Mexican Left Splitting into Pro and Anti-Lopez Obrador Factions in Mexico City (Translation)

La Crónica de Hoy ^ | September 7, 2006 | René Cruz González ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

Ebrard's Group Throws Itself Against Cardenas

Agustin Guerrero, director of the René Bejarano-supported National Democratic Left (IDN),¹ qualified Cuauhtemoc Cardenas² as a "traitor" to the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

"Cardenas the Engineer³ is not with the PRD in principle nor with its project, and we did not sign a letter of renunciation, we simply made a decision to go to Fox's cabinet, because we are charging him there. That commission for the bicentennial of the celebrations of Independence is not an honorary post, it is a position which has a budget and pays him for organizing it; therefore he is in Fox's cabinet, he's a traitor," Guerrero emphasized in a press conference without questioning by the media.

Thus it is that the local Deputy of the Aztec Sun,⁴ who is running for Coordinator of the bench of his party in the Legislative Assembly,⁵ reproached the founder of his political party for having accepted [the job of] coordinating the work for the celebrations for the bicentennial and the centennial of the beginnings of Independence and the Mexican Revolution, respectively, and with that decision he set aside the principles which govern the life of the party he founded.

He warned, moreover, that those activists who do not share the principles of this political party, will have the "door open to go from it, without the necessity of [our] presenting a renunciation," such as that which followed the former moral leader of the Aztec Sun.

Guerrero's words, which were echoed by some 50 sympathizers of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who from this moment will refer to Cardenas as a "flatterer and a sellout."

Ill-fated: The ex Coordinator of the PRD in the Legislative Assembly, Lorena Villavicencio, considered as ill-fated and rude the comments dropped by Agustin Guerrero, who aspires to direct the bench of his party in the IV Legislative Session.

The legislator [Villavicencio] negated that Cardenas the Engineer is a traitor to the PRD, in spite of the discrepancies which are presented by the actions undertaken by PRD members to defend Lopez Obrador.

"I do not know anything that qualifies him as a traitor, I am not sharing in this type of assertion. It looks to me that it is absolutely anticlimatic, inopportune and rude to make this type of assertion, I am not going to lend myself to these speeches on heresy for which there is no room in a pluralistic party. I reject this and the statements of Agustin Guerrero look ill-fated to me."

She asserted that Cuauhtemoc Cardenas must be seen as a "distinguished activist of the PRD who has made great contributions to the development of the country."

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Translator's Notes:

¹ René Bejarano was Lopez Obrador's personal secretary while Lopez Obrador was Head of Government of the Federal District in Mexico City. He was the individual who in 2004 was videotaped accepting a bribe of $45,000 (U.S.) in return for favorable treatment in the awarding of construction contracts by Lopez Obrador's Federal District Government. The incident became national news in Mexico in March 2004 when Mexican newsman Victor Trujillo, who hosted a news program in which he dressed up as a clown named Brozo, presented the video to an unsuspecting Bejarano on national TV, thus bringing the Videoescandolos (Videoscandals) surrounding Lopez Obrador into national prominence. Bejarano is closely-associated with Marcelo Ebrard, Lopez Obrador's hand-picked candidate for the Head of Government in the Federal District, who won his race during the recent presidential election.

² Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano is the founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), now headed by Lopez Obrador. He is a former Head of Government of the Federal District in Mexico City and has run as a presidential candidate for the PRD in both 1994 and 2000. In 1988 he also ran for President as leader of the National Democratic Front, and it is assumed by many that the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Carlos Salinas de Gortari won by fraud, as a supposed "computer crash" the night of the election, prevented the publication of the vote totals. Cardenas is the son of former Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas and the father of Lazaro Cardenas Batel, who now serves as the PRD Governor of the Mexican state of Michoacan.

³ Cardenas is frequently referred to as El Ingeniero (the Engineer).

⁴ The "Aztec Sun" (Sol Azteca) is the symbol of the PRD and is at times used as a synonym for the party.

