E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Mexican Political Notebook: April 9th

For a map click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Last week Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota fainted in Baja California state, raising questions both about her health and about her campaign strategy.

Part of the problem for Vazquez Mota has been low turnout of supporters at campaign rallies. Most notable was just before her campaign began at a stadium in central Mexico which had only partially been filled. Her campaign manager, Roberto Gil took the blame for the low turnout. The second was a little more problematic being in Sonora state, a state held by a PAN governor.

Josefina Vazquez Mota
Vazquez Mota's fainting spell also took place in Baja California, due to low blood pressure. But in a rapid response her campaign released photos of her exercising at a hotel equipment, and showing a dynamic, and more importantly, healthier face.

At the time talk was of adjusting her campaign strategy to include forcing Gil out, but after the Easter break, Vazquez Mota has, at least for the moment, dismissed all such ideas..

As with the other candidate, Vazquez Mota took off Thursday thru Saturday for Easter, emerging Sunday to talk about universal health coverage in Mexico.

Gabriel Quadti de las Torres, in an effort to get any kind of bounce in the polls for his moribund campaign told the press earlier in the week he supported PAN president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's strategy of using Mexico's popular military to stop drug trafficking, adding he would increase the number of Policia Federal operatives to about 10 times the total now deployed.

Gabriel Quatri de la Torres
Quadti de las Torres entered the campaign late as Partido Nuevo Alianza's (PANAL) standard bearer, and has yet to receive more than one percent of the total polled. His proposal to increase the number of Policia Federal agents in the streets is an obvious attempt to wedge an issue Partido Revolucinario Institucional (PRI) leaders have hammered against PAN since PAN's disasterous showing in the statehouses in 2010. His proposal is risky in that he could permanently turn off a large number of his potential supporters.

Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador began his campaign by promising to reconcile with Zapatista supporters at a campaign rally in Chiapas. About 15,000 suporters were present last week when he spoke of his campaign theme, at least in regard to the Mexican political and independent left, as Reconciliation, Justice and Progress.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Zapatistas are supporters of the violent Marxist Ejercito Zapatista Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) which attempted to take over Chiapas state 18 years ago last January, in 1994, by waging a war against the Mexican government and supporters. The hot portion of the war ended less than two weeks after it began with a ceasefire negotiated with the help of the Mexican Catholic church and a team including peace activist and poet Javier Sicilia.

Sicilia has protested his nascent non-partisan group the Movement for Peace, Justice and Dignity, even as several high profile members have been included in at large slates for the national Chamber of Deputies.

The Partido Revolucion Democratica(PRD) has included those peace movement leaders as part of their offering for the elections, and Sicilia has responded by suggesting his supporters go to the polls and turn in blank ballots.

PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto attended rallies in Veracruz before suspending his campaign for Easter.
Enrique Pena Nieto


Meanwhile, two top PRI leaders have been selected to coordinate the campaigns for Chamber of Deputies and senate seats. Senator Manilo Fabio Beltrones will coordinate Chamber of Deputies candidates, while current party secretary, Cristina Diaz will coordinate senatorial candidates.

Lastly, PAN president Gustavo Madero lamented the "dirty war", as he called it, being conducted in the political season as a Proceso news weekly article was published which showed PAN candidate Miranda Wallace for president or Distrito Federal in a police mugshot taken in 1998. Wallace was arrested by Mexico City police on a charge of resistance of particular and attempted murder. She was subsequently cleared of both charges. According to reports, she had been detained in a women's prison in Mexico City in March, 1998.

Gustavo Madero Munoz
The Dirty War reference by Madero appears to be a warning by Madero to PRI of just how vulnerable they are to vote poaching because of the Dirty War by a series of PRI presidents from 1968 to 1982. Pena Nieto's currently comfortable lead conceivably could evaporate overnight under the right circumstances if enough supporters turn to the other three candidates.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national politcal news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov 2012-04-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=342440