Tag Archives: PRI

COVID blows AMLO legacy for lovers and haters alike

September 30, 2020Economy, Energy, PoliticsAMLO, AMLO legacy, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Dos Bocas refinery, Lopez Obrador, Marcelo Ebrard, Maya Train, Morena, Pemex, PRI, republican austerity, Santa Lucia airportTom

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic devastation and loss of life around the world, and we are now coming to the conclusion that the disease will rob us of one more thing some of us very much looked forward to seeing: The historical verdict on an AMLO government. All our lives (or at least, in our case, since the López Portillo administration), we have parroted the same truisms about Mexican society: that all politicians are corrupt, the unions are corrupt, Pemex is corrupt, the police are corrupt, and generally that él que no transa no avanza — he who doesn’t engage in corruption doesn’t get ahead. Continue reading COVID blows AMLO legacy for lovers and haters alike →

Gloomy election outlook for Mexico

March 28, 2018PoliticsAMLO, El Peje, Lopez Obrador, Mexico election, Mexico presidential election, NAICM, PAN, PRD, PRITom

Approximately three months remain before Mexicans go to the polls to elect a new president, and we are getting the impression that pundits and regular Josés alike are starting to get used to the idea that Andrés Manuel López Obrador might actually be elected this time. We ourselves are laboring to come to grips with this potential outcome, in a process not unlike the seven stages of grief, although we’re still mostly stuck at stage four, depression. We’re still struggling to accept that Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, and now on top of that the prospect of our own populist nationalist zealot taking over…maybe this helps explain why mezcal sales are skyrocketing. Continue reading Gloomy election outlook for Mexico →

Sullen outlook as Mexican mid-term elections near

May 15, 2015PoliticsAMLO, Ayotzinapa, Encuentro Social, Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, Mexico mid-term elections, Morena, National Electoral Institute, PAN, Partido Humanista, Peña Nieto, PRD, PRITom

Here in Mexico City the light poles and overpasses – and just about every other available surface – are festooned with taxpayer-financed electoral propaganda. Yes, there’s a buzz in the air, and it’s the sound of José Lunchpails across the nation saying “How can I possibly vote for any of these unconscionably corrupt political parties and their hopelessly venal candidates?”

To be honest, this will be our challenge when we head to the polls on June 7 to vote for members of the federal Chamber of Deputies, and in some locations for state governors and other local officials. Locally here in Mexico City, we will vote for representatives to the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (ALDF) and heads of the city boroughs, called Delegaciones. In certain aspects, June 7 will be an election of firsts. Continue reading Sullen outlook as Mexican mid-term elections near →