“We are the children of the ideals you couldn’t kill.”
A young woman carried the hand-lettered sign as she marched with tens of thousands of people in Mexico City last July 22.
Twenty-something, with long black hair and jeans, her message captures
the spirit and sense of history of Mexico’s new movement for real
democracy. At the same time, it reveals the resentment that especially
youth feel about the presidential elections and a new government that
for them representsan era of manipulation and repression.
Weeks after Mexico’s presidential elections, thousands of people have
turned out to protest the declared winner, Enrique Peña Nieto, and the
imminent return to power of the party that ruled Mexico for more than
seven decades. The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which is
slated to take office December 1, now faces increasing accusations of
fraud, a legal demand to declare the elections invalid, and a youth
movement that refuses to go away.
#IAm132
“Mexico, Without the PRI”, “Electoral Institute, You Coward—Correct
the Elections!” and “Mexico Voted and Peña Didn’t Win!”–men and women
chanted these slogans through downtown avenues in the latest
demonstration, vowing that the politician best known for his hair-do and
ties to old-style Mexican politics would never take office. Most of the
marchers are university-age, but contingents of workers, neighborhood
associations, and citizens of all ages take part.
Many support the opposition candidate and second-place finisher,
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. But the media spin that the entire movement
is a contrivance of a poor loser falls flat when confronted with the
actual messages and motives of the movement.
Mexico is seeing the birth of a movement for real democracy. It is
led by a generation that wants to break through the cynicism of a nation
accustomed to corruption and authoritarian rule. Its members challenge
not just the election results, but the very definition of democracy.
The movement called “#IAm132” that arose in protest to Peña Nieto at a
local university centers on the principle that democracy can’t be
bought. Young people with no adult memory of living under the PRI have
looked at their nation’s history and decided they don’t want to go back
there.
The “#IAm132” movement–with the hashtag in its name marking its
generational identity–has a broad platform that includes:
democratization of the media to guarantee the right to information and
freedom of expression; “secular, free, scientific, pluricultural,
democratic, humanist, popular, critical, quality education”; change in
the neoliberal economic model with less emphasis on the market and more
state involvement; transformation of the security and justice model and
withdrawal of the army from public security; participative democracy and
autonomy; and health as a human right.
PRI’s Rocky Road Back to Power
Few people predicted Mexico’s post-electoral protests or the rapid
rise of the youth-led movement against Peña Nieto. The PRI learned from
its loss to Vicente Fox in 2000 and the convulsive post-electoral
protests of 2006, when conservative candidate Felipe Calderon was
declared the winner with the slimmest of margins and widespread
accusations of fraud. It set out to avoid both scenarios, grooming its
candidate years earlier to position him as the image of the “new PRI.”
The
effort reportedly included secret deals with the major television
stations for favorable coverage in the media dating back to 2009. Both
the Mexican magazine Proceso and later The Guardian reported on these contracts, although the PRI denied the charges.
It also included rebuilding the political machine that served the
party during its 71 years of uninterrupted rule over the country. That
political machine suffered a debilitating blow with the election of
Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) in 2000. The
PRI not only lost the helm of a nation it had confidently controlled
for years, it also lost its majority in the legislature and several
state governorships to boot. It was a dramatic and ignominious fall from
power, and the age of “the dinosaurs”—as the PRI political elite is
called—appeared to be over for good.
But at least one insider
and numerous analysts claim that the PAN agreed to leave the PRI
political machine in place in return for support for its reform
proposals in the legislature and the continued dominance of a small and
powerful economic elite. The PRI was able to rebuild without fear of
criminal charges for past acts of corruption and repression among its
ranks.
The 2012 elections proved that the machine has been well oiled and
employs many of the same tactics used to guarantee electoral wins in the
past. But the goal of building a solid margin of victory to assure
legitimacy backfired due to citizen and some media monitoring of blatant
abuses
A coalition of progressive parties filed a legal challenge on
July 12 to declare the presidential election invalid due to violations
of articles of the Mexican constitution that call for free and fair
voting. The demand specifically cites exceeding campaign spending limits
as the cause. The legal limit is set at the unlikely figure of
$336,112,084.16 pesos—about $25.4 million dollars. The coalition says it
has proof that the PRI-Green Party spent five times the allowed limit.
In the most potentially damaging aspect of the allegations, Lopez Obrador accused the PRI of laundering money
through off-the-books campaign spending. The opposition has demanded an
investigation into the possible use of public funds in PRI-governed
areas and money from illicit sources, including organized crime. The use
of pre-paid bankcards is a common form of money laundering. The PRI
issued thousands of these cards from a bank called MONEX to voters in a presumed vote-buying operation. (One protest sign noted acidly, “Mexico’s elections were so clean, even the money was laundered”).
