Local politician, builder, gangster among recent killed in Mexico

A mayoral candidate in 2012 was found shot dead on 15 June in the western Mexican state of Guerrero; he was one of at least 17 including a constructor, a former civil servant and a presumed gangster reported killed around Mexico in recent days. Guillermo Maceda Cervantes, a former pre-candidate for the district of Tlacoachistlahuaca and member of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), was found in his car outside the district of Ometepec in Guerrero, Proceso reported, citing Mexico's Notimex agency. A former member of the office of the chief prosecutor of the state of Michoacán in western Mexico was also shot dead on 15 June while driving in the state capital Morelia, Proceso reported. Witnesses reportedly said a gunman waited for the victim's car to reach a crossroads, standing on the dividing line of the two sides of the street. The bodies of three executed men were found on 16 June in the north-western state of Sinaloa, with a message for the local police left beside them, while soldiers shot dead three suspected criminals in a gunfight on 16 June, in the western state of Michoacán, Proceso reported. The shootout occurred on a ranch or a locality between the  districts of Los Reyes and Cotija, near the border of the neighbouring state of Jalisco, the review stated. It counted no less than nine killings on 13-14 June, including of the owner of a construction firm and five of his workers, shot late on 13 June in the district of Totolápam, outside the Pacific-coast resort of Puerto Escondido. Police separately confirmed the killing of a gang leader on 16 June, in the district of San Andrés Cholula in the central state of Puebla. The victim was identified as presumed head of a gang known as Los Rojos, said to be based in the western district of Chilpancingo and to have acted or be acting as enforcers or gunmen for the Beltrán Leyva cartel. It was not immediately clear if the gang was independent now. The state Public Security chief for Puebla Sergio Lara Montellano warned the killing could provoke drug-related violence in the state, Proceso reported on 18 June.

Group would become Mexico's "real" opposition party

Mexico's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) led by the former presidential aspirant Andrés Manuel López Obrador took formal steps on 7 January toward becoming a party, its members vowing to garner extensive membership and insinuating this would become the main opposition to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Members of Morena (Movimiento Regeneración Nacional) visited the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico City to formally notify it of Morena's intention to become a party. It was not immediately clear if this was a mere formality as Morena members have said or if approval was needed. In any case its members seemingly had scant regard for the IFE, which ratified the PRI's bitterly contested election in 2012 after rejecting all cheating allegations. They reportedly laughed when an IFE official welcomed them to the building as the "home of democracy." Mexico's Leftist parties insist the 2012 elections were fraud-ridden. Later addressing an IFE panel, party president Martí Batres Guadarrama denounced the Pact for Mexico signed between the PRI and the two main opposition parties - to ease reformist legislation - as "the PRI's dream and a reactionary utopia" intended to eliminate dissent, La Jornada reported on 8 January. "The PRI does not like democracy, plurality, discrepancy...that pact symbolises...a system of pseudo-governmental parties where everyone has the same opinion, a uniform...political society...but bad news for the PRI, if there is an opposition it is called Morena." He said Morena rejected the "neo-liberal model" and energy-related privatizations likely to be pursued the PRI government. Morena's impact would become apparent in time, and depend on how many members and ultimately votes it can garner. These were expected to be taken from the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the main Leftist party formerly led by López Obrador. On 8 January López Obrador addressed "hundreds" of supporters in Mexico City's historic central square, where he registered his membership and began a national campaign to win party members. He vowed to defend Mexico's oil as national property and curb tax rises being imposed by the "gang of ruffians" in the government, while affirming Morena's peaceful vocation, La Jornada reported. A post was set up where "dozens" registered their affiliation after López Obrador left. Party president Batres was reported to have said the same day that he expected 1.5 million Mexicans to join the party in 2013, "more than recently registered" for the National Action Party, the main conservative party. He was to present the party's financing plans on 9 January, Excelsior and Notimex reported.

