Annulment solves little for PRD

BY DAVID AGREN
The News

The two frontrunners in the Democratic Revolution Party´s internal election on Sunday blasted an internal decision to annul the party´s March 16 leadership vote, setting the stage for more factional infighting at the nation´s largest leftist party.

Candidate Jesús Ortega, the front man of a pragmatic faction known as the New Left, said that the party known as the PRD "is shooting itself in the foot" by annulling the election that he had led by 16,000 votes over rival Alejandro Encinas.

"With this, it´s only causing damage to the PRD and bringing about further discredit in the eyes of the media and the public," he added.

Ortega said that he would petition the federal electoral tribunal, or Trife, to overturn the annulment.

The PRD´s three-member Guarantees Committee voted late Saturday to void the internal election due to allegations of irregularities at more than 20 percent of the polling stations, among other problems.

If the Trife upholds the annulment, party bylaws say the PRD´s National Committee must meet within 30 days to set a new election date.

Encinas, who was projected as the early winner by a quick-count program and two exit polls, said the annulled election was a "triumph of cheats and scoundrels."

"They´ve stripped us of a real and legal [victory]," he said, adding that he would no longer negotiate for a compromise.

Encinas, who belongs to the party´s hard-line United Left faction, demanded another election be held within 45 days.

The annulment leaves the PRD without a permanent party president and under pressure to resolve its infighting before fielding candidates in the 2009 midterm elections.

Guadalupe Acosta will continue as interim president, but the Encinas camp refuses to recognize his leadership.

Ortega´s and Encinas´ factions are divided over whether or not they should work cooperatively with the federal government or continue in their role as an anti-establishment player in the nation´s political scene.

Allegations of vote tampering, ballot box thefts and outside interference from non-PRD state governors were rife throughout the campaign and election. Prior to the vote, former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador drew criticism for backing Encinas and signing campaign materials deemed inappropriate by the party - a violation cited Saturday by the Guarantees Committee in its annulment decision.

The rival campaigns met last week to seek a resolution to the impasse, but talks stalled when Encinas insisted on Acosta´s ouster, El Universal reported.

The annulment did not surprise political observers.

"It was very predictable . given the irregularities and outside interference," said Aldo Muñoz, political science professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana.

Some in the PRD had been calling for an annulment prior to the Guarantees Committee´s announcement.

"It´s already been too long ... we´re no longer in a position to move forward," PRD Dep. Aleida Alavez, an Encinas supporter, told The News in a recent interview.

"No one gives an inch, no one owns up to his mistakes or errors in the internal elections," she added. "What would help most would be an annulment and later having a serious, responsible discussion in the party´s National Congress."

A National Congress is a provisional forum for PRD members to vote on leaders and statutes, she said.

Drugs, Energy, Economy Beset Mexico's Calderón in Second Year

From World Politics Review: www.worldpoliticsreview.com


President Felipe Calderón at an April 2006 campaign rally in Tepatitlan de Morelos, Jalisco.

David Agren | 16 Jul 2008

MEXICO CITY -- President Felipe Calderón spent the week leading up to the second anniversary of his narrow election victory July 2 touring Southeastern Mexico, where he promoted the main tenets of his administration: security; structural reforms; and social programs.

While inaugurating a baseball stadium in Cancún that was built with funds from a public security program, he spoke of the Mexican military destroying a "world record" amount of cocaine and seizing more than 16,000 weapons over the past year.

The president also got his hands dirty mixing cement in a Campeche home as he promoted "Piso Firme," a program for replacing dirt floors in some of the country's most impoverished dwellings with more solid surfaces.

Upon returning to Mexico City, he spoke glowingly of his government's efforts at ushering structural changes -- especially its proposed energy reform legislation --while addressing an audience of bankers.

Calderón barely won the July 2, 2006, presidential election, garnering a scant 35 percent of the popular vote. Five months later, he barely managed to take the oath of office as left-wing lawmakers attempted to disrupt the ceremony.

But Calderón effectively put the close election behind him even as his scorned opponent, Andres Manuel López Obrador, declared the vote fraudulent and assumed the mantle of "legitimate president."

Calderón started his six-year term by declaring war on narcotics trafficking gangs and dispatching some 30,000 troops to hunt them down. He also reeled off a string of legislative accomplishments -- something his predecessor. Former President Vicente Fox, was unable to accomplish -- by striking deals with the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, on overhauls to the state workers' pension plan, tax collection and the criminal justice system.

He even borrowed a page from López Obrador, whom Calderón had previously branded, "A danger for Mexico," and accused of advancing a populist agenda culled from the worst days of PRI rule. When tortilla prices climbed last year and public opinion turned against a proposed gasoline tax, Calderón resorted to the populism he decried in the 2006 election campaign by freezing prices.

