News Summary for May 8th, 2008

Things are going to get worse before they get better…
++The Federal Electoral Tribunal has ordered that the PRD National Guarantees Commission to provide a total count of the ballots caste during the internal elections to select the new leader of the party. The vote count must take place within 72 hours of the issuance of the Tribunal’s decision. Based on the vote count the PRD must announce who is the next PRD leader. Meanwhile, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas on Wednesday called on former PRD leaders, including Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to ask candidates who ran for the party presidency to withdraw their candidacies…

Dialogue? Seems unlikely..
++ The Popular Revolutionary Army rejected a proposal by the government to begin direct dialogue… In a press release the EPR called the proposal “treacherous, rude and cheating.” President Felipe Calderón said most Mexicans want governments that work and solve differences through dialogue.

I can’t believe they actually agree..
++ The chairman of the Congressional Permanent Commission, Senator Santiago Creel, said he agreed with the head of the National Human Rights Commission José Luis Soberanes who said that to withdraw army troops from the streets at this time would be suicidal. (Comment: Soberanes wants the military to continue facing the drug cartels? This must mean that the situation is much much worse then it appears…)

Hey Carlos…Stop that!
++ Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard said that by praising his government former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s seeks to undermine him.

Out of business? I doubt it..
++ A U.S. State Department report said that by 2009 drug organizations, which manufacture methamphetamines, will enter a crisis because they will run out of pseudoephedrine, their base ingredient.

Now it is Zacateca´s turn…
++ Army troops and an armed group had a shootout in the Villa de Cos municipality in Zacatecas… Three civilians were killed.