Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho: 'I don't scare easily'

Emine Saner

The Guardian, Saturday 1 September 2012

In Mexico we need good journalists. It’s important. I want to be there to see the change
Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Lydia Cacho is one of Mexico's most fearless journalists. Her investigations have led to attempts on her life, and now she has been forced to flee her country. What next?

In 2005, Lydia Cacho was approached by several police officers. They bundled her into a van and for the 20 hours it took to drive from Cancun in southern Mexico, where she lives, north to the city of Puebla she was, she says, "tortured". Sexual assault was threatened. A gun was pushed into her mouth. A sickening see-saw: "I kept thinking one minute I was going to die, then that I would survive."

When they arrived, a female guard told her she would be raped in jail. In fact, a network of friends, contacts and activists swung into action and she was bailed. Attempts on her life continued, and she has become well known as one of Mexico's bravest journalists. A recent estimate put the number killed there since 2006 at 67. Amid this, Cacho started work on her next book.

This story tells you several things about Cacho and the world she works in: alleged corruption (tapes surfaced that appeared to show her arrest was orchestrated by a man she had written about, alleging he had connections to a paedophile ring), the vulnerability of Mexico's journalists, and that Cacho is not somebody who can be silenced. Her new book, Slavery Inc: the Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking, is about to be published in the UK. Although she has lived with death threats for years, she took the most recent one four weeks ago seriously enough to leave the country.

Mexican court throws out presidential election challenge

Associated Press in Mexico City
guardian.co.uk, Friday 31 August 2012 07.44 BST

Enrique Peña Nieto celebrating in July. His rival Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed he engaged in vote-buying and campaign spending excesses. Photograph: Daniel Aguilar/Getty Images

Unanimous ruling by electoral tribunal paves way for Enrique Peña Nieto to take reins as PRI party returns to power

Mexico's highest election court has voted to dismiss legal challenges to the results of the 1 July presidential election by the second-placed candidate.

The unanimous ruling by the seven-member electoral tribunal paves the way for the Institutional Revolutionary party to return to power after it lost the presidency for the first time in 71 years in elections in 2000.

The party, known as the PRI, won the presidential vote with a 6.6-point advantage for its candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto. But leftwing rival Andrés Manuel López Obrador challenged the results, alleging Peña Nieto engaged in widespread vote-buying and campaign spending excesses.

Before the vote in their night-time session, all of the justices said they did not think supporters of López Obrador had submitted convincing evidence of the alleged abuses.

"Mexico has a president elected by the people, in the person of Enrique Peña Nieto," said Justice Salvador Nava.

Justice Flavio Galvan dismissed evidence submitted by the leftist coalition regarding alleged abuses by Peña Nieto's campaign as "vague, generic, imprecise". The evidence included gift cards, household goods and even farm animals purportedly given out to voters by the PRI.

Mexican court rejects challenge to result of presidential election

• Associated Press
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 31 August 2012 16.18 BST

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, runner-up in the 1 July ballot, told reporters
he did not recognise the official result of the election. Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters

Runner-up Andres Manuel López Obrador still refusing to recognise rightwing victory amid allegations of vote-buying

Andres Manuel López Obrador, the leftwing candidate in Mexico's presidential election, has announced that he does not recognise the official results, leading observers to believe he may call for street protests similar to those that paralysed central Mexico City after he lost the vote in 2006.

Lopez Obrador says a federal electoral tribunal which rejected allegations of vote-buying and other campaign violations in favour of Enrique Pena Nieto, the candidate of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, was illegitimite. Lopez Obrador called a peaceful protest for 9 September.

"I am telling the people of Mexico that I cannot accept the judgment of the electoral tribunal that declared the presidential election valid," Lopez Obrador told a news conference. "The elections were not clean, free and genuine. As a result, I will not recognise an illegitimate power that's emerged as a result of vote-buying and other grave violations of the constitution and the law."

He said he wants protesters to respect the law, and did not call directly for a repeat of the blockades he launched in 2006.

Lopez Obrador attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the streets for campaign rallies, and retains a large and fervent base of support in Mexico City. But Pena Nieto's margin of more than 3 million votes was far wider than the few hundred thousand that cost Lopez Obrador the 2006 presidential elections, and much of the initial outrage at Pena Nieto's win appears to have faded since the 1 July ballot.

