I'm wondering if this is the lull before the storm. The storm will be Sunday, and I'm talking neither weather nor Super Bowl, but election day in Baja California Sur. At that time, the state's voters will elect a new governor. As I understand Mexican electoral laws, campaigning was to end yesterday. No more fireworks, no more rallies, no more handing out of leaflets, no more small cars with huge loudspeakers roaming about the neighborhoods, setting off the dogs that occupy virtually every yard. It's a cool and breezy morning, but blessedly quiet.
Since returning three weeks ago to San Jose del Cabo, one of the principal cities of Baja California Sur, the campaigning has been loud, brisk and curious. Tourists who stick to downtown, where the art district, restaurants and curio shops are concentrated, could be totally unaware that a highly competitive gubernatorial contest is under way. As I've heard it, campaign posters and the like are prohibited in the tourist area because visitors might take offense at the clutter. During the past week, this ban apparently was extended to the transpeninsular highway just to the west of downtown, the main route for tourists and residents alike to and from the airport, among other destinations.
As I strolled back from the sports complex the other day I came upon a crew of municipal workers tearing from utility poles every candidate poster along the highway, and there are a lot of them in San Jose del Cabo. In residential areas the placards gleam from virtually every utility pole, just like Christmas decorations. When I asked one of the workers what was going on, he said, "Basura" - "trash." And down they came. Oddly, with one exception huge campaign advertisements remain painted on walls, buildings and billboards along the highway. The three shown here, all for the PRD slate that includes gubernatorial candidate Luis Armando Diaz and Los Cabos mayoral candidate Antonio Agundez, can be seen from one spot along the transpeninsular highway. The exception was another sign for the PRD candidates. We watched for two days as a painter meticulously painted the sign on a long and curving retaining wall along the highway; not more than a week later it was completely whitewashed over, and the job looked professional, not the result of vandalism.
I've no idea who is going to win this gubernatorial campaign or what the election will mean for Baja California Sur. Elections currently are proceeding from one Mexican state to another, with the results being interpreted as an indication of how voters feel on the eve of next year's presidential election. This past weekend, Angel Aguirre, the candidate of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), was elected governor in what often is described as "violence plagued" Guerrero. The PRD candidate in Baja California Sur is Luis Armando Diaz. When I asked Mexican neighbors which candidate was expected to be elected governor of Baja California Sur, they replied without a moment's hesitation that it would be Diaz, a former mayor of Los Cabos.
Based on the number of his campaign posters, the popularity of his t-shirts, and the volume of his music at rallies, I'd have to agree. But then I took a bus ride into the barrios north of San Jose del Cabo, and there ran into a huge group of campaign workers going door to door on behalf of Ricardo Barroso of La Paz, the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In the outlying areas, his posters also appeared to outnumber the placards for Diaz. At 31, Barroso would be the youngest candidate ever elected governor of Baja California Sur; one of his campaign slogans is "youth is not synonymous with inexperience." He didn't lift that from Barack Obama, did he? Barroso's platform calls for universal access to health care, better wages for police, 5,000 new jobs in his first year in office, free Internet access in public places, and more use of energy-saving lightbulbs. Another candidate, Leonel Cota Montano, a former governor of the state, now supports Barroso.
According to polls, however, the candidate who stands the best chance of being elected goverenor on Sunday is Marcos Covarrubias, a former congressman who bailed from the PRD and now is running under the banner of the National Action Party (PAN), headed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon. I've been unable to get a picture of what Covarrubias stands for, but his election almost surely would be seen as an endorsement of President Calderon's anti-drug efforts.
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