Left wing Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) is again breaking at the seams. Last week Senator Miguel Barbosa offered his support and vote to the presidential candidacy of National Regeneration Movement (Morena) leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO.)
Barbosa is not just another senator, but also the leader of the 19 senators belonging to the PRD. His decision to support AMLO enraged many a PRD leader who moved to oust Barbosa for his AMLO support, considering it tantamount to treason.
Immediately PRD president Alejandra Barrales summoned three PRD governors, Graco Ramírez of Morelos, Silvano Aureoles of Michoacán and Miguel Ángel Mancera of Mexico City to hear their opinion; and the three agreed that Barbosa should be removed as the PRD Senate group coordinator.
Barrales went ahead and tried to remove Barbosa, replacing him with Senator Dolores Padierna. Barbosa immediately filed a suit with the Electoral Court (TPJE) calling his removal illegal, and in response the judges declared that his removal was indeed illegal.
Also blocking the change of PRD coordination was Senate president Pablo Escudero of the Green Party who did not recognize her as leader of the group even more so when 15 of the 19 senators voted for Barbosa to remain at the helm of the group.
Barrales tried to ratify Dolores Padierna, and even Sunday she was claiming that the PRD Senate group coordinator is her appointee, notwithstanding the rebellion and suspension of rights at party for Senator Barbosa.
In a chat with Senate beat reporters, he acknowledged he was furious over the fact that Mexico City Governor Miguel Ángel Mancera for more than one reason.
“He is sticking his hairy hand and is not even registered as a PRD member. He has stuck his hand in the inner life of the PRD and he made Alejandra Barrales the national president. I know there was a meeting last week with PRD people and they discussed this issue” meaning his support for AMLO.
At PRD they can’t forget nor forgive AMLO for dividing the party in two in 2015, taking away more than half of former PRD voters and dealing a deadly blow to his once alma mater under which he was elected Mexico City Mayor in 2000 and was twice presidential candidate in 2006 and 2012 (losing both times, the first one by a mere half a point against Felipe Calderón).
Though Miguel Barbosa and the 15 senators supporting him claim they still belong to the PRD, there is a possibility that as soon presidential candidate registration begins in 2018 they will all move to AMLO’s Morena.
In fact, several of them have already given their support to AMLO’s third bid for the presidency and their moving to Morena seems to be more a matter of time.
Barbosa’s complaint about Mexico City Gov. Miguel Ángel Mancera is because Mancera would like to be the PRD’s presidential candidate next year and the rebellion in the Senate is indeed a blow to his ambition. In fact, many predict that a move by the group of senators led by Barbosa to Morena would mean a deadly blow not just to PRD but also to Mancera’s hopes of running for president.
Is this the beginning of the end of the Democratic Revolution Party? Most observers seem to agree that Barbosa’s support for AMLO was not just an act of treason but a mortal blow to a political party that once unified Mexico’s left wing organizations into a solid political party and is now on a dangerous and slippery downhill road.