Lopez Obrador alleged that Pena Nieto engaged in widespread vote-buying and campaign spending excesses but Mexico's highest election court voted unanimously on Thursday to dismiss his challenges. The judgement handed down by a seven-member tribunal paves the way for the old ruling party PRI to return to power after losing the presidency for the first time in 71 years in the 2000 election.

The PRI said in a statement that the ruling "has ended the contentious and combative phase of the federal electoral process and has fully demonstrated the legitimacy of Enrique Pena Nieto's victory at the ballot box."

Before the vote, the judges questioned the nature of the evidence submitted by Lopez Obrador's supporters. "Mexico has a president elected by the people, in the person of Enrique Pena Nieto," said Justice Salvador Nava.

The judges said some of the evidence was hearsay, or unclear. But Ricardo Monreal, Lopez Obrador's campaign manager, accused the judges of "acting like a gang of ruffians."

Monreal complained that the tribunal wanted his coalition "to supply not just the evidence, but the victims and criminals" as well.

The accusations centered on hundreds and possibly thousands of pre-paid gift cards that shoppers at a Mexican grocery store chain said they were given by Pena Nieto's party before the election.

Source: The Guardian
Via: Comparte tu Wifi

US embassy staff shot at by Mexican police

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 August 2012 23.56 BST

Mexican marines inspect a bullet-riddled armoured US embassy SUV on a road south of Mexico City. Two embassy employees were injured. Photograph: Reuters

Mexican naval officials say embassy vehicle caught up in police chase on road just south of Mexico City

Two US embassy employees were shot at and wounded by Mexican police on Friday after they were caught up in a police chase on the outskirts of the capital, Mexican naval officials said.

The US embassy vehicle was attacked just south of Mexico City, according to a government statement. A confused gun battle began around 8am after the embassy car, on its way to a naval installation with two US officials and a captain from the Mexican navy, was approached by car containing armed men.

"The driver of the diplomatic car manoeuvred to avoid the aggressors and get back onto the main road, at which point the crew of the aggressor vehicle opened fire," the statement said. "Moments later three other vehicles joined the chase and shot at the US embassy vehicle."

Speaking anonymously, a Mexican government security official said federal police had thought the vehicle belonged to a group of suspected kidnappers they were pursuing, and had opened fire on it. "This was all because of a mix-up," the official said.

Mexican demonstrators blockade Televisa studios over election scandal

Reuters in Mexico City

guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 July 2012 05.17 BST

Protesters block the studios of the Televisa network in Mexico City. Photograph: Tomas Bravo/Reuters

Protests continue after claims TV network was biased and took money for coverage from eventual winner Enrique Peña Nieto

Thousands of protesters have blockaded the studios of Televisa, Mexico's most popular TV network, accusing it of biased coverage of the 1 July presidential election.

Shouting "Tell the truth," the demonstrators, including students and union workers, stopped employees entering the offices of the Televisa studios in Mexico City although they allowed others to leave.

The protesters allege that Televisa supported Enrique Peña Nieto, who won the election by almost 7 percentage points over leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The protesters promised to continue the blockade for 24 hours.

Televisa, which carried on broadcasting as normal, argues it covered the election fairly and gave time to all candidates on primetime news shows.

Televisa is the world's most popular Spanish language network and sells its soap operas around the globe.

López Obrador has claimed that Peña Nieto paid Televisa for favourable coverage and bought votes. He has filed a legal challenge to the vote with an electoral tribunal, asking it to annul the ballot.

The tribunal has until September to rule on the accusations and officially declare Peña Nieto as president. It is widely expected to uphold the vote.

Source: The Guardian

Via: Comparte tu Wifi

HSBC admits laundering money for drug cartels, terrorists and rogue states - video

                   
                   
                                 

HSBC executives admit to US senators that staff at its global subsidiaries laundered billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and pariah states. David Bagley, HSBC's head of compliance since 2002, resigns in front of the permanent subcommittee of investigations, which subjected Europe's biggest bank to a humiliating interrogation over the scandal.