Pact with government further divides Mexican Left

Members of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) distanced themselves on 3 December from the multi-party Pact for Mexico signed earlier by the party's leader Jesús Zambrano Grijalva, echoing the party's earlier reservations about a pact that included the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRD, its political allies and protest groups bitterly challenged the PRI's general-elections victory last July, alleging there had been fraud. The pact appeared to open another crack in this party, following the departure of its former leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador to start his own political movement. The Pact for Mexico, promoted by President Enrique Peña Nieto, was to facilitate legislation through prior party agreements. But the PRD's secretary-general and deputy-head Alejandro Sánchez Camacho stated in a communiqué that the party did not recognize the signature and its political committee would debate Zambrano's initiative, El Universal reported. The daily noted that Sánchez belonged to the National Democratic Left current (Izquierda Democrática Nacional) within the PRD, distinct from Zambrano's reforming New Left current, which apparently had more support. He criticised Zambrano for letting himself be "wooed" by Peña Nieto's declarations and said his signature was "in a private capacity" and had "no validity" for lacking the approbation of party mechanisms. Zambrano defended his decision to sign on 2 December as "a risk worth taking," Milenio reported on 3 December. Differences with other parties persisted, he said, but the PRD was committed to reforms in Mexico. "We are profoundly dissatisfied with the state of our country," with problems too big to be solved by a "single force or a single man," he said.

Mexican parties sign Pact to facilitate reforms

Mexico's three main political parties signed the Pact for Mexico (Pacto por México) on 2 December, pledging to collaborate on legislative initatives and forward the agenda of structural and economic reforms touted by the new President Enrique Peña Nieto, Reuters reported. In this pact, the parties would negotiate initiatives before voting and consult with sectors in society when formulating legislation. "We have to talk to build consensus...as politicians we need to turn coincidences into a basis for reaching essential agreements," Peña Nieto said during the signature ceremony in Chapultepec Castle, the former imperial and presidential residence in Mexico City. The agency observed that fundamental reforms were suspended in Mexico in recent years as parties refused to pay the political cost of unpopular initiatives proposed by the conservative governments that ruled Mexico in 2000-2012; this halted cross-party collaboration in parliament. Mexico's interior minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong cited the first initiatives to be discussed in this pact as relating to an ordering of public finances in indebted states and municipalities and to fomenting competition in broadcasting and telecommunications. An editorial on 3 December in the daily Excelsior welcomed the move as "an excellent signal for society" and observed that "the first impression" it gave was that "the new government and...the parties really negotiated and offer a serious document with 95 more or less concrete commitments gathering many of the three forces' proposals" in the July 2012 general elections. The pact's implementation, it added, would depend on tax reforms that would "significantly increase" the state's capacity to finance itself, given the inclusion of pledges relating to social security. Spokesmen for the three main parties - the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), conservative National Action Party (PAN) and socialist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) - also welcomed the pact, expressing hope it would benefit Mexico. The PAN's parliamentary coordinator Alberto Villarreal said his party would not "deny our country the reforms needed for its advancement. We will not be the ones to impede Mexico's advancement and growth," El Universal reported. He was perhaps referring to the two PAN governments' inability to legislate reforms in the preceding 12 years for lack of support from other parties, particularly the PRI.

