No place for AMLO in the Senate

No place for AMLO in the Senate

We're on the eve of the electoral process for 2018 and there's already one certainty promoted by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in the Senate: there will be no positions for the former left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) member Miguel Barbosa that may allow resources to be funneled towards the leader of the far- left National Regeneration Party ( MORENA) , Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). In this path, we're told, there's no real possibility that Mr. Miguel becomes the chairman of the directive board or the director of the Belisario Dominguez Institute. PRI senators will occupy the presidency of the Political Coordination Board, currently chaired by Emilio Gamboa, and will also be in charge of the directive board, which Pablo Escudero, a Green Party senator, will vacate soon. Our sources say among the eventual replacements are the legislators Ana Lilia Herrera and Graciela Ortíz, or the Queretaro native Enrique Burgos. There are no places left for the AMLO troops and the fight has just begun, they say.

No clarity in Odebrecht case

There is still no clarity regarding the inquiries on the Odebrecht case, and the file has been left in the shadows. We're told that more than 170 requests for information and contracts with the Brazilian company, opened by the National Institute for Transparency, Acces to Information and Personal Data Protection, haven't help to shed light on the alleged bribes for over 10 million dollars that were given to PEMEX officials in exchange of public works. The few information disclosed, we're told, has been relegated as a backup information or considered non-existent. The contracts with the Brazilian company can be consulteed, but not the full investigation of the Office of the Attorney General in Mexico(PGR) on the alleged bribes to former executive officers of Petróleos Mexicanos, among them, Emilio Lozoya Austin . That is classified.

The dwindling forces of the PRD

We're told that because of the dwindling numbers of Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) members at the Mexican Senate, coordinated by Senator Dolores Padierna, the PRD members left have seen the need to fill their ordinary meetings with members of the party's national leadership. Our sources say there are few legislators who attended the meeting, where some voices have begun to say it's been a long time since such a reduced number of legislators was seen. The massive exodus towards the far-left National Regeneration Party ( MORENA ) has become evident in the Senate and some are worried this reality will replicate itself in the Lower Chamber.

The questioned electoral roll of the PAN

After the National Electoral Institute (INE) found out about the resolution of the electoral rolls of the parties, the conservative National Action Party (PAN) was not quite pleased and requested the organism to clarify that their list of party affiliates wasn't “inflated”. In the PAN, the electoral roll is a very sensitive issue, because their leader, Ricardo Anaya, boasts they have the most updated and transparent list in the history of the party. The problem was – according to the PAN – that during 2016 they began to upload the data to the system of the INE more than 200 thousand records. But last March, when the deadline was approaching, they uploaded their entire list, without removing the ones they had already added to the system, thus the 200 thousand duplicates. That is why the INE checked 704 thousand 145 hundred records and had to remove 46%. The issue here is that if the INE doesn't accept this explanation, the other PAN members who are fighting Anaya over the leadership will have strong arguments to criticize Mr. Ricardo.

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