AMLO's negotiator with the mobs

AMLO's negotiator with the mobs

With the dawn of January and a new year, starts the term Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), aspiring presidential candidate of the left National Regeneration Party ( MORENA ), declared for himself to disclose in the next four weeks, his candidate to serve as head of the Ministry of Public Security, should the coalition he is proposing, Together We'll Make History, triumph on election day. The expectation among the MORENA ranks is high, according to our sources, because this character will be none other than the one who AMLO has convinced to become the negotiator and lead the talks with the bosses of criminal organizations, all part of his plan to establish an “amnesty to pacify the country.” This proposal, together with the one to establish a National Guard in coordination with the Ministry of the Navy and the National Defense to remove some public security matters from the Ministry of the Interior to this, are, so far, the axis of the plan Mr. Andrés Manuel has to face insecurity and violence in Mexico.

Being a legislator is hard

After a two-week vacation, courtesy of the Christmas holidays, some deputies and senators of the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union will return this Thursday 4 to work. However, the Permanent Commission, led by Deputy Jorge Ramírez of the center-right Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), will only hold four sessions in which everybody expects minor issues to be discussed. Nevertheless, we've been told there are deputies and senators who are luckier: they have a month and a half of vacations, from December 15 – when the ordinary period ended – to February 1, when they are scheduled to return and begin the last ordinary period of the LXIII Legislature. Vacations, many. Pending issues, a few.

Battle against the Law on Internal Security

Also with the beginning of 2018, on the land of Human Rights – probably all the way from the National Human Rights Commission – the legal battle against the Law on Internal Security is being prepared. Our sources say human rights advocates expect the Supreme Court of Justice to declare this Law unconstitutional. One of the main goals, we've been told, is to avoid an increase in the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission against the armed forces. According to data by the NHRC, before the beginning of the Felipe Calderón administration – in December 2006 – the Ministry of the Defense hadn't received a single recommendation while the Navy had gotten just the one. In the last 10 years, recommendations came in like a flood. The debate regarding the Law will not stop here, according to our sources.

National leadership candidates for the PAN

Some prominent members of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) are currently analyzing whether they should raise the hand to participate as aspiring candidates for the national leadership of their party, given that, after July 1, the PAN will need to renew its leadership according to the party's by-laws. We've been told that among those names we can find Senator Jorge Preciado, the coordinator of the party at the Lower Chamber, Marko Cortés; and the former governor of Puebla, Rafael Moreno Valle . However, we've also been told the most conservative wing of the party also has a candidate in mind, so they can recover the national leadership. Who could it be? Who could be the candidate of the most conservative group? They wonder.

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