Source: The Guardian

Mexico presidential runner-up alleges money laundering in election

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City 

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 July 2012 02.18 BST

López Obrador accuses president-elect Peña Nieto of using illicit funds and money laundering to finance his campaign

Andrés Manuel López Obrador during a news conference where he said he does not accept the election results in which he placed second. Photograph: Antonio Nava/Antonio Nava/ZUMA Press/Corbis

The runner-up in Mexico's recent presidential election has added the charge of money laundering to his efforts to get the country's electoral tribunal to invalidate the victory of Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the left wing Party of Democratic Revolution, or PRD, presented his challenge to the the electoral authorities last week. It contained 58 boxes of documents initially focused on allegations of extensive vote buying, systematic bias in the media, manipulated opinion polls and massive overspending.

The additional charges centre on a bank called Monex and electronic cards it issues in bulk to clients for them to distribute.

A small amount of these cards were directly linked to PRI activists in the central state of Guanajuato before the election in a complaint filed by the governing National Action Party, or PAN, whose candidate came in a poor third in the election on 1 July.

Irregularities reveal Mexico's election far from fair

With Peña Nieto's election marred by media bias and voter fraud, Mexico's ailing economy is hobbled by democratic deficit
Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 July 2012 22.36 BST

Enrique Peña Nieto moved to reassure the student movement, saying: 'I understand your complaints.' Photograph: Guillermo Arias/Xinhua Press/Corbis

The media rewrites history every day, and in so doing, it often impedes our understanding of the present. Mexico's presidential election of a week ago is a case in point. Press reports tell us that Felipe Calderón, the outgoing president from the PAN (National Action party), "won the 2006 election by a narrow margin".

Guardian statement on Televisa coverage

The Guardian is committed to reporting on issues in Mexico, and we stand by the article in question

• guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 June 2012 21.48 BST

A Guardian News Media spokesperson said: "The Guardian is committed to reporting on issues in Mexico, and we stand by the article in question. The report is based on documents given to our reporter, in addition to information provided by a former Televisa employee.
"In the story, we acknowledge that it is not possible to confirm the authenticity of the documents – which were passed to the Guardian by a source who worked with Televisa. However, the Guardian carried out extensive cross checks to confirm that the names, dates and situations mentioned in the documents largely lined up with events.

"Several days in advance of publication, we contacted Televisa about the documents and outlined the allegations contained within them to provide them with the opportunity to respond. We offered to go into greater detail about the information in the documents, but they declined to respond without seeing some of the files. We also sought a categorical response to the general question of whether the company ever sold any kind of coverage on its channels to political clients, as well as clarification of the relationship between Radar Servicios Especializados and Televisa. Again, Televisa declined to answer these questions without first seeing the files. We now have authorisation from the source to share and publish the files, and have done so online.

"Any complaints that the Guardian receives about our journalism are referred to, and investigated by, our independent readers' editor. In this instance, and following a complaint by Televisa, we have amended one element of the story online to clarify Televisa's coverage of the 10 May protest. This amendment will also be acknowledged in tomorrow's newspaper. We have also offered Televisa the opportunity to respond to the allegations in the article by submitting a letter for publication in the paper."

Source: The Guardian

Spotlight falls on Televisa, Mexico's all-powerful TV station

Critics accuse Televisa of manipulating politicians and viewers and threatening democracy

• Rory Carroll and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 June 2012 19.11 BST

 An anti-PRI protester in Mexico. 'The TV lies,' says the box on his head. Photograph: Reuters

For decades Televisa's logo – a golden human eye gazing at the world through a television screen – captured the company's success at controlling and dominating what Mexicans watched.

The media firm, the biggest in Latin America, produced soap operas, quiz shows, films and news bulletins that reflected and reinforced the country's concentration of economic and political power.

Televisa's eye, with the pupil in the form of a globe, remained an unblinking stare during authoritarian one-party rule and Mexico's transition to multiparty democracy, a change that only increased the company's wealth and influence.

"You could say it's like Murdoch on steroids in the sense Televisa has operated under far fewer constraints than Murdoch," said Andrew Paxman, a historian and co-author of El Tigre, a biography of Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, the mogul whose father founded the company and the dynasty that still controls it.

