PRI enraged over Felipe Calderón's comments to New York Times

Last night and this morning I reported Felipe Calderón's observations about what will happen if Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) regains the presidency after the 2012 election. The posts are just below, as is a link to my editorial today in The Yucatan Times, which is related to the same topic. If you're not familiar with what's causing all the controversy, scroll down a bit.

Calderón opined in a September 28 interview with the New York Times that a PRI win next year would very likely carry with it a return to "the old days," when some PRI politicians quietly tolerated organized crime, or made informal "under the table" pacts with them, or simply looked the other way. Calderón was also quoted as saying that the most likely PRI candidate in the 2012 election, Enrique Peña Nieto, would go soft on the drug cartels, and perhaps "crawl back into bed with them." See my post below on Peña Nieto.

The comments, widely reported all over Mexico today, have set off a firestorm of controversy, especially within PRI. Mexican Senator Carolos Jiménez Macías (pictured below), a PRI powerhouse who speaks for the party, has demanded that Calderón retract the statements, apologize for them and then back them up with hard evidence. It might occur to some of you, as it did to me, that there wouldn't be much point in backing up a retracted statement.

Jiménez Macías also demanded that Calderón "get his hands out" of the 2012 pre-electoral process. No response yet from Calderón or the PAN (his party) camp.

By the way: Carolos Jiménez Macía is the same gentleman who told us yesterday that the recently busted Iranian conspiracy to assassinate foreign ambassadors in Washington -- murders which were to be carried out by a supposed Mexican drug cartel hit man -- is a fabrication of the U.S. and Mexican governments, supposedly created so that the United States can further involve itself in Mexico's "internal affairs." If you missed my post on that story, it's just below. Read it, so you'll know what PRI is prepared to say and do in order to retake the presidency in 2012.

And now, MY question for Carolos Jiménez Macía:

"Estimado Senador y portavoz de parte de PRI: Favor de decirnos todos los detalles – a tu conocimiento -- sobre la presunta “conspiración” entre México y los EE.UU., con respecto del asunto de los espías iraníes. Te esperamos, señor.

Dear Senator and spokesman for PRI: please tell us everything you know about this alleged conspiracy between Mexico and the United States, concerning the Iranian spies."