key (para)military groups was Los Halcones. You can read about recent revelations about the group in La Jornada or El Universal. Or, there’s a good novel about Los Halcones by Paco Ignacio Taibo II that I assign in my Latin American politics class. Taibo II writes mystery novels (my favorite genre), though some can get too philosophical for my tastes (I’m a plot/action kind of girl).
Anyway, I mention the repression of the 1970s because two stories in La Jornada today cover recent investigations. The first discusses the role of a public attorney in the disappearance of a communist leader in 1974. The second discusses military training to counter guerilla movements in the 1970s in the state of Guerrero (home of Acapulco). The point is that Mexico had its share of leftist movements and government repression in the 1970s.
Clash between the AG’s office (PGR) and the Mexican white house (Los Pinos)
Los pinos, Alarcón, in El Financiero.
They can’t be serious
After everyone, including the NYTimes, TheEconomist, and Washington Post, has concluded that AMLO was in the clear and all that desafuero business behind us, the AG’s office announced that criminal charges against AMLO are still possible. I had said that they left the door open for future legal action.
An exchange between a reporter for La Jornada and the Attorney General following the latter’s participation in a Fox rally:
LJ: -A propósito del caso El Encino, ¿habrá desistimiento por parte de la PGR? [Has the case been dropped?]
AG: -No, no hay desistimiento, está en consulta el ejercicio de la acción penal. [No, the case has not been dropped. Criminal charges are being considered.]
LJ: -Pero el comunicado del 4 de mayo decía que no se va a ejercitar acción penal. [But the press release on May 4 said that there would not be criminal charges.]
AG: -Es la propuesta del Ministerio Público, pero no hay desistimiento. [That is the proposal of the Public Ministry, but it has not been dropped.]
LJ: -¿Y por parte de la PGR sí se espera que haya consignación? [And on the part of the AG’s office, do you expect an arrest?]
AG: -Pues se está analizando la propuesta que hizo el titular de la agencia del Ministerio Público. [Well, the proposal of the head of the Public Ministry is being analyzed.]
LJ: -¿No es tema muerto? [The topic is not dead?]
AG: -Está en proceso de consulta. [It’s in the process of being considered.]
LJ: -¿Es posible que la PGR archive el asunto de López Obrador? [Is it possible that the AG will archive/file away the Lopez Obrador issue?]
AG: -Es la propuesta del agente del Ministerio Público Federal con la cual resolveremos en su momento. [That is the proposal of the Public Ministry that we will resolve in time.]
LJ: -Algunos diputados dicen que se hizo mal el trabajo de la PGR con su antecesor, el procurador Macedo de la Concha. [Some Deputies (Representatives) say that your predecessor did a bad job.]
AG: -Se está revisando, está en consulta una propuesta de no ejercicio por parte del titular de la agencia del Ministerio Público. [It is being reviewed; the proposal of the Public Ministry to not proceed is being considered.] {At this point, you can see the conversation is not advancing….}
LJ: -¿Si hicieron mal las cosas, se integró mal el expediente? [Was the work done poorly? Is the case badly put together?]
AG: -No, eso no podemos decirlo. Eso de que está mal integrado precisamente se está revisando. [No, we cannot say that. That is what we are reviewing, whether the case was put together poorly.]
LJ: -¿Cómo ha encontrado a la PGR? [How have you found the AG’s office?]
AG: -Trabajando bien, con gente comprometida. [Working well, with committed people.]
An optimist would say that this is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. In this case, I’m not an optimist. This exchange occurred just after the AJ met with the President in his home state of Guanajuato.
The pessimist would say that the Fox administration is trying to eat its cake and have it, too. [The key to lame journalism: overuse of cliches.] They want to pretend to play nice and stop the mobilizations of support for Lopez Obrador, but would also like to keep AMLO in line with threats of criminal charges. I’m not sure that strategy will work. Many Mexicans may be poorly educated (underfunded schools, etc.), but they are not stupid. If anything, the strategy is likely to backfire.
Granted, La Jornada is the only paper running this story, so maybe it’s only an attempt by the leftist press to stir up trouble. Or maybe they know something we don’t know.