I am 132 London, Serenades The Guardian

Members of the "I am 132" movement pays a Mariachi serenade the The Guardian in recognition of their Journalistic integrity by exposing the illegalities of the Mexican presidential election process.

Further information at: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/jun/26/mexico-televisa-document?INTCMP=SRCH

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/26/mexico-media-scandal-cast-characters?INTCMP=SRCH

Mexicans protest against Peña Nieto's election 'win'

Tens of thousands of people march in Mexico City amid allegations that PRI vote-buying influenced millions of votes.

• Agencies in Mexico City
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 8 July 2012 10.34 BST

Mexicans protest against Enrique Peña Nieto’s election win amid claims his PRI party bought votes and paid TV networks for support. Photograph: Ulises Ruiz Basurto/EPA

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in Mexico City on Saturday to protest against Enrique Peña Nieto's apparent win in the country's presidential election, accusing his party of buying votes and paying TV networks for support.

Demonstrators were angered by allegations that Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary party (PRI) gave out groceries, pre-paid gift cards and other goods to voters before the national elections on 1 July.

Mexico recounting more than half presidential vote

Of the 143,000 ballot boxes used during Sunday's vote, 78,012 will be opened and the votes recounted

• Associated Press in Mexico City
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 July 2012 05.07 BST

An electoral worker recounts votes at a district office of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico City Photograph: Henry Romero/REUTERS

Mexican electoral authorities are recounting more than half the ballot boxes used in the weekend's presidential election after finding inconsistencies in the vote tallies.

Of the 143,000 ballot boxes used during Sunday's vote, 78,012 will be opened and the votes recounted, said Edmundo Jacobo, executive secretary of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute.

Electoral officials expect the recount plus the final, official overall count on the presidential vote to be ready by Sunday, said Ana Fuentes, an IFE spokesman.

Mexico reacts to election results

Mexico reacts to election results - in pictures

Enrique Peña Nieto celebrates with supporters as early results from the Mexican elections show his Institutional Revolutionary party is poised to regain power.

• guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 July 2012 12.10 BST
• Exit gallery and go to previous page

Enrique Peña Nieto celebrates with supporters Photograph: Daniel Aguilar/Getty Images

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  Mexico elections: claims of dirty tricks cast shadow over Peña Nieto's victory
  Campaign group says 28% of voters it interviewed were exposed to vote-buying or coercion
  
• Peña Nieto: Mexicans have given our party a second chance
  
  Source:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2012/jul/02/mexico-reacts-election-results-in-pictures?INTCMP=SRCH 
  

US concerned Mexico's new president may go easy on drug cartels

Enrique Peña Nieto is likely to shift focus from cross-border drug trafficking to crimes affecting ordinary Mexicans.

• 
• • Rory Carroll
  • The Guardian, Monday 2 July 2012

 

Mexico's new president Enrique Pena Nieto might allow drug cartels to go back to the old days of business as usual. Photograph: Reuters

Enrique Peña Nieto's victory in Mexico's presidential election amid a raging drug war opens a new and uncertain chapter in relations with the US. Some in Washington fear the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico until 2000, will turn the clock back to an era of cosy deals with drug cartels and fraught relations with the gringos.

The new president, as is customary, will clean house, meaning replacing security officials from the outgoing administration of Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) which had developed unusually close ties with US in terms of sharing intelligence and military cooperation. Peña Nieto is also expected to change Mexico's focus from combating drug trafficking to curbing violent crime, kidnapping, extortion and robbery, issues which matter more to Mexicans than the flow of cocaine, cannabis and other drugs north through a 2,000 mile border.

Mexico elections: claims of dirty tricks cast shadow over Peña Nieto's victory

Campaign group says 28% of voters it interviewed were exposed to vote-buying or coercion

• Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 4 July 2012 18.54 BST

 

A protest in Mexico City against alleged voting irregularities in the country's presidential election. Photograph: Eduardo Verdugo/AP

Growing allegations of systematic vote-buying and other irregularities are casting a shadow over Enrique Peña Nieto's still unconfirmed victory in Mexico's presidential election.