His public approval rating soared in the first year, hitting 64 percent in December, according to a Grupo Reforma survey. Calderón even quelled the rebellious factions in his National Action Party, or PAN, by having a close confidant, Germán Martínez, run unopposed for the party presidency that same month.

Jeffrey Weldon, director of the political science program at ITAM, a private university in Mexico City, attributed the high approval ratings to Calderón's ability to pass reforms and his committing fewer self-inflicted injuries than Fox.

"People are giving him credit for trying to get things done," Weldon said.

As with many presidents, however, governing became more difficult during Calderón's second year in office.

His job approval ratings remain high: A June Consulta Mitofsky poll gave him 61 percent support. But Calderón has encountered stiff opposition to energy reform proposals that would allow expanded private sector participation in the state-run petroleum sector -- a sensitive topic in Mexico, where many consider public oil ownership to be a key pillar of the country's sovereignty.

Other second-year challenges include combating rising food and fuel prices that threaten to diminish the purchasing power of millions of Mexican households and confronting public opinion polls that reflect an increasing pessimism over the viability of the president's war on drugs.

ENERGY REFORM FIGHT
Winning passage for energy reform has perhaps been the most vexing for the president. Analysts say the issue was supposed to be a crowing achievement that Calderón and his party could campaign on in the July 2009 midterm elections.

Calderón geared up for the introduction of energy reform by appointing his most trusted ally, former chief of staff Juan Camilo Mouriño, as interior secretary in an effort to improve relations with Congress. He also tried taking advantage of internal chaos in the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which opposes any private sector involvement in the energy sector, and a seeming willingness by the PRI to once again broker a deal.

But few of the president's intentions for energy reform unfolded as planned.

Mouriño quickly encountered problems when López Obrador produced contracts suggesting the interior secretary had steered Pemex contracts to family businesses while working in various public positions.

A legislative commission cleared Mouriño of any wrongdoing, but his role as a liaison with opposition legislators was damaged.

After the reforms were unveiled in early April, left-wing lawmakers shut down Congress for 16 days. The shutdown derailed the possibility of approving energy reform before the regular legislative session ended April 30.

The Senate then embarked on a marathon series of 22 debates -- a condition that PRD, Labor Party and Convergence party lawmakers set for abandoning their protest -- in which energy reform is discussed by invited experts, activists and academics.

Pollster Jorge Buendía, director of Ipsos Public Affairs in Mexico City, said the initiative has now slipped away from the government as talk of a PRD-sponsored referendum on the issue generates more headlines than the content of the energy reform proposals.

Calderón responded to the legislative delays and decline in support for energy reform by sacking PAN Senate leader Sen. Santiago Creel -- an old adversary who was defeated by Calderón during the PAN presidential primaries and linked to a rival faction of the party.

Buendía said the changes reflected a crisis for the governing party and indicated a Calderón effort to take control of his party and tighten his inner circle.

"I can't remember a time when a [party] national executive committee removed a parliamentary leader," he added.

Creel had gained a reputation for being too accommodating to opposition demands, but his rivals in the Senate rebuked his forced departure, saying that a government that barely scraped into power and holds only pluralities in Congress is in no position to dictate terms.

"A government with an electoral minority, with a minority in Congress, being relentlessly hounded the left, can't use a heavy hand to impose its conditions," said Sen. Carlos Navarrete, PRD leader in the Senate.

A WORSENING ECONOMY
Issues beyond Calderón's control -- most notably deteriorating economic conditions and rising prices -- also have also been provoking headaches.

"They have an economy that's going down, inflation that's going up. None of this is any of their doing," said Federico Estévez, also a political science professor at ITAM.

He added that similar problems afflicted the Fox administration during its second year -- and contributed to PAN losses in the 2003 midterm elections that left Fox a lame-duck president.

Calderón has responded to the rising prices and economic turbulence with a number of measures, many of them emphasizing government intervention in markets.

Last month, he eliminated tariffs on wheat, corn and rice entering the country. At the same time, however, he froze the prices of 150 household staples ranging from beans to soap.

The president additionally defended subsidizing gasoline and diesel fuel by nearly $20 billion this year -- something U.S. motorists crossing into Northern Mexico have been increasingly taking advantage of.

Grupo Reforma columnist Sergio Sarmiento described the president's unwillingness to lift fuel subsidies as cosmetic measures that fail to help the poor and populist pandering that surpassed the actions of previous governments.

"Not even the [Mexico City] government of López Obrador had populism so pure," he wrote last month.