Eight killed around Mexico, drug cash found

"At least" eight people were reported to have been killed or found dead on 7 November in different parts of Mexico, including one in the form of a severed head found on a road outside Ríoverde in north-central Mexico. Others included suspected criminals killed in shootouts with the police, Proceso reported. Criminals were also reported that day to have kidnapped the mother of a regional legislator in western Mexico. Sandra Luz Ríos Ríos was abducted from her bakery in a village in the Benito Juárez district of the state of Guerrero, Proceso reported. Her son Ricardo Ángel Barrientos Ríos was elected last July to the state parliament of Guerrero for the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party; he was mayor of Benito Juárez in 2009-12. Guerrero has in past months witnessed regular violence as cartels fight to control its territory. In the northern state of Nuevo León, authorities presented to the press on 7 November four presumed members of the Gulf Cartel likely involved in murders and kidnappings, detained on a state highway on 22 October, Proceso reported. They were said to have confessed to their roles in 13 killings including of policemen, and 16 kidnappings in southern Nuevo León. Separately the explosion of a house for a gas leak in the north-western city of Tijuana led police to find there about 1.8 million USD thought to belong to the Sinaloa Cartel, Proceso reported on 7 November. Five children or teenagers were injured by the explosion as was a woman identified as niece of the trafficker and cartel member Raydel López Uriarte, jailed in 2010. In Coatzacoalcos in the eastern state of Veracruz the army arrested a "criminal cell," confiscating from them items including six cars, 500 doses of cocaine, cash worth about 20,000 USD and arms including a machine gun and a rocket launcher, Proceso reported.

Defections begin in Mexico's main Leftist party

Fifty members of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) from northern Mexico resigned from the party on 29-30 September and were to join the civic movement led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former PRD leader who failed to win the presidency in July 2012. The move confirmed fears that López Obrador's split with the PRD after the general elections could divide the party and realign the Left. The 50 were from the state of Nuevo León and their departure was ostensibly in protest at the PRD's "anti-democratic" practice of appointing electoral candidates, CNN and Notimex reported. One defector, Roberto Benavides González, told Notimex that up to 200 party members could leave. Their destination would be the Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (MORENA), a "civil association" that may become a formal political party before the next presidential elections. López Obrador and many on the Left vigorously challenged the results of the 2012 elections, though critics have claimed his populist style as candidate may have dissuaded some middle-class voters from voting for the Left and cost it the elections. Another recent defector, original party signatory and former parliamentarian Lenia Batres declared on 30 September that the PRD was now a "bureaucratic structure" with limited popular support. She told the website ADNPolítico that the PRD's leader Jesús Zambrano Grijalva had neglected the PRD's "political project" to maintain the unity of "jostling" factions that often had "absolutely opposed interests;" the PRD she said had thus "lost its way. It had a good idea of the country but was taken over by people who may not be of the Left. That is why we are going to Morena." Morena is to hold a congress in November, where it may decide whether or not to become a party. The PRD was founded in 1989 in a split from the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Mexican political leader abandons leftist coalition

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico's combative leftist politician and runner-up in July's bitterly contested general elections announced on 9 September that he would "amicably" leave the left-wing coalition he led in July and turn the National Regeneration Movement he formed in 2006 into a formal political party, El Universal reported on 10 September. López Obrador told supporters gathered in the capital's historic square the Zócalo that this was no split and he was leaving "in peace." He thanked members of his former party the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) for their work and the trust given him, and observed he had given the PRD "his best" for 23 years. But he said it was "his task in this new stage in my life" to devote "all my imagination and work to the cause of Mexico's transformation." He insisted he would not recognize the court ruling confirming Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party as winner of the elections and Mexico's next president. The Progressive Coalition or Movement that backed López Obrador's presidential candidacy consisted of the PRD, the Labour Party (Partido del Trabajo, PT) and the Citizens Movement (Movimiento Ciudadano, MC). López Obrador formed the Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (Morena) after the 2006 elections, which he narrowly lost to the conservative Felipe Calderón. He said it would be henceforth the base of his political activities. Attending the gathering were allied politicians including heads of the PT and MC, Alberto Anaya Gutiérrez and Luis Walton Aburto, but not Mexico City's PRD mayor Marcelo Ebrard. The new formation was to hold a national congress on 19-20 November.

