A Young Mexican Governor Takes Heat Over Nationwide Publicity Campaign Tim Johnson - McClatchy
go to original January 18, 2014

Manuel Velasco Coello and Anahi Giovanna Puente Portilla (uselectionatlas.org)

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ — It’s become known as the Pena Nieto model of political ascent, after the current Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto: Drape a comely television star on the arm of a telegenic governor. Get attention from a major television network. Then turn on a spigot of cash for publicity.

Many say the tactic helped Pena Nieto, who is married to a former television actress, triumph in 2012. Now, other governors are trying to do the same – with mixed results.

Gov. Manuel Velasco Coello of Chiapas state is one of them. Like Pena Nieto, his smile lights up his surroundings.

For the past year, Velasco, Mexico’s youngest governor at 33, has been a staple in society magazines, partly because of his romance with Anahi Giovanna Puente Portilla, a soap opera star and singer who is universally known by just one name: Anahi (pronounced ah-nah-EE). Her tweets from her @anahi account constantly proclaim her love for the governor.

Velasco, whom one news outlet has labeled the “playboy of Mexican politics,” is finding some blowback, though, as he tries to emulate Pena Nieto.

Read the rest at Macon.com

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