Grupo Atlacomulco, the last battle?

Gustavo Cárdenas Monroy is a federal deputy for District III with headquarters in Atlacomulco. Partner of one of the main emporiums of the State of Mexico —the group of carriers that controls ETN and Viva AeroBus—, for four decades he has combined a long legislative career and public service,

In the Mexican government he has been mayor of Jocotitlán; twice state secretary —for Metropolitan Development, with Arturo Montiel, and for the environment, with Eruviel Ávila— and undersecretary in the cabinet of Enrique Peña Nieto. In 2005 he was a pre-candidate for governor, with a more solid career than his young competitor, but his measurements did not bode well for him. As a consolation prize, he served as coordinator of the peñista campaign.

This double condition—peñista, native of Atlacomulco—distinguishes him from other PRI cadres from the Toluca Valley. Peñista is also Alejandra del Moral, virtual candidate of the tricolor for the governorship of the State of Mexico, whose roots – she was mayor of Cuautitlán Izcalli – are located in the Valley of Mexico.

When her nomination is ratified -whether it is a common candidacy or only by the PRI-, Del Moral will be the third candidate of the ruling party from this area of ​​the entity. Her predecessors, Eruviel Ávila and Alfredo Del Mazo, have strengthened a political class that has ended up displacing the Tolucos.

Cárdenas Monroy has just assumed the vice coordination of the federal deputies of the PRI, by direct appointment of Rubén Moreira Valdés. And when the legislature goes into recess, he will act as operational coordinator of the PRI committees in defense of the State of Mexico in the Atlacomulco region. Another 10 coordinators will be deployed during the first quarter of 2023, before the formal start of the campaign. His task, in this first stage, is to bring party representatives to the 6,500 sections that make up the state geography.

The PRI will defend one of its last strongholds —the other is Coahuila— with a deployment of peñista cadres with extensive operating experience. Del Moral appointed Alejandro Osuna Rivero as coordinator of strategic planning —who was in the General Secretariat of the Mexican government until two years ago— but will leave José Manzur —he also held that position, but during Eruviel’s six-year term— the reactivation of a network of electoral operators that has been working continuously for at least two decades and in which Eduardo Bernal, Cruz Juvenal Roa, Aarón Urbina and Raúl Domínguez Rex stand out.

Cárdenas, Laura Barrera and Carolina Monroy —former secretary general of the PRI CEN and who worked in Oaxaca, as head of Alejandro Murat’s office— are peñista cadres that return to the political operation. And the macist paintings? The local deputies Enrique Jacob, Guillermo Zamacona and Elías Rescala, together with the state leader of the party, Erick Sevilla, have joined Ale del Moral’s team, by superior instructions.

The defense of the last PRI stronghold starts with the tacit endorsement of the national leadership of the tricolor and a clear objective: to save the entity from “the occurrence, improvisation and authoritarianism” that Morena represents.

Del Moral commands the PRI Army. The main operators of it accumulate the experience of a thousand battles… and the women? Ana Lilia Herrera is still missing among the main promoters of this cause.