Roberto Jorquera
The July 2 Mexican presidential election were marked by large-scale vote rigging by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). There has been overwhelming condemnation by Mexican and international observers, with many referring to the results as a "technical coup". Officially Felipe Calderon from the pro-business National Action Party (PAN) won by just 0.58% of the vote over the left candidate Lopez Obrador. The presidential term is six years.
Obrador represented the Alliance For the Good of All, which consisted of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Labor Party and Convergence.
Roger Burbach from the Berkeley-based Center for the Study of the Americas wrote in a July 7 article that the "reason Fox and his National Action Party (PAN) pulled out all the stops to steal the election is quite simple — they are desperately afraid of the growing class rebellion by Mexico's poor and oppressed".
"The campaign slogan of Lopez Obrador was straight forward: 'For the good of all, the poor first.' In a country where almost half the population lives below the poverty line Lopez Obrador pledged to provide a stipend to the elderly and health care for the poor. Millions of jobs will also be created, particularly by undertaking large construction projects to modernize Mexico's dilapidated transportation system. He also promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States ... More importantly Lopez Obrador pledged to break up the corrupt economic relationship that exists between the business class and government bureaucrats."
Though Obrador's program is far from revolutionary, in the context of the upheavals that are occurring throughout Latin America, a move to the left "south of the border" would be a further blow to US imperialism's grip on the continent. Washington congratulated Calderon for his electoral "victory" even before the official results were announced.
The IFE, Calderon's PAN and outgoing President Vicente Fox joined forces to oppose the recounting of votes. In a July 8 article, Narconews.com's Al Giordano reported that this, "on the heels of Tuesday's 'discovery' of 2.5 million votes hidden by IFE since Sunday's election, added to a growing body of evidence — and corresponding public distrust in the institutions — that a gargantuan electoral fraud has been perpetrated".
On July 9 Spanish TV reported that close to 1 million people protested in the centre of Mexico City against the electoral results, demanding a total recount.
Evidence is mounting that proves that the elections were a total sham. Narconews reported on July 5 that "One of the major problems for IFE and the Fox administration is that if they were to allow the bread-and-butter recount that the public demands, the ugly truth would come out that an unknown number of ballot boxes have 'disappeared' in the past two days. The ballots from three precincts in the city of Nezahuacoyotl — a Lopez Obrador stronghold — were discovered yesterday in the municipal garbage dump. The results from two of those precincts have been missing, since Sunday, from IFE's vote tallies.
"An IFE official, ambushed by television reporters, exacerbated the crime yesterday when she blamed the Mexican military: the Armed Forces, not IFE, are supposedly guarding the ballots, she said, in defense of her bureaucracy. This, sources close to the military told Narco News, produced significant anger among the military generals and troops who — if the public does not believe or accept IFE's final decision — will be called upon to quell the national rebellion that follows."
Granma's Nidia Diaz reported on July 11 that a "'vote by vote and polling booth by polling booth' recount was the demand made by the For the Good of All coalition starting Monday July 3 to the Judicial Power Electoral Court (TEPJ), a body that according to federal law has the responsibility of resolving the charges of 'irregularities' committed by the [IFE]".
Burbach explained that the proposed changes "to the corrupt political system by Lopez Obrador are reformist, not revolutionary. They are being demanded by an increasingly restive populace that is shaking up much of Mexico. The unrest started in 1994 with the rebellion of the Zapatista National Liberation Army in Chiapas, Mexico ... The sin of Lopez Obrador in the eyes of the ruling classes is not that he fomented any of these revolts, but rather that he responds to popular demands from below."
The continuing rise of the left in Latin America is what is worrying the ruling class in the US and its allies in the South. Mexico shows that they will do anything to make sure that the right continues to govern.
The TEPJ must resolve Obrador's appeal by August 31. It has until September 6 to definitively announce the new Mexican president, according to Granma.
From Green Left Weekly, July 19, 2006.
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