⁵ This refers to the Legislative Assembly of Mexico's Federal District (Mexico City), not the national legislature.

[StJacques]

To a lot of people, this may appear to be a small news item, but I am posting this article because I think it shows something significant which, in my opinion, bodes well for the future.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that the extended protest over the recent presidential elections Lopez Obrador has organized is alienating more and more members of his own PRD political party, and especially in Mexico City, where their shutdown of the central business district, with all its attendant economic harm, now continues into its seventh week. And it may be that the truly radical element within the PRD is preparing to take their party right over the cliff in going after Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who is by no means an insignificant figure within their party. He is almost universally referred to as "the moral leader" of the party in the Mexican press and his personal history, as well as that of his family, is a most distinguished one in the eyes of many Mexicans.

Cardenas announced a couple of weeks ago that he would not be attending Lopez Obrador's "Democratic National Convention," which AMLO has called to name him President of Mexico and to set up a "parallel government." Cardenas also said that he felt it was important for everyone in the country to abide by the decision of the Electoral Tribunal, which had not yet been released, in order to maintain order. Later, it turned out that AMLO's candidates for the Coordinator positions in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Mexican national legislature both lost out to Cardenas associates, which seems to undercut the public impression many have of the PRD legislators marching in lock-step with AMLO's instructions. And now Cardenas has accepted an appointment by Vicente Fox to act as the official coordinator preparing Mexico's coming celebrations, which will begin four years from now, of Mexican Independence (1810) and the Mexican Revolution (1910).

And there is more than just this split going on. Today Ricardo Pascoe Pierce, a prominent PRD member who served as Mexico's Ambassador to Cuba under Fox and who has a long history of activism on the left, even before the PRD existed, came out and said that the PRD is directing its own destruction. He said that Lopez Obrador "has no viability in a party like the PRD" and went on to say that if this continues, it will be time to begin discussing the formation of a new leftist party in Mexico, to separate "the radicals from the reformers."

And I personally think Fox has shown almost Machiavellian skill in all of this. "Divide your enemies against themselves"....

[StJacques]

A Mexican political ping for you all.

Anyone wishing to track the other translations I have posted on the post-election controversy in Mexico may do so using the forum's "keyword" search option with the unique keyword -- STJTRANSLATION

[Dane]

hugo chavez and fidel castro are not pleased with this.

[California Patriot]

Cardenas stiffs Lopez Obrador. Wow. That IS good news.

[StJacques]

I respectfully request an explanation as to why this post was moved from the "News" forum to "Bloggers and Personal." I submit that the content here does not match the criteria for "Bloggers and Personal."

There are a number of Freepers who have been following the Mexican post-election controversy closely and I think I can state that we all have been a responsible group maintaining the highest standards of Freeper behavior and attention to FreeRepublic.com's rules. We have been joined by other interested Freepers on a regular basis and I believe I can argue that we have presented some of the most informed discussion, and genuinely in support of conservative principles, present on this board.

If this was in response to samadam2000's "cesspool alert" post, then please remove it and return the thread to the News/Activism forum where I believe it belongs. But if not, then please explain why the thread was moved.

[California Patriot]

Yes, and it qualifies as News far more than most threads.

[Enterprise]

If I may join in here. poster StJacques has spent a lot of time translating articles and posting them on FreeRepublic, and not as a personal blog, but as an ahead of the curve effort. There is nothing "cesspool" about what he has been doing.

[conservative in nyc]

Thanks for your hard work on the translations.

Yes, this should be moved back to news - it's not a blog or anyone's personal opinion, but an original translation of a Spanish-language article on the Mexican election, which some FReepers have been following.

Unfortunately, most of us don't read Spanish as well as StJacques and wouldn't be able to follow the story by clicking on the link. The U.S. MSM has been largely ignoring the story, which has potential implications here if the situation in Mexico gets worse.

[A CA Guy]

With great respect towards those in charge at FR, I do agree with you.

You have been translating for us the various Mexican papers to keep us apprised of what could end up being the next Mexican revolution.

