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Mexican Political Notebook: April 23rd

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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

The Mexican political week started with a huge win for Partido Accion National (PAN) president Gustavo Madero Munoz. The Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) determined that ads PAN ran against Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto were not a threat to democracy and the electoral system, and could continue.

Gustavo Madero Munoz
Less than 10 days after the start of her campaign, PAN presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota partially shook up her team, reassigning a female member of her press staff for a minor gaffe, and bringing two of PAN's heaviest hitters, former finance minister Ernesto Cordero and PAN president Madero on as advisers.

Attacks on Pena Nieto's record while governor began in earnest the same week, with PRI president Pedro Coldwell filing a complaint with the IFE.

Madero held a minor campaign event in Mexico state called the Mesa de Verdad or table of truth where he and Vazquez Mota campaign manager Roberto Gil Zuarth debated PRI militants on the latest charges against Pena Nieto.

Present were PRI spokesmen Eduardo Sanchez and Jorge Carlos Ramirez Marin and deputy Pablo Escudero, who is the son of Senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones. PRI president Pedro Coldwell was not at the Mesa de Verdad.

Even though the new negative campaign was in its beginning stages, PAN is in the dumps along with the leftist alliance headed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, with less than 5 percentage points separating them.

Mid week however, a GEA/ISA flash poll put Lopez Obrador and Vazquez Mota neck and neck with Pena Nieto showing little trend downward.

Lopez Obrador has been trying to move his campaign past Vazquez Mota's this week, coming out with a new tax proposal certain to gain the attention of businesses benefiting from it and individuals bound to pay it as well.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Lopez Obrador proposes to eliminate the job-creating flat tax known as the Impuesto Especial a Tasa Unico (IETU), the elimination of which Lopez Obrador claims would help small and medium sized enterprises. He also promises cheaper credit and to lower the price of energy.

In response to Lopez Obrador's preparation to file a complaint about transportation costs, the IFE said Tuesday that such costs are being audited. Difference exist among the three main candidates because of how they chose transport. PRI uses a fleet of contracted aircraft, while PAN contracts flight hours on a pair of jets. Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) uses commercial flights.

Meanwhile, PRI politicans continued to ignore the negative campaigning by pointing out video spots, mostly on youtube.com, are "acts of desperation". Those are the words of Pena Nieto as well as Senator Fabio Beltrones, PRI's coordinator for Chamber of Deputy candidates. Nuevo Leon governor Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz also chimed in with the same charge in a campaign event Sunday in Monterrey attended by Pena Nieto.

Enrique Pena Nieto
Pena Nieto himself has charged the ads were part of a "dirty war", as he put it. He vowed not to divide Mexico by using such tactics.

The youtube spot in which Pena Nieto deals with the negative ads can be found here.

Pena Nieto received some good news while in Sonora state. Isaiah Gonzalez Cuevas, national leader of the Confederacion Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC) endorsed PRI, saying the last 12 years of PAN rule has increased the unemployment rate from 2.3 to 5.1 percent, plus it increased from 20.6 to 28.5 million the number of Mexicans who do not have enough income to buy basic food items due to constantly rising energy prices.

CROC boasts 4.5 million members.

Speaking of the 2006 campaign, Lopez Obrador charged Sunday in Quintana Roo state that Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion (SNTE) union president Elba Ester Godillo has entered into a secret accord with the PRI to throw support of her union towards PRI.

Ester endorsed PAN in the latter stages of the 2006 campaign. Leftists such as Lopez Orbador think that Ester is the one individual most responsible for Calderon's election that year. SNTE members number about 1.2 million, the largest labor union in Mexico.

However, an alliance with PRI and Partido Nueva Alianza (PANAL) was split apart mere days before the deadline for electoral coalitions after protests by PRI militants in southern states that PRI had given up too much for such a small part of the promised vote. But SNTE and PRI may not be as close as Lopez Obrador has charged, because many PRI militants agree with Lopez Obrador that Ester Gordillo had a hand in Calderon's win. The split could be payback for 2006.

Vazquez Mota ended her week in Sonora promising "to restore pride in what we do, it's time to strengthen brand Mexico" and "to grow our talent and entrepreneurial spirit."

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov 2012-04-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=343324