The president's economic populism and maneuvering toward establishing tighter control over his party represented a return to old-style PRI politics, said pollster Dan Lund, president of the Mund Group in Mexico City.

"It's a presidential system and he's moved toward basically the old PRI style: It's populist in its economic programs for the poor and its top-down," Lund said.

"The one successful model of the past -- successful in quotes -- is the PRI. No one is inventing a new model here."

A RETURN TO SECURITY FOCUS?
Calderón started his administration by implementing a law-and-order agenda and promising to rein in narcotics trafficking gangs. But his sending the military into troubled areas has resulted in a growing number of human rights complaints and failed to stem a rising number of drug-related deaths -- especially among police officers.

Public sentiment has turned against his war on drugs, which has claimed more than 1,600 lives in 2008. Two June polls showed that the public overwhelmingly believes that narcotics traffickers have gained the upper hand.

Ironically, Estévez, the ITAM political science professor, said the president could possibly win back some political capital by focusing once again on security.

"He has to put the military cap back on [and] wear the medals," Estévez said.

"That's the best thing going for him."

David Agren covers national affairs for the The News in Mexico City, where a version of this article originally appeared.

IFE: AMLO not "legitimate president"

David Agren
The News

The Federal Electoral Institute on Tuesday scolded the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, and Labor Party for referring to 2006 election runner-up Andrés Manuel López Obrador as the “legitimate president” during television commercials.

The Executive Secretary of IFE, as the election regulator is known, said using the “legitimate president” phrase was unconstitutional as the country already has an elected president, who is carrying out constitutional duties.

It added that federal electoral tribunal, or Trife, validated President Felipe Calderón’s victory. The Executive Secretary has proposed slapping the two left-wing parties with fines totaling 912,030 pesos. The full IFE board decides Wednesday if it will order the PRD and Labor Party to stop using the phrase and impose the fines.

López Obrador represented a coalition including the PRD and Labor Party in the last federal election, which he narrowly lost to President Felipe Calderón. The former candidate rejected the outcome, which he alleged was rigged, and declared himself the “legitimate president” on Nov. 20, 2006.

He also has a history of disparaging the IFE and Trife – he commented, “To hell with your institutions,” in September 2006 after the latter rejected his allegations of electoral fraud. The IFE board overseeing the 2006 election lacked PRD representation. The left-wing party walked out of 2003 negotiations for electing the board after its two main candidates were rejected.

The electoral reforms passed last fall give IFE broad powers to strike down political ads deemed negative or inappropriate.

Strike took its toll on tourism

In a state dependent on tourism, striking schoolteachers assail Oaxaca's economic engine – again

OAXACA – Striking teachers pitched tents and held demonstrations in front of the El Importador restaurant over the past three weeks in the popular and leafy central square of this colonial city and state capital. According to shift manager Juan Vázquez, the protests drove down sales by 50 percent.

But even before the demonstrations began, he said, business had yet to fully rebound to levels achieved prior to the teachers strike in 2006 that descended into five months of violent street protests.

And so it was with a sigh of relief that he watched strikers packing up and heading home Saturday after a noisy rally, during which a band of young men wearing gas masks and toques used spray paint to scribble anti-government slogans on the walls, sidewalks and historic buildings that ring the Zócalo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“This state depends heavily on tourism,” Vázquez said. “People here want to work.”

Ongoing disruptions by striking teachers and protesters from a left-wing group known as APPO have seriously damaged Oaxaca's tourism-dependent economy, according to many in the tourism sector, which the state government says directly and indirectly accounts for 80 percent of the region's economic activity. And the lack of visitors and plunge in sales comes mere weeks before the state's premier culture festival, the Guelaguetza, is scheduled to commence.

Some tourist-dependent workers expressed worries that the strikes and protests would continue keeping tourists away from the state famous for its archeological sights, diverse indigenous cultures and gastronomic delights like mole, mezcal and chocolate.

Like Vázquez, cabbie Daniel Moldonado, who ferries visitors from the airport to various parts of Oaxaca City, reported a 50-percent drop in business over the past three weeks.

While running a fare to the Zócalo on Saturday, he pointed at people waiting along the highway for buses that wouldn't arrive due to the “mega-march” that capped off the weeks-long sit-in.

“There's a way of protesting without interfering with bystanders,” Maldonado said.

Closer to the Zócalo, Ricardo Cruz, who teaches computer courses at a private college, said enrollment had dropped by two-thirds during the recent strike. He said the strike had divided Oaxaca residents – including his own family.

