YoSoy 132 returns to Mérida streets, this time showing its true colors . . .

. . . and they're ANYTHING but red, white and green

"Vote for PRI? I'd die first"

Mérida, Yucatán --
The national student protest movement known as YoSoy 132 hit local streets again this afternoon, for the second time in 10 days. Perhaps 300 demonstrators (very generously estimated) gathered in the main plaza at 5:00 p.m., and listened to impassioned speeches by organizers. Later they marched north through downtown. The gathering was orderly.

MGRR reported on the group's local debut May 23. ("YoSoy 132" protest arrives in Mérida). Today's encore mirrored the first, although with noticeably less enthusiasm, and a much smaller crowd. A light shower didn't help fire up anyone's revolutionary zeal, and 45 minutes after it started it was all over. There was far more interest in the traditional Yucatecan street dancing (a standard Sunday evening fare in this city) than in YoSoy.

The movement's focus (supposedly) is on what it claims is massive press manipulation of Mexico's electoral process. YoSoy complains that the campaign of PRI nominee Enrique Peña Nieto has flat out bought much of the electronic media in this nation of 110 million, handsomely paying them to present an irresistible image of the front running candidate. But today it was abundantly clear that YoSoy -- the Yucatán branch anyway -- is more unified in its opposition to PRI and its fetching candidate than in its support of anything. The political glue which binds members is their strong objection to the man who likely will be Mexico's next president. Apart from that single commonality, YoSoy has no articulable, coherent platform. If it does, no one seems to know or agree on what it is.

Demonstrators openly denounced EPN, and one speaker even dared to refer to the "PRI aggression" of July 4. Only in Mexico can political parties come to street combat over the construction of an underpass, but that's exactly what happened here last summer (Violence Over an Underpass Underscores Reality of Mexican Gloves-off Politics). A YoSoy boss whipped up the faithful today by reminding them of that "tragedy."

At least now we know where the "non-partisan" YoSoy crowd stands: against the tricolors. Just 10 days ago the group was openly ridiculing the peninsula's main newspaper for its transparent bias, calling it Diario de YucaPAN, but yesterday YoSoyers openly embraced an anti-PRI theme which the same paper has been peddling ad nauseam since last July.



A Mexican national columnist wrote last week that YoSoy 132 had knocked Enrique Peña Nieto from his high horse and put the fear of God into his PRI campaign. I agree. Beyond that, it's not clear that the movement will be anything more than an obscure footnote in the country's political annals when Mexicans arise and face the same old world, with the same old problems, on Monday, July 2. Some things can't be fixed with a bullhorn and a placard.

Although Peña Nieto has yielded some ground in recent days to the one person who might yet defeat him -- PRD's Andrés Manuel López Obrador -- the safe money is still betting on the PRIsta. Josefina is history, I think. Mexicans go to the polls exactly four weeks from today.

The demonstrators' signs and shirts gave more than a hint of their political affiliations:

Marchan en el DF YoSoy 132 y otros en apoyo a López Obrador: http://www.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/70194c7c7acb97bdf79d6d6148ba662b.
U.K.'s Guardian reveals Televisa-EPN deal: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/06/uks-guardian-reveals-televisa-pri-deal.html.
Peña Nieto rejects YoSoy debate demand: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/06/pena-nieto-rejects-yosoy-debate-demand.html
YoSoy 132 demands final debate between Mexican presidential candidates: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/06/yosoy-132-demands-final-debate-between.html#more.
Mexicans surveyed on YoSoy 132 attitudes: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/06/mexicans-surveyed-on-yosoy-132.html.
A "free press" in Mexico - but who's really paying the tab?: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/05/free-press-in-mexico-but-whos-really.html.
A lesson in circuses and tortillas: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/05/pan-prd-reject-cross-urges-to-withdraw.html.
López Obrador loyalists march as thousands protest Enrique Peña Nieto: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/05/lopez-obrador-loyalists-march.html.
Mexico's presidential campaign begins: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/03/mexicos-presidential-campaign-opens.html#more.

"Out!"

Note to readers: If you enlarge the above photo of today's YoSoy rally in Mérida you'll see the image of another man on the forehead of Enrique Peña Nieto. That's former Mexican PRI president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who served from 1988-1994. A lot of Mexicans don't like him. Let me rephrase that. A lot of Mexicans loathe him. The country suffered severe economic tremors in the last months of his administration, leading to an eventual currency devaluation. Salinas essentially fled the country. He visits Mexico from time to time, but his primary residence is in Ireland. Salinas and members of his family have long been accused of massive corruption and connections to organized crime. Another good ol' grad from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Class of 1994, one might say.