Court ratifies Mexico's general elections

Mexico's supreme electoral court the TEPJF formally ratified on 31 August the results of the 1 July general elections and declared Enrique Peña Nieto to be the next president, due to take office on 1 December, the Associated Press and media reported. The court's seven members were unanimous; a day before they had rejected leftist politicians' demands that the court cancel the polls for alleged fraud. The court declared that Peña Nieto of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won 19,158,592 or 38.2 per cent of all votes cast, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the leftist Progress Coalition 15,848,827 or 31.6 per cent of votes and the conservative candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota of the National Action Party (PAN), 12,731,630 votes. The PRI president Pedro Joaquín Coldwell said that day that the decision "fully accredited" the PRI's victory, which has been challenged by López Obrador's Democratic Revolutionary Party, the PAN and certain civil groups. Joaquín Colwell urged López Obrador to respect the decision and Mexico's "institutions." Enrique Peña Nieto declared at the TEPJF's offices in Mexico City that the decision opened a new period of "work with shared responsibility." He said he was aware of "national needs and urgencies" and would lead a "modern and responsible" government "open to criticism," EFE reported on 31 August. He promised to honour campaign promises and meet Mexicans' expectations with "deeds, works and actions."

Court rejects Left's challenge to Mexican elections

Mexico's supreme electoral court the TEPJF (Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación) rejected on 30 August the Left's demands that it cancel the 1 July presidential elections for alleged irregularities by the winning party, stating that evidence sent to the court had been insufficient or inappropriate, Mexico's media reported. The leftist coalition led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador as well as civic groups vehemently challenged the polls, ostensibly won by the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, alleging fraud in various forms including the purchase of votes. The court's president Alejandro Luna Ramos said that after detailed investigation of evidence presented by López Obrador's party the court found its "grievances" were "unfounded." The court he said acted here "with all the rigour the Constitution demands;" its seven members voted to approve a motion to nullify the complaint. The PRI was reportedly delighted and party members welcomed the declaration in comments on the website Twitter. López Obrador however declared on 31 August that he would rather be termed a "crazy fool" than accept the decision. The elections he said "were neither clean, nor free nor authentic. Consequently I shall not recognize an illegitimate power that has emerged from vote buying and other, serious violations of the Constitution and laws," CNN reported. In a communiqué read out in the capital, he urged his followers to gather in Mexico's historic central square the Zócalo on 9 September and decide on a course of action. He said "civil disobedience is an honourable duty" when directed at the "robbers" of Mexicans' "hopes."

PRI retains lead in Mexico's contested vote

Mexico's authorities confirmed on 5 July that Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won the presidential elections of 1 July, even as the second candidate, leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, threatened to challenge the entire election process, Reuters reported on 6 July. With 99.53 per cent of the votes counted on 5 July, Peña Nieto had won 38.21 per cent of the votes and López Obrador 31.57 per cent, Reuters reported. The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) reportedly completed by the afternoon of 5 July recounting more than half the votes as promised earlier. But López Obrador's Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) challenged the election on 6 July and a party spokesman said the PRD would formally ask the country's supreme electoral arbiter TEPJF (Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación) on 12 July to cancel it. The party would present evidence of violations, which it claims have nullified the polls' validity. The student movement Yo Soy 132 separately stated on 5 July that it had some 1,100 complaints about the electoral process compiled in 70 pages and 45 videos, and would present them to the IFE and the court dealing with electoral violations, EFE reported. The conservative candidate who came third with over 25 per cent of votes, Josefina Vázquez Mota, accepted the results on 5 July but said unfair conditions had influenced the outcome, EFE and Infolatam reported. She said in Mexico City that opinion polls before the elections that gave Peña Nieto a decisive lead had amounted to "propaganda" and conditions of "inequity" before and during campaigning shaped the results.

Left keeps Mexico City in elections

The candidate of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) to become mayor of Mexico City Miguel Ángel Mancera Espinosa, was reported to have won elections by a large margin, maintaining the Left's power in the capital after general elections on 1 July, El Universal reported on 2 July. Authorities said that with 90 per cent of votes counted on 2 July, the PRD was leading in the capital's 16 districts, Notimex reported.