Mexican Tribunal Rules Against Lopez Obrador's Request for a Complete Recount (Translation)

eluniversal.com.mx ^ | August 5, 2006 | Arturo Zárate & Jorge Herrera ( translated by self )

[Texan5]

Do you mean Lazaro Cardenas? I didn't know he was the PRD's founder, but he sure was a communist, from all I've read-there is a town in Michoacan named after him, too. It sounds like the politics there are more conservative then they used to be-good.

[Texan5]

I see I had the wrong Cardenas-Lazaro Cardenas was long dead in 1988.

[StJacques]

"I used to like to go to the state of Michoacan . . . the only thing I did not like about the place was that the people seemed to practically worship communism . . . I haven't been there in 20 years, but I wonder if the politics of that state have changed for the better?"

Things have clearly changed for the better in Michoacan, though it has not completely purged itself of its past leftist leanings.

First of all; you may not know that the PAN Candidate Felipe Calderon is a Michoacano. He was not able to carry the state however, because the (leftist) PRD outpolled PAN 41.17% to 34.49%. But I think most people would say that is a dramatic increase in PAN's popularity in the state over where it was in 2000.

Here are the results from the IFE:

State						Unregistered Candidates	Valid Votes	Null Votes	Total Votes	Registered Voters	% Turnout
Michoacan	515,600	283,157	615,535	8,229	29,951	10,780	1,463,252	31,845	1,495,097	2,952,114	50.64%
	34.49%	18.94%	41.17%	0.55%	2.00%	0.72%	97.87%	2.13%	100%

And, just to make a point about what you said about a "statue to a Communist," was that Leon Trotsky perhaps? In the late 1930's the President of Mexico, Lazaro Cardenas, who was from Michoacan, invited Trotsky to come to Mexico as a political refugee (offered him asylum). This was part of the leftist political posturing so many leaders of the PRI, especially the early PRI, engaged in. Trotsky was of course murdered in Mexico City by one of Stalin's henchmen, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that Cardenas (whose son Cuauhtemoc ran for the Presidency twice, in 1988 [when he probably won and had it stolen], and 2000 as the PRD candidate) would have erected a statue to Trotsky, who he admired greatly and for whom he probably felt great shame at seeing him murdered while under his protection. It's just a guess.

[Texan5]

Thanks for the information-that is indeed good news. I honestly don't remember who the stature was of-it might have been Trotsky-I just remember when my daughter saw the name of the town and the statue, she said to my husband and I "look-this is a communist town". I don't know if there is a statue of Lazaro Cardenas in the town by that name-it was a modern town with not a lot going on, so we didn't really drive around to look at things.

[Shuttle Shucker]

Lazaro may have been from Michoacan too. As thoughts of his petro nationalization and the pollution that results in Mexico as a result nauseate me, I've not studied the guy much. But his son is famously from Michoacan.

Trotsky, I think, was assassinated in Mexico City. That glorified communism a bit down there.

[Texan5]

He was responsible for that mess? Why am I not surprised? And you're right, the stench and belching smoke from the unregulated refining facilities was always nasty-I can just imagine what it is like now.

[Shuttle Shucker]

The PAN states / PRD states electoral map that I saw is of vague memory now. Might you know where one is available online? Maybe at the time the one I saw was created, Felipe had carried that state (his home state). He ran for governor of it in 1995 and got trounced, by the way.

BTW, Cardenas also ran in 1994. A 3x loser before he gave up. I saw him on the campaign trail in '94, in fact. That engineer had to READ his lamely delivered speeches, believe it or not.

[Shuttle Shucker]

Petroleum's a national monopoly down there, owned by the gummint. Thanks to Lazaro.

There's one brand of gas stations: PeMex. And stations are famous for ruining gas tanks with watered down or mucky gas, at over-priced costs too. And Mexico apparently has to IMPORT gas or something like that, despite its having the world's 4th or so largest petroleum reserves. Meanwhile, whenever gas prices increase, PeMex stations at times pretend to be out of gas so that folks are so desperate for it under the new price they won't throw stuff at the gas attendants (who work for tips). But if you could only go to one brand of gas station, you'd not want to risk annoying their union. I think I saw that Venezuela has something like 3 times the output per petroleum employee. Felipe would change that and you can bet the unions are nervous...