Election Fever Already Infesting Politicians

(Acapulco, ElSur 16 August) Last Saturday a bunch of leaders of the PRI, including former governors, had lunch in Mexico City and began to decide who would be candidates to dispute the 2012 elections. Acapulco mayor Añorve and his protégées were not present, and they objected strongly. Yesterday, the port’s tourism secretary, Érika Lührs Cortés, said that she will be seeking the PRI nomination for mayor of Acapulco in 2012, and that her political boss, Manuel Añorve, would be running for the national senate. Director of the Traffic Police, Miguel Ángel Hernández Albarrán, said that he would be seeking the PRI nomination for the national House of Deputies from the fourth district. He rejected the notion that “juniors and amateurs” in the party should be put forward to try to win elections. Julieta Fernández, Añorve’s wife and head of Acapulco’s Family Services Department, is being eyed as an attractive candidate for elective office, but she said that at the moment she will remain out of the races, so as to aid her husband.

In a related story on Érika Lührs, it was reported that her appraisal of the summer vacation period in Acapulco was “positive.” This is a frontal contradiction of the appraisal given by private sector leaders, who yesterday said that this short, “high season” was “bad to terrible.” She said that the authorities measure hotel occupancy and the number of vehicles that come into Acapulco off the toll road, and she said, in essence, that the labor leaders and private business people were exaggerating their complaints. She said, “Acapulco took a lot of hits this past year. There were many more negative news stories than positive ones, and even so we exceeded our expectations for hotel occupancy, which were 60%. Recently it has been above 85%.” Critics of the administration say that if Érika Lührs wants to be mayor of Acapulco, she would be well-advised to start solving the problem rather than denying that it exists; she needs to listen to those who work in the tourist sector and stop saying that they do not know what they are talking about. She also announced the expenditure of about USD$25,000 in advertising within the greater Mexico City area to try to attract tourists during the month of October, which has traditionally been the poorest month of the year. This year it is being called “The Month of Acapulco” in the ad campaign.