Old Pieces I Meant to Mention

Saturday catch-up:

Carlos Loret de Mola suggests that all the hullabaloo over Michoacán was a dry run at a coming attempt to invalidate the 2012 elections. His logic isn't particularly convincing--if annulment was the goal Michoacán, it didn't work. Plus, it's objectively and obviously a horrible idea for the country, for whatever that's worth. Nonetheless, he is quite connected, and therefore this scenario is a bit alarming.

This Milenio Semanal piece about the youth gangs in Monterrey is informative, but the pictures are the most memorable aspect to me. Who knew Cleveland State and died bangs were popular in the barrios of Monterrey?

Fifty-eight percent of Mexico's Senators have abandoned their posts so as to seek positions in 2012. It's easy to be indignant about an absentee legislature, but in a country where there is no reelection and the Senate elections aren't staggered, such high figures are perhaps not inevitable, but nor are they surprising.

Pascal Beltrán del Río was impressed with the left's unity in the AMLO campaign kickoff.

Mexico's government is getting (marginally) better at bringing in increasing (though still small) quantities of tax revenue.