“Of every 10 people you meet, eight of them have teachers in their [immediate] family,” he said while eating a breakfast of tlayudas (a delicacy known as “Oaxacan pizzas”) at a café.

As if to illustrate his point, one elderly diner who identified himself as a teacher took exception to Cruz’s grumblings and stormed off.

Not all local entrepreneurs reported suffering from the strike, however. Local street vendors peddled everything from ice cream to pirated movies amidst the makeshift tent city that blanketed the city center.

And while local media reported that the teachers union and APPO had charged the vendors up to 150 pesos a day for the right to work in the encampment, those interviewed by The News denied the allegations. Some, in fact, said they were able to work more freely, since the municipal government was unable to carry out campaigns aimed at removing them.

“The teachers and APPO let us do our jobs,” said Ángel Ríos, a veteran vendor of ice cream bars.

“They're good people ... and good customers,” he added.

David Agren, The News

Strike took toll on tourism

OAXACA – Striking teachers pitched tents and held demonstrations in front of the El Importador restaurant over the past three weeks in the popular and leafy central square of this colonial city and state capital. According to shift manager Juan Vázquez, the protests drove down sales by 50 percent.

But even before the demonstrations began, he said, business had yet to fully rebound to levels achieved prior to the teachers strike in 2006 that descended into five months of violent street protests.

And so it was with a sigh of relief that he watched strikers packing up and heading home Saturday after a noisy rally, during which a band of young men wearing gas masks and toques used spray paint to scribble anti-government slogans on the walls, sidewalks and historic buildings that ring the Zócalo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“This state depends heavily on tourism,” Vázquez said. “People here want to work.”

Ongoing disruptions by striking teachers and protesters from a left-wing group known as APPO have seriously damaged Oaxaca's tourism-dependent economy, according to many in the tourism sector, which the state government says directly and indirectly accounts for 80 percent of the region's economic activity. And the lack of visitors and plunge in sales comes mere weeks before the state's premier culture festival, the Guelaguetza, is scheduled to commence.

Some tourist-dependent workers expressed worries that the strikes and protests would continue keeping tourists away from the state famous for its archeological sights, diverse indigenous cultures and gastronomic delights like mole, mezcal and chocolate.

Like Vázquez, cabbie Daniel Moldonado, who ferries visitors from the airport to various parts of Oaxaca City, reported a 50-percent drop in business over the past three weeks.

While running a fare to the Zócalo on Saturday, he pointed at people waiting along the highway for buses that wouldn't arrive due to the “mega-march” that capped off the weeks-long sit-in.

“There's a way of protesting without interfering with bystanders,” Maldonado said.

Closer to the Zócalo, Ricardo Cruz, who teaches computer courses at a private college, said enrollment had dropped by two-thirds during the recent strike. He said the strike had divided Oaxaca residents – including his own family.

“Of every 10 people you meet, eight of them have teachers in their [immediate] family,” he said while eating a breakfast of tlayudas (a delicacy known as “Oaxacan pizzas”) at a café.

As if to illustrate his point, one elderly diner who identified himself as a teacher took exception to Cruz’s grumblings and stormed off.

Not all local entrepreneurs reported suffering from the strike, however. Local street vendors peddled everything from ice cream to pirated movies amidst the makeshift tent city that blanketed the city center.

And while local media reported that the teachers union and APPO had charged the vendors up to 150 pesos a day for the right to work in the encampment, those interviewed by The News denied the allegations. Some, in fact, said they were able to work more freely, since the municipal government was unable to carry out campaigns aimed at removing them.

“The teachers and APPO let us do our jobs,” said Ángel Ríos, a veteran vendor of ice cream bars.

“They're good people ... and good customers,” he added.

David Agren, The News

Strike took its toll on tourism

OAXACA – Striking teachers pitched tents and held demonstrations in front of the El Importador restaurant over the past three weeks in the popular and leafy central square of this colonial city and state capital. According to shift manager Juan Vázquez, the protests drove down sales by 50 percent.

But even before the demonstrations began, he said, business had yet to fully rebound to levels achieved prior to the teachers strike in 2006 that descended into five months of violent street protests.

And so it was with a sigh of relief that he watched strikers packing up and heading home Saturday after a noisy rally, during which a band of young men wearing gas masks and toques used spray paint to scribble anti-government slogans on the walls, sidewalks and historic buildings that ring the Zócalo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“This state depends heavily on tourism,” Vázquez said. “People here want to work.”

Ongoing disruptions by striking teachers and protesters from a left-wing group known as APPO have seriously damaged Oaxaca's tourism-dependent economy, according to many in the tourism sector, which the state government says directly and indirectly accounts for 80 percent of the region's economic activity. And the lack of visitors and plunge in sales comes mere weeks before the state's premier culture festival, the Guelaguetza, is scheduled to commence.

