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Friday, July 20, 2012

Meanwhile in Mexico

Posted by on Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 12:29 PM

The results of the Mexican presidential election are still controversial, with newly elected Enrique Pena Nieto facing accusations of money laundering and vote-buying from several directions, including higher-ups at the outgoing PAN party.

The election runner-up Obrador has published an open letter accusing Nieto and his governors of using state money to secure votes:

Still, the most perverse and illegal maneuver was the recruitment of the governors of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, in its Spanish initials) to take charge of buying votes without any moral scruples whatsoever.

On June 12, in Toluca, in the governor’s palace of the State of Mexico, 16 governors of the PRI party met with Peña Nieto and his campaign staff. There, they assigned quotas for how many votes each state would create for their leader.

For example, Eruviel Avila, governor of the State of Mexico, promised to obtain 2.9 million votes that – by coincidence – Peña Nieto was said to have won in that state. The decision that came out of that governor’s meeting in Mexico State was to use state government money to buy millions of votes throughout the country.

One piece of evidence that has been very well documented was the way that the governor of Zacatecas, Miguel Alonso Reyes, operated when he assigned his key operatives, at the municipal and electoral district level – and this is documented – that in his state along he spent millions of pesos to buy voter credentials and votes.

Throughout the country suffrage was acquired with cash, with electronic cards to obtain merchandise in supermarkets, with basic food stuffs, construction materials, fertilizers and other benefits.

Nieto is also facing protests from the popular #YoSoy123 movement. (And a note for the US "all cops are bastards" contingent: At one demonstration, a police officer broke ranks and joined the protesters. See? Police officers sometimes come around to the demonstrators' side—but are probably a lot less likely to if said demonstrators are screaming insults at them. You catch more flies with honey, yadda yadda.)

Analysts doubt Nieto will be prohibited from taking office for any reason. But his victory—and the return of the PRI—smells a lot less triumphant.

 

Comments (3) RSS

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Fnarf 1
The worst thing is that, in this internet age, absolutely no one on earth believes that Peña Nieto won this election fairly, and absolutely no one on earth has any illusions about his tiny, tiny brain. So, at a time when Mexico desperately needs qualified, professional leadership, they get a handsome buffoon (who may or may not have beat his wife to death, by the way).

An excellent book on the new Mexican character and the challenges that country faces in the coming years -- challenges which are mostly nothing to do with drug cartels, but with continuing to grow economically and find a place in the developed world and raise up several million more people out of poverty -- is "Mañana Forever? by Jorge G. Castañeda. Castañeda must be shellshocked by this bozo's "victory", which is a slap in the face to every one of his analyses.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on July 20, 2012 at 1:41 PM
2
Dude - I sent you all this information two weeks ago, you never get back to me, and now you're posting about it?
Posted by redemma on July 20, 2012 at 2:58 PM
3
Also, the most "perverse and illegal maneouver" was allying with narcos in the border states to threaten to burn down people's houses in municipalities that didn't vote PRI.
Posted by redemma on July 20, 2012 at 3:02 PM

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