Not to miss a beat, the PRD denounced the comments by the AG. As did the AG for the DF.
Tired of grading student essays?
Tired of wasting lovely May mornings grading final papers when you should be playing fetch with your dog?
Let SAGrader do the dirty work for you.
Remaining Fox reform agenda
As part of the meeting between PRD leaders and Secretary of State Creel, PRD leaders agreed to help push for an extraordinary legislative session, in part to address voting and judicial reform. How quickly the PAN’s allies change. A month ago, the PAN was working hand-in-hand with the PRI to desafero Lopez Obrador, Now, the PAN is working with the PRD to get more time to negotiate its legislative agenda.
Lest the PAN begin counting their chickens, the PRI has warned that the PAN needs the PRI to pass their legislative agenda. Since the PRI is stil the majority in Congress, they claim their votes will be necessary to get an extended session.
More fingerpointing and accusations following desafuero fallout
Shortly before his meeting with Lopez Obrador, Fox received a briefing from the Attorney General’s office on the case against AMLO.
In the meantime, the head of the Supreme Court says that the AMLO case will remain open as long as some of the interested parties have legal options. According to the article, since a reform in 1995 has allowed the Supreme Court to resolve disputes between the branches of government, the Court has resolved 761 disputes and 111 remain to be resolved.
In other news, some leaders of the PRI continue to criticize Fox’s decision in the desafuero case. A PRI senator even claims that Madrazo forced PRI Deputies to go along with the desafuero due to a behind-the-scenes political arrangement with former president Salinas. Bartlett has also been criticizing Madrazo for pressuring the Deputies. Some are saying that it was an abuse of Madrazo’s power as President of the PRI, and that he has a conflict of interest since he wants to be the party’s candidate.
Some think that Creel will be the PAN candidate and that Madrazo will be the PRI candidate. I wouldn’t put my money on Madrazo, yet. I think there are probably enough of his party unhappy with him to block his candidacy, but a small number of power brokers within the party may be able to impose him yet.
Traveled all the way to Los Pinos, and didn’t even get a picture
Yesterday afternoon, Lopez Obrador met with President Fox in the Mexican White House, Los Pinos. The meeting lasted less than 20 minutes, and there was no photo-op.
La Jornada serves up the usual reporting flair:
…la atmósfera era francamente surrealista. Amenazaba lluvia, se aparecieron los pescados, una señora se entercó en no mover su auto y éste quedó atrapado detrás de las vallas metálicas y, desde alguno de los juegos mecánicos de la Feria de Chapultepec, llegaba ininterrumpida y tétrica, la música de la película Halloween.
The atmosphere was frankly surreal. It threatened rain; fish appeared (4 guys dressed as fish to promote the consumption of more fish; a car was stuck in the crush of the crowd; and from the rollercoasters of Central Park, you could hear the music from the movie Halloween.
Image outside the Fox-AMLO meeting. Note the fish. From La Jornada.
Several old and young AMLO groupies were also in attendance.
Fox’s office made no official statement regarding the meeting, and Fox left immediately in helicopter for his home state for the weekend.
According to AMLO’s press conference after the meeting, he was pleased with the results. The topics they discussed? Importance of Fox’s desafuero decision, decline of crime in the DF, extension of the Seguro Popular to the DF, and an invitation for Fox to attend the inauguration of various public works in the DF in coming months. AMLO broached the subject of a national pact for clean elections i 2006, but Fox said there were already institutions in place to guarantee clean elections.
Negotiating a political pact
From left to right: Pablo Gómez Alvarez (Diputados, PRD), Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo (Sec. Gen, PRD), Leonel Cota Montaño (Pres. PRD), Santiago Creel Miranda (Sec. of State, PAN) y Jesús Ortega Martínez (Senado, PRD). Original photo in La Jornada.
Thanks to Brian, for the fast photoshop.
Yesterday, Secretary of State Creel (and wanna-be future Presidential candidate) met with leaders of the PRD to discuss the upcoming presidential elections. Fox and Lopez Obrador are probably meeting as I write this.
