Televisa: what Soriana videos?

This morning I watched about a 10 minute election round-up on Televisa. The first segment was a really grating exchange between the PRD and PRI IFE representatives. The PRDista was accusing EPN and the PRI of massive vote-buying. The PRIista's strategy was to deny everything. Then they went to AMLO's press conference at PRD headquarters that was apparently constructed of Soriana gift cards. There he further accused the PRI of massive 'compra y coaccion.' Two sides, with a balance of the time given to the accusations of the izquierda. Finally, Televisa presented Soriana's letter attempting to explain just how they got caught up in this mess. Luckily for the integrity of Mexico's democracy, we're told, this was all a big mistake and the cards are nothing more than a customer/employee loyalty program.

Well, when is the last time hundreds of people showed up at la super clamoring to spend their gift cards after word spreads that the cards will be cancelled now that the gig is up? All Televisa had to do was show one of the many YouTube videos of person after person quite openly stating that the PRI gave them these cards in exchange for their vote in the packed aisles. But that would rock the boat too much. Much easier to keep the whole affair as a 'he said, she said' instead of actually presenting the evidence.

The worst thing is that although the PRI said the cards were worth 300-500 pesos, people are discovering when they get to their local Soriana that most of them are worth only 100 pesos.

The very next story involved a brewing PRD campaign finance scandal with a tapped phone call and on cue, ominous music.

How Mexico voted

More from El Universal.

AMLO & Televisa

From The Guardian's investigative report about Televisa's concerted effort to take down Lopez-Obrador's 2006 campaign and boost Pena-Nieto and the PRI to victory in 2012:

"One of the documents is a PowerPoint presentation which explicitly states its aim of making sure "López Obrador does not win the 2006 elections". That bitterly contested election saw the leftwing candidate lose a commanding lead and ended with him claiming he had been cheated.

It was apparently created just after midnight on 4 April 2005, hours before President Fox was reported to have met the heads of Televisa and TV Azteca.

Fox was facing growing criticism for an attempt to get Lopez Obrador, then mayor of Mexico City, impeached over a minor planning dispute. The document outlines short-term measures for controlling the backlash, a period of national mourning for the recently-deceased Pope John Paul II to distract attention from the growing row. The next day Fox declared a day of mourning for the pontiff.

Longer-term strategies proposed to "dismantle the public perception that Lopez Obrador is a martyr/saviour," by boosting news coverage of crime in the capital and revisiting old corruption cases involving his former allies. The plan also envisaged "promoting personal stories of crimes suffered [in the capital] by showbiz celebrities" and "urging the inhabitants of the Big Brother house" to do the same. Some Televisa celebrities did just that, both on showbiz programmes and in the Mexican version of Celebrity Big Brother broadcast that May.

The document also advises that scriptwriters of a popular political weekly satire show called El Privilegio de Mandar should make the character who represented López Obrador appear "clumsy" and "inept." The final episode of the show, broadcast immediately after the 2006 elections – when the result of a recount was still pending – ended with a non-humorous speech by an actor calling on López Obrador to accept defeat."

'El voto es libre y secreto'; election day news

Six years ago I was in Mexico as an accredited electoral observer with Alianza Civica and Global Exchange. After several days of activities in Mexico City my team set out for San Luis Potosi, making sure to pick up some beer before la ley seca went into effect. Despite viewing deliveries of building materials, like cinder blocks, and hearing of cash payouts intended to buy votes, election day in our little area was smooth and uneventful. The next several weeks were of course anything but uneventful.

Today we've got one eye on election day developments from Los Angeles with the other on Spain v. Italy. Here are the best reads that I've gotten through today.

The Financial Times has published this useful preview. LA native, Daniel Hernandez, gives a great summary of the #yosoy132 movement here and a rundown on AMLO's second bid here.

The ins and outs of the last couple of weeks, including the lamentable capture of some young guy who's not Chapo Guzman's son and Pena-Nieto's attempts to woo the SNTE, are detailed here.

Finally, here's the Guardian's major investigative piece on the collusion between Televisa and Pena-Nieto's campaign to distort public opinion in his favor through uncritical and favorable coverage. Televisa's response and the Guardian's rather devastating reply are here and here.

The Mexican Election is 7 Days Away...Time to Catch Up!

I'm incredibly behind in covering this election and all the 'really important stuff' that has gone down in the last few months. There will be more to come on #yosoy132, AMLO's flirtations with further civil unrest should he lose the elections, Vasquez-Mota's flop, & the awesome 'more Romney than Romney' spectacle that is Enrique Pena Nieto.

But before all that let's revisit IFE's bizarre decision to toss a 'ring girl' into the May 6 debate mix. That was weird. Score 1 for Mexico's dignity! Leave it to the students to restore a little integrity with their own debate on Tuesday night that was ignored by Televisa and TV Azteca, ostensibly because Pena Nieto chose not to participate.

PRD Content with Last Place

Mexico's leftist party, the PRD, has just ensured its third place finish in next year's election. When given the opportunity to nominate Mexico City's progressive and technocratic mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, the party instead opted to move ahead with an odd nominating poll of 6,000 anonymous Mexicans.

Somehow this resulted in Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador being selected to lead the fatally divided PRD into the 2012 vote, presumably as a follow up act to his deeply unimpressive 2006 campaign. Six years ago his campaign benefited greatly from the petty and very public efforts of Mexico's two other major parties to keep him out of the race on spurious criminal charges and Mexicans gave him a commanding lead a couple of months out from the election. Then he decided to skip out on the debates and feed the fears of middle class Mexicans with strange and paranoid pronouncements. This of course was nothing compared to what occurred after he questionably lost a razor thin election. More paranoia ensued and Mexico City streets were shut down for months.

Assuming the PRI walks away with this election, perhaps it was smart for Ebrard to sit this one out. Six years, though, is a long time.