Beltrones vs. Peña

Last week, Alberto Aziz Nassif wondered if the absence and abstention of PRI legislators during to tax votes was a result of a compromise between Manlio Fabio Beltrones and Enrique Peña Nieto, who found themselves on opposite sides of the issue. Ricardo Alemán today writes that the PAN has its thumb on the scale in the nascent fight between the two priístas.

Ever since the PAN of César Nava has been making pacts, negotiating, even supporting one of the three big blocs of the PRI --that of the powerful chief of the Senate, Manlio Fabio Beltrones-- at the same time it has been in combat with the head of another of those groups, that of the Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico state governor.

At bottom --as it comes closer to the last third of the government of Felipe Calderón-- the PAN seems to be moving its pieces to favor Senator Beltrones, the second in voter preference of the PRI presidential possibilities of the PRI; while the leader in the opinion polls, Governor Enrique Peña Nieto, is tabbed as an enemy to be defeated.

Alemán also said that new attorney general Arturo Chávez Chávez has stood out for doing very little. I think it's a bit early in his tenure to pick on Chávez too much, but an unremarkable presence at the PGR fits with what I was saying in the WPR column that ran today.