Earlier this week, at the closing event of Hidalgo´s state campaign, PRD´s Andrés Manuel López Obrador reiterated his plan to create a special attorney general´s office to fight corruption, if elected. Cleaning up corruption has been one of the most important points on his agenda; mr. López Obrador claims he could gain some 800 billion pesos (60 billion USD) simply by effectively going after dirty money.

Much has been said about the recent Reforma poll placing Andrés Manuel López Obrador at only four per cent from (34%) Enrique Peña Nieto (38%). Many were either shocked or pleasantly surprised, seeing as how a Reforma poll in April indicated that the difference was seven per cent larger. Other pollsters, such as Buendía-Laredo and Mitofsky, have given AMO a less favourable position, but the general tendency in all polls is the same: Peña Nieto and Josefina Vázquez Mota are going down, AMLO and Gabriel Quadri are going up.

As we wrote earlier we do not support legalizing drugs. It just doesn’t seem to be the solution. If you can’t control it, just legalize it? Wouldn’t want to be living in Mexico when they decide to legalize killing people, because they can´t stop it… However, I do support discussing the problem. It has been brought up numerous times. Former Mexican president Vicente Fox did it, after retiring. Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos said he would consider supporting it, if everyone else would. And now there is Otto Perez Molina, Guatemala’s recently installed president.

With six months to go to the elections, political parties in Mexico are ready to start their campaign. The PRI is still on the forefront, but is their victory inevitable? In the next few days Voic of Mexico will look into the chances of the three main contenders. We start of with the PRD and their candidate Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Early last year I had a long interview with Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, the outgoing governmental leader of the Federal District, more colloquially known as the mayor of Mexico City (though technically there is no such position anymore). Inevitably we landed on the political future of the nation’s capital. When asked if he has any fears of the PRD losing its long time bastion of power to the PRI or PAN, mr. Ebrard answered decisively: “No. The Federal District is perredista and will remain so.”

Enrique Peña Nieto was sharply criticized this week by The Economist for his apparently false claims in his Informe de Gobierno (equivalent to the State of the Union) that violent crime rates in Estado de México, the state he just left as governor, have halved during his administration. Even without The Economists’ excellent argumentation on how Peña Nieto used a methodology change in the indexation of crime statistics, the ex-governor is selling the public a false message.

Guatemala prepares itself for Sunday´s general elections and there are more battles than just the one between the candidates. El Periodico and Prensa Libre, the nation´s most important newspapers, are fighting their own war: a battle of the polls.

So what's the deal with Enrique Peña Nieto? The outgoing governor of Estado de México, member of the Atlacomulco Group within the PRI, has been ahead of the presidential polls for the better part of his term as governor. He will leave office soon will announce his candidacy for the 2012 elections soon. And he'll most likely win. Every poll gives him a two figure lead over all other presidential hopefuls.

The left wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) has finally decided on how to elect its presidential candidate for 2012. An ‘open poll’ will be held amongst Mexican citizens sometime this year, as was decided on the XIII Extraordinary National Congress, held this weekend at the World Trade Center in Mexico City.

As political parties in Mexico are preparing themselves for the 2012 elections, the Mexican left is bracing itself for a titanic clash between Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon. The outcome may decide the future of the left in Mexico.

Luisa Maria Calderón, sister of president Felipe Calderón, will be candidate for the National Action Party (PAN) in the upcoming elections for governor in Michoacán state, this November. PAN-president Gustavo Madero confirmed Calderón’s candidacy earlier today in a press conference in the state’s capital of Morelia.