The legal challenge also cites evidence of buying off pollsters to create an impression that the election was in the bag. Many polling companies confidently reported double-digit leads for Peña Nieto,with up to an 18-point lead. The final count
showed just over 6 points, with Peña Nieto at 38.21 percent, Lopez
Obrador at 31.59 percent, and conservative candidate Josefina Vazquez
Mota at 25.41 percent. Whether the discrepancy resulted from faulty
methodology or giving the client what he wants has become the subject of
daily conversation in Mexico.
US-Mexico Drug War Alliance
President Obama called Peña Nieto to congratulate him on his victory even before Mexican electoral authorities had declared the victory. The White house issued a readout of Obama’s call to Peña Nieto, heralding a continued partnership in “democracy, economic prosperity and security.”
The Obama administration’s rush to affirm support for the embattled
candidate is not a sign of enthusiasm for the return of the PRI. The
U.S. government clearly would have preferred another conservative
government in Mexico. The National Action Party swung the door wide open
to greater U.S. involvement in the country. Agencies including the DEA,
ATF, CIA, and FBI as well as“retired” military personnel now
participate in and operate Mexico’s disastrous internal security
policies. Felipe Calderon’s war on drugs proved the perfect vehicle for
breaking down resistance to U.S. intervention and making huge inroads
in its regional security plan, which includes integrating Mexico into
its “regional security perimeter.”
But the Obama administration was eager to put the elections behindto
get center-left candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador off the political
stage as soon as possible. Lopez Obrador openly called for ending the drug warand “adopting a different strategy” during his final campaign speech.
Ignoring the post-electoral conflicts already brewing south of the
border, the White House congratulated the candidate and the Mexican
people for having “demonstrated their commitment to democratic values
through a free, fair, and transparent election process.”But well before
Lopez Obrador filed the legal challenge, evidence of vote buying had
surfaced and the “Iam132” movement and others were expressing
accusations of fraud.
When asked by a reporter on July 9 if the State Department still maintained that the elections were “transparent,” spokesperson Patrick Ventrell dodged the question, stating only
that “we welcome the electoral authority’s announcement of the final
results, and obviously we look forward to working with President-elect
Mr. Pena Nieto.”
The administration accepted Peña Nieto when polls showed a
significant lead and hurriedly arranged meetings with its soon-to-be new
ally well before the elections. The Pentagon-driven Mexico policy
requires a willing partner in the drug war. Mexican army troops are now
stationed in strategic locations throughout the country, ostensibly to
stop the flow of illegal drugs and capture drug kingpins. They have
repeatedly acted to repress human rights defenders and subdue
communities protesting the loss of natural resource control or army
presence. The armed forces act as a form of social control, while army
officials have been accused of being in cahoots with organized crime in several cases.
Continuing the drug war is at the top of the U.S. binational agenda.
Congress has sustained it through consistent funding of the Merida
Initiative since the Bush plan passed in 2008. The Senate Foreign
Relations Committee just recommended four more years and a billion more
U.S. taxpayer dollars, despite the fact that the joint strategy has
resulted in 60,000 fatalities in Mexico and no measurable decrease in
the flow of illicit drugs to the U.S.
Peña Nieto repaid the favor the same day he received the premature
congratulations from Obama. In a press conference he endorsed the
strategy of using the army to attack the cartels head-on. He also announced his commitment to bringing about the major structural reforms that the U.S. government and national and transnational economic interests have been demanding for years. These include
the privatization of the national oil company PEMEX along with fiscal
reforms and labor reforms that would weaken unions and labor rights. He
also called for the creation of a special police force made up of
military personnel to overcome legal obstacles to the deployment of the
armed forces for public safety. U.S. business organizations like the Americas Society have heaped praise on the “new PRI.”
Pena Nieto stated, “Without a doubt, I am committed to having an
intense, close relationship of effective collaboration measured by
results,” alleviating fears that the former nationalist party would
distance itself from the new military/police alliance with its powerful
neighbor. He has announced the appointment of a former chief of Colombia
National Police, General Oscar Naranjo, as his top security adviser
before the elections. Naranjo is a key player in Colombian security policy and very close to the U.S. security establishment.
There are four months until the inauguration. Mexico’s long lame-duck
period will be rife with protests. The IAm132 movement joined with
other grassroots organizations in mid-July to lay out a series of
mobilizations tied to the date the electoral authorities must ratify
electoral results (September 6), inauguration (December 1), and beyond.
In questioning the role of media monopolies, publicity and public
image, vote buying, campaign spending, and political operators, Mexico’s
new movement is raising serious questions about electoral democracy.
The questions don’t only apply to Mexico–a nation emerging from and
perhaps returning to authoritarian government. They also have much
relevance to the United States as it heads toward presidential elections
in November.
Photos: Clayton Conn, Alfredo Acedo
Source: Americas Program
Via: Comparte tu Wifi
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