You are NOT taking us to your personal blog and just because you are acting as a translator for us, there is no reason IMO to consider your deliveries of these important articles and issues as your own blog/comment on the issues.

I think you have been translating with maybe a comment or two after the issue is posted. You have not to my knowledge been posting your opinion as translation...

I think FR doesn't see a lot of this, so maybe they did not know how to handle this, but IMO this is the most BREAKING of Breaking News.

There is a potential Mexican Revolution breaking out IMO.

Keep up the good work and thanks for you efforts to keep us informed.

[A CA Guy]

Look on the bright side, no matter how they catalog this stuff, you still show in messages when people post to it.

So that is good...

[norton]

Political events of this nature, in a not entirely trustworthy but VERY proximate neighbor, certainly are news.
I can chat anytime about old cars and various bits of militaria & history.
I have to live with any fall out from the mexican election and I am certainly keen on gaining some understanding of the apparent lunacy following it.

[shield]

Great news. Thanks.

[StJacques]

CA Guy, California Patriot, and norton; I appreciate the kind words, but what bothers me, in the event that this is in response to samadams2000's "drive by" in his post #2 is that a poster like him may be able to "trash" a serious and responsible thread by merely stopping by and using language he can anticipate will move the thread off of the news forum.

As I think the two of you and many others know, I have put no small amount of effort into expanding the scope of what is considered "available news" to FreeRepublic.com by taking the time to translate the articles I have posted. It is very much an attempt on my part to prevent the MSM from "controlling" our view of the Left in Mexico, and I submit in the larger region of Latin America as a whole, as a group who are something like "American liberals," just participating in a different political system. They are nothing of the sort. The Latin American Left as a whole, and Lopez Obrador's radical wing of the PRD in particular, are a true threat to the peace and stability of the western hemisphere and their activities can potentially impact our lives here in the U.S. in many ways. The immigration controversy may be the most pressing at the moment, but there are larger issues associated with trade, oil, and the image and influence of the U.S. in Latin America and the world at stake as well.

If this move is in response to samadams2000's post, then I submit it is a most unjust situation to move our discussion to the back burner just because a prejudiced Freeper chose to step in and kill a larger discussion.

[onja]

Could you add me to the ping list? I just started an AP Comp. Pol. class, and Mexico is one of the 6 countries we're studying.

[StJacques]

You're on it onja, and welcome.

[A CA Guy]

I don't know that is particularly anything that should remove a thread from news.
They could have been writing about what they thought about Mexico or warning us about their very post, who knows?

I know Mexico is a cesspool, I went there a little while two summers ago and it was scary.

Many of the people are nice, but they do not belong here instead of home.

[livius]

I agree - this is not a blog but is an ongoing thread on the Mexican elections, similar to - but with more news and less chit-chat - the daily ME thread that's been running for several weeks now. This is an important situation that is barely being covered by the press in this country, even though it could affect the future of us all. What would happen if we suddenly have an ally of Chavez and the mad mullahs just across the Rio Grande?

Other than a few raving bigots who occasionally hop on the thread and say something nasty about Mexicans, I'd say everyone else maintains it as an exemplary news thread, current and full of shared analysis and information from other sources.

[SAJ]

Just so, and well said, Saint!

Thanks again for the latest -- NOT, as I've pointed out several times, available in any English-language LBM.

FReegards, mate!

[mjolnir]

Exactly! These updates encompass just the sort of thing the MSM should be informing us of, yet consistently fails to. As Americans, we need to know far more about Canada, Mexico and the rest of Latin America than we do, and we underestimate Chavez, the PRD and the rest of the anti-American Latin American Left at our peril.

For instance, I believe that had America been more informed about Hugo Chavez, there would have been a swell and cry to support the coup that temporarily deposed him.

What's happening in Mexico may be the birth of a transparent (classical)liberal democratic republic or the beginning of a civil war on our border. If its progress along those lines doesn't constitute news, I don't know what does.