In addition to the persons named in last week’s edition of this newspaper, new faces are still emerging on the local political landscape in the final days for filing registrations to seek official candidacies in Chapala’s 2021 mayoral race.
The field for Morena, the ruling party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has grown from two to five over the last week as Mayra Verónica Ortiz Tejeda, Jorge Hernández Lomelí and Alberto Portillo Barba threw their hats into the ring beside Francisco Javier Díaz Ochoa and Elizabeth Gutiérrez Rodríguez. On March 1, Morena will announce which of them will be finalists for a shot at being selected as the party’s nominee according to results of an opinion poll.
Enrique Fernando Rivas Villanueva is the first contender registered with the local Partido del Trabajo (PT), considered to be within Morena’s power block. Rivas is a familiar face, having served as director of Chapala’s Urban Planning department under the current Movimiento Ciudadano regime, the 2010-2012 PAN government and the 2007-2009 PRI administration.