Some tourist-dependent workers expressed worries that the strikes and protests would continue keeping tourists away from the state famous for its archeological sights, diverse indigenous cultures and gastronomic delights like mole, mezcal and chocolate.

Like Vázquez, cabbie Daniel Moldonado, who ferries visitors from the airport to various parts of Oaxaca City, reported a 50-percent drop in business over the past three weeks.

While running a fare to the Zócalo on Saturday, he pointed at people waiting along the highway for buses that wouldn't arrive due to the “mega-march” that capped off the weeks-long sit-in.

“There's a way of protesting without interfering with bystanders,” Maldonado said.

Closer to the Zócalo, Ricardo Cruz, who teaches computer courses at a private college, said enrollment had dropped by two-thirds during the recent strike. He said the strike had divided Oaxaca residents – including his own family.

“Of every 10 people you meet, eight of them have teachers in their [immediate] family,” he said while eating a breakfast of tlayudas (a delicacy known as “Oaxacan pizzas”) at a café.

As if to illustrate his point, one elderly diner who identified himself as a teacher took exception to Cruz’s grumblings and stormed off.

Not all local entrepreneurs reported suffering from the strike, however. Local street vendors peddled everything from ice cream to pirated movies amidst the makeshift tent city that blanketed the city center.

And while local media reported that the teachers union and APPO had charged the vendors up to 150 pesos a day for the right to work in the encampment, those interviewed by The News denied the allegations. Some, in fact, said they were able to work more freely, since the municipal government was unable to carry out campaigns aimed at removing them.

“The teachers and APPO let us do our jobs,” said Ángel Ríos, a veteran vendor of ice cream bars.

“They're good people ... and good customers,” he added.

David Agren, The News

PAN dumps Creel as Senate leader

PAN dumps Creel as Senate leader

David Agren
The News

Sen. Santiago Creel was sacked as the National Action Party leader in the Senate as the governing party tries to improve its chances of winning approval for a series of reforms to the state-run energy sector.

A Tuesday press release from the PAN national executive committee said, “The PAN is restructuring in order to give a new push to the reforms.”

Creel’s ousting comes as the Senate is holding a marathon session of 22 debates on energy reform – a key initiative in a series of overhauls to the federal government being undertaken by President Felipe Calderón.

The debates, an April takeover of Congress by opposition lawmakers and now a proposed public consultation on energy reform in Mexico City by the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, could further impede passage of energy reform.

Analysts were quick to note, however, that Creel’s exit also continued a purge of leaders with loyalties to the conservative wing of the party that was deposed last December by the ascent of Germán Martínez, a close confidant of Calderón, to the PAN presidency.

Pollster Dan Lund, president of the Mund Group in Mexico City, said that Creel, a former interior secretary, was not part of Calderón’s inner circle.

“This is a tightly controlled party, which is not pluralistic and everything functions at the direction of [Calderón],” Lund said.

Sen. Gustavo Madero, president of the Senate finance committee, was named as Creel’s replacement.

Lund described Madero as “one of the president’s men.”

Creel will continue serving as President of the Senate until Aug. 31, according to the Senate press office.

Héctor Larios, PAN coordinator in the Chamber of Deputies, survived Monday’s purge, but acknowledged that he was serving at the pleasure of the party president.

Both Creel and Larios were appointed by former party president Manuel Espino – a longtime Calderón adversary – during the period when Calderón was still waiting for the electoral tribunal to adjudicate PRD complaints from the 2006 vote.

Calderón – who Lund said is calling the shots in the PAN – moved against Espino last fall by having Martínez run unopposed for the party presidency.

Personal indiscretions may have also tripped up with Creel, who had gravitated toward the PAN’s conservative and Catholic factions earlier this decade.

He generated scandalous headlines earlier this month when it was revealed that he fathered a child out of wedlock with a soap opera star Edith González.

Sergio Valderama Herrera, political science professor at UNAM Xochimilco, attributed Creel’s fall to “political and personal shortcomings.

“He broke with one of the PAN’s traditional values: Family,” said Valderama Herrera.

Creel stumbled at times in his PAN leadership position – most notably when he accepted a challenge to debate energy reform with former PRD presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. PAN officials later quashed plans for the debate.

Ironically, Creel narrowly lost the 2000 Mexico City mayoral election to López Obrador.

He subsequently served as interior secretary and gained the backing of the PAN establishment, including Former President Vicente Fox, for a 2006 presidential run.

Calderón derailed those plans as he upset Creel in the 2005 PAN primaries, however.