Sunday, July 23, 2006

Protest in Mexico over the election! Over the 2004 election.

Oaxaca, Mexico - Protesters have taken over the center of folkloric Oaxaca, making tourists show identification at makeshift checkpoints, smashing the windows of quaint hotels and spray-painting revolutionary slogans. Police are nowhere in sight.
It's not the tranquil cultural gem beloved by tourists from the United States and Europe. A month of protests to try to oust the governor have forced authorities to cancel many events, including the Guelaguetza dance festival.
Most tourists are staying away, costing the city millions of dollars.
The protests follow other eruptions of civil unrest and class conflict that have plagued President Vicente Fox as his term winds to a close.


The above is from Ioan Grillo 's "Protesters Take Over Oaxaca, Mexico" (Associated Press via Truth Out) on a left website (not Truth Out) with a link stating "Protesters have taken over Oaxaca in the latest move to speak out against the Mexican election results" and we thought, "Okay, now it's becoming a story of people." (Greg Palast, as always, has been doing strong investigative reporting on the issue.) Then we read a little further:

The protest leaders, a mix of trade unionists and leftists, say their fight is not with the tourists but with Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of rigging the state election in 2004 and using force to repress dissent. Ruiz belongs to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which has governed the state since 1929.

The protestors are protesting Governor Ruiz over the 2004 election? That's not really about the election they just had, now is it? If the Associated Press is correct (always a big if), then this protest really has nothing to do with the current disputed election.

On the disputed election, we think Elizabeth DiNovella captured the current situation best in "A Lot of Smoke--But Where's La Pistola?" (The Progressive):

The leftwing party wants a complete recount of all 130,488 polling stations. Party leaders say they refuse to accept the final results if a total recount isn’t done.
Calderon's supporters say the election was clean and fair, though Calderon just told The Washington Post he would accept a partial recount. A complete recount would be "absurd and illegal," he said.
Earlier this week the PAN submitted a formal complaint asking for a recount, but only in 200 voting booths.
So, was there fraud? At the very least there have been irregularities. Ballots were found in the garbage in several states. In many districts where Lopez Obrador had the majority of votes, there was odd "drop off" voting (more votes for congressional representatives than for the presidency).
Two PRD poll watchers were killed in Guerrero the morning of the election. Some analysts speculate this was a thinly veiled attempt at voter intimidation, as Guerrero had one of the lowest voting rates, 42%. (Overall, 59% of the eligible voters participated in the election.)
On Monday and Tuesday, the PRD released videos alleging misconduct and ballot stuffing at the polls. More videos may be released in the coming weeks.
Most importantly, 904,604 votes were ruled invalid. That's more than three times the margin of Calderon’s apparent victory. "The null votes are our votes," Lopez Obrador told the press on July 11. If a recount happens, some of these could swing the vote toward him.
But as one PRD party member involved in the electoral process told me last night, there's smoke, but Lopez Obrador hasn't found la pistola.


The pistola, apparently, is not to be found in Oaxaca -- despite the link that led us to Truth Out's story. Unless, of course, they meant the protest was to SPEAK OUT against the 2004 state election?
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
 
Poll1 { display:none; }