Thanks, but no thanks

AMLO was here in Mazatlán, speaking at the bullring (which sounds like the opening for a good joke, maybe more apropos for one of the other candidates).  Noroeste — owned by the dissident PAN Clouthier family — made mention, more than once that the candidate was quite late.   I wasn’t there, but happened by at the end of the speech, and the place was packed.  So, it’s not like people just left early or anything.

One interesting thing AMLO mentioned, and which the local press picked up on, was that the candidate specifically turned down any offer of help from Sinaloan governor, Mario Vásquez Lopéz (MALOVA), who is — in theory — heading a PAN/PRD fusion administration.

While the right-left coalition was popular with many in the PRD leadership and did win in several states, here in Sinaloa, the results have been less than satisfactory for the left.  MALOVA himself was a PRI militant and office holder, who switched his party affiliation to PAN at the last possible minute to qualify as the fusion ticket gubernatorial candidate.  Although the new administration is arguably less overtly crooked than previous PRI administrations, the left has been frozen out of state administration.  No one from PRD holds any significant posts at the state or municipal executive level.  Here in Mazatlán (where the Municipal President on the fusion ticket was a former PAN municipal president), the administration has lurched strongly to the right, especially in social policy, basically forgetting they were in partnership with the left-wing parties.  The sense among the left seems to be that the fusion ticket was a huge tactical error.

MALOVA probably still owes some favors to the leftists, and the best he can do is promise not to support PAN’s Josefina Vásquez Mota, and it would be the kiss of death for his future within the new party to support Enrique Peña Nieto.  But, not supporting AMLO seems to be AMLO’s decision.  The presidential candidate was one of those on the left strongly opposing a fusion ticket in Sinaloa and his instincts may have been right.