AMLO’s eyes on 2012

AMLO’s eyes on 2012

Former presidential candidate rejects PAN alliances; senators optimistic

Jueves, 8 de Julio de 2010

THE NEWS

MEXICO CITY – Former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Wednesday that he would seek another shot at the presidency.

The former capital mayor, who lost by a tiny fraction to Felipe Calderón in 2006, said he had the support of more than 15 million people across the country.

“To make it clear, we’re going for 2012 and we’re going to transform the country,” López Obrador said. “I’m not going to let the PRI and PAN manipulate people into thinking that they are different from each other.”

He added: “We’re going to face this mafia of power that the PRI and the PAN control.”

Obrador, who ran on the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) ticket, said in an interview with W Radio that “this movement is the hope for many Mexicans, above all for humble and poor people.”

“AMLO” said he wouldn’t consider an alliance with the National Action Party (PAN), which proved to be successful in Oaxaca. Governor-elect Gabino Cué could have toppled the Institutional Revolutionary Party stronghold without an alliance, Obrador said.

On July 25, Obrador will present his plan in the capital’s Zócalo to “move the country forward,” he said.

In related news, PAN Sen. Santiago Creel, who in May announced his intentions to contend for the 2012 presidency, spoke in favor of PAN-PRD-Convergence Party-Labor Party (PT) alliances.

“Electoral alliances are vital, because Mexico can no longer be governed by minority governments. If this continues, the results will be just as limited as they are now,” Creel said Wednesday.

The former Interior secretary said that coalitions seek “to democratize states where democracy has been limited or never even existed.”

PAN Sen. Gustavo Madero also backed alliances, saying they “are here to stay, as we’ve been saying for months.”

Many voters have favorable opinions on alliances, following their success in Puebla, Sinaloa and Oaxaca, Madero said.

However, PRI Dep. Francisco Rojas Gutiérrez downplayed the alliances, saying they offered no solution to voters and did not have a clearly defined platform of governance.

“We aren’t afraid. We know how to compete, we know how to win and we know how lose,” Rojas said.