Añorve Points to PRD Defection, Acapulco Progress
(Acapulco, JG 16 November) Positioning himself as the “modernizer” of Acapulco, PRI gubernatorial candidate Manuel Añorve Baños pointed to the “bicentennial elevated highway” along Cuauhtémoc as a symbol of the investment and progress accomplished during his administration as Acapulco’s mayor. The first of three phases of the ten-lane thoroughfare will be inaugurated on Saturday, the centennial of the Revolution, come what may. Workers are scurrying in double and triple shifts to have the project as complete as possible for the event. Phase one covers just a couple of blocks of Cuauhtémoc, and the remaining phases, if and when completed, will carry traffic all the way from the tunnel to downtown. The budget so far is $300,000 pesos; press reports indicate that less than half of that amount has been available for the project so far.
The campaign of the “Better Times for Guerrero” coalition behind Añorve, comprised of the PRI and two minor parties, received a boost when city council member and PRD party leader Maritza Villanueva García, announced her support for the former mayor of Acapulco. For many insiders this did not come as a surprise, as she had consistently voted in support of Añorve’s initiatives in the council meetings. According to a statement from Villanueva García, the stress fractures within the PRD are caused by the fact that the “Aguirristas” are running the show, even though they are all recent arrivals from the rival PRI party. The Aguirre campaign is being given a “false face” as a leftist movement, when really it is just a protest movement from PRI elements unhappy with the Añorve candidacy.
In response to criticisms from adversaries that Acapulco’s official vehicles are being used in the former mayor’s gubernatorial bid, Añorve responded, that if employees, in their enthusiasm, put Añorve stickers and posters on the vehicles, it was certainly without his knowledge or consent. “They know the rules,” he said, “and they know what the penalties are.”
Finally, echoing prior statements by interim mayor José Luis Ávila Sánchez, Añorve answered critics of the current chaos in water supply by CAPAMA, saying that these problems are all the result of negligence and underfunding by previous (PRD) administrations in City Hall, and not something that took place on his watch. The issue is a sensitive one for the Añorve campaign, as improvement in water supply was one of his main camapaign promises, and, while CAPAMA has indeed undertaken new investments and attempted to improve supply, long water shortages still persist in many parts of the city.
