12:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Politics| mexico · Comments Off
1 Dec 2006
After months of struggle and a recent physical confrontation, leftist politicians and citizens have lost the battle to challenge the legitimacy of Felipe Calderón’s presidential win. At 9:47 this morning Mexico City time, Calderón was sworn in with outgoing President and political ally Vicente Fox at his side, but not without controversy. Apparently there was a repeat of what happened in the Congressional Tribunal last week, this time in the Cámara de Diputados:
The ceremony was marked by tension, as previously dozens of pro-government and leftist legislators went head to head with insults and pushing in the Cámara de Diputados.The brawl, in which there were also a few isolated punches, ocurred at 8:00 am local time, when the “civility pact” (no agression) made by the congressional members on Wednesday finally expired.
11:51 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Politics| mexico · 8 Comments
29 Nov 2006Good God, what’s going on in Mexico? Looks like Mexico’s congressional tribunal was the scene of an knock-down, drag-out brawl as leftist politicians attempted to impede conservative President-elect Felipe Calderon’s inauguration. Pictures are worth a thousand words in this case.
Felipe Calderon’s inauguration as President of Mexico went through a grotesque event when “diputados” from the left and the right went to blows with each other in the congressional tribunal where the swearing in was going to take palce. The leftists’ objective was to impede the inauguration ceremony of Calderon. However, members of the PAN, Calderon’s party, blocked them with pushing and screaming, and finally both groups remained in the room, swearing that neither will leave.
This just makes me sad. I won’t pretend to be objective. I am angered at the fact that the Mexican left can’t catch a break because corruption is built into the system. And, I can identify with those who were so pissed they wanted to do something at the last minute (harken back to our own “democratic” elections), but unfortunately, after months of protest and other acts of civil disobedience, it may be time to call it quits.
Check out the video on El Universal.com.mx.
Via / El Confidencial
Image: Marcos Delgado
12:28 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Politics| mexico · Comments Off
26 Sep 2006
Mexico City’s La Jornada newspaper reports that some U.S. observers find it hard to believe that Mexico’s recent presidential elections weren’t tainted by fraud:
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, which is comprised of economists, for the most part Americans, did an analysis of the data published on the website of the “Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación” (Electoral Tribunal), on which it found that, after the recount of more than 11 million polling places, “there was a significant reduction in votes” for presidential candidate Felipe Calderón.
The controversy swirling around these elections seems to have come to a head, and months later the leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador is still refusing to accept defeat. Meanwhile, the CEPR says that
the analysis proves that the result of the presidential election “are inexplicably biased.”Patrick McElwee, of CEPR’s research group, says that the results of the sampling should be analyzed to see how votes were counted. “We can’t confirm that there was fraud, but it’s very hard to think of any other explanation.”
For those of you who are lost in the maze that is the Mexican election, take a look back at the various posts we’ve done over the past few weeks for some clues.
Via / La Jornada
Image via Martinoticias.com
In a 7-0 ruling, the Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF), ruled that they had rejected Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) claims that the Presidential election had been plagued by massive fraud. The court stated that López Obrador had failed to prove that the irregularities in many of the polling places did not stem from fraud.
TEPJF stated that they had thrown out the results from hundreds of polling stations where major irregularities were shown to have taken place, which meant annulling 81,000 votes for Felipe Calderón and 76,897 for López Obrador. Therefore, leaving Calderon with 4,000 fewer votes from his original 244,000-vote margin. The tribunal decided that the outcome of the partial recount was not enough to overcome Calderón’s margin of victory.
However, the tribunal did stop short of officially naming Calderón as Mexico’s next President, by law the tribunal has until Sept 6 to name the winner of the election to declare a winner.
5:53 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics| mexico · Comments Off
6 Jul 2006
One hundred percent of the Mexican voting districts have reported in and the results, not yet officially finalized, are pretty much final: Calderón leads López Obrador by a miniscule .57% of a point.
Does this mean that Calderón will be declared president? Who knows. López Obrador is not giving up the fight, planning to formally refute the results and organizing supporters for a protest in Mexico City’s main square this weekend.
My question is: with so many irregularities, anomalies, votes in the garbage, et al how could this minute advantage on the part of the PAN be declared a legal win? What happened between now and two days ago that would prove that this victory is legitimate? Why should the Mexican people trust these results?
The issues of trust, corruption and the declaration of victory on the part of a ruling party are delicate ones for Mexico, and I fear that while López Obrador may call on his supporters to exhibit restraint in their reaction to the official results, there may be incidents of violence on the part of a large group of outraged citizens. Americans might have felt just as outraged during Gore-Bush, but we aren’t known to take to the streets like citizens of other countries.
Let’s hope that the truth finally prevails and that no one gets hurt in the process.
Image via El Universal
7:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics| mexico · Comments Off
5 Jul 2006
La vida te da sorpresas, sorpresas te da la vida, ay Dios
Oh, what a difference a day — and a recount — makes. Mexican and international press is reporting that the official recount has put PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the lead over opponent Felipe Calderón, who had just a day ago seemed to be the victor in this race, full of all the twists and turns of a telenovela.
According to Spain’s El País, reporting a little over an hour ago:
The recount of the 42.79% of the votes from the Mexican presidential elections of last Sunday yields a 2.62% lead to leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, according to an announcement by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). IFE sources have also clarified that while this would put López Obrador at 37,00% and conservative Felipe Calderón at 34,38%, it is still not possible to confirm definite trends.
With the final results of the Mexican presidential election expected as early as tomorrow or as late as the weekend, depending on which news source you read, the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and their candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, are prepping for the worse by not backing down. As votes continue to be counted and as the gap between Lopez Obrador and Felipe Calderon lessens (with Calderon leading according to sources), an article posted today on AlterNet states:
Lopez Obrador has said he will honor the results of a fair election, even if he loses by one vote. But if history is any lesson, Lopez Obrador is no Al Gore. He won’t walk away from a stolen election without a protest. His political rise has been characterized by having to respond to dirty tricks. And if anyone is justified in being a “firebrand” about stolen elections, it is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
1:12 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics| mexico · 1 Comment
3 Jul 2006
The morning hasn’t brought us definitive results in the Mexican presidential elections, but more of the same. PAN candidate Felipe Calderón is still claiming victory and tells his supporters and the press, according to newspaper Reforma: “Announce that we have won”.
Meanwhile liberal party (PRD) candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador says that “he will accept the results of the IFE (Federal Electoral Institute) if there is enough proof to ratify” said results, reports Reforma.
Left-wing La Jornada isn’t giving up that easily and still reports the election as undecided.
Stay tuned into VL as this story develops.
Image via Reforma.com
Photo via tiquis_magallanes’ Flickr page
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by 2 Mujeres Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse and influential Latino and Latina community in the U.S.
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