'Se cayó el sistema'

Recuerda '88.

Para los intensos

The facebook backlash. Translated as "My facebook wall is not the Office of the Electoral Crimes Prosecutor, go complain somewhere else."

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.

Why (some) Mexicans voted

How Mexico voted

More from El Universal.

No PRI majorities in Congress

When the new congress gets to "work" in September, EPN's PRI will have at most 249 out of 500 seats in the camara de diputados and 61 out of 128 seats in the senate. Far short of the 2/3 majority to pass constitutional amendments needed to overhaul Pemex and open the company to foreign investment. The proposed reform is shaping up to be either EPN's Waterloo or Gettysburg.

It will be interesting to watch the PRI actually sweat to round up votes for once. Prior to 2000, the party held massive majorities in congress, and since then they've perfected the art of blocking legislation, along with the PRD on plenty of occasions, in order to stick it first to Fox and then to Calderon.

Estudiantes a la calle!

La Jornada's report. Proceso's report.

Passed along from a friend on Facebook: "Hoy México eligió a un Presidente muy parecido a su pueblo: Nunca ha leído un libro en su vida, es infiel y quiere una vida de novela."

"Today Mexico elected a president that looks a lot like its people: he's never read a book in his life, he's unfaithful, and he wants a soap opera life."

Fear the PRI

The view of Aguachile's blogger, worth reading in full:

"I don't share the optimism. I truly fear for Mexico's democracy. I may well be wrong and I hope I am, but one doesn't have to look very deeply at Enrique Peña Nieto's trajectory to find a man who represents every one of PRI's vices in the past: Collusion with the media, steamrolling of the opposition, blatant institutional engineering (Ley Peña-why on earth has the media forgotten about this?), cover-up of corruption, mediocre social programs, clientelism, and lest we forget, outright authoritarianism. There is much more, but this is only from the past few years of his Mexico State government. The past days, more and more stuff is simply seeping to the surface.

This is a man who went to Oaxaca in 2010 to actively stump for a murderous repressor and scoundrel, Ulises Ruiz, when he tried to impose his PRI successor, and on whose campaign trail in Puebla had the pedophile-protecting Mario Marín appear at his campaign events...

Yet it is not only about one man, Peña Nieto - and I hold him in a very low regard - but of a party as well, which has shown absolutely no indication it has changed. I don't think this is demagoguery; there are many good priístas just like there are good people in any party. But a party carries within it an imprint that it is very, very hard to rid itself of. And looking at how PRI and their thugs acted in the 2010 and 2011 state elections, I fear for Mexico's democracy should they return to executive powers, backed by legislative majorities. They won't be easily removed."

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.

'Mexico no es una telenovela'

Images from June 10 mega-protest in Mexico City.

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.

Vazquez-Mota not building the narrative she hoped to

First, the PAN candidate shows up 4 hours late to her own campaign kick-off at Estadio Azteca and is welcomed by streams of people heading for the exits, worn-out from sitting under the sun all day. Then on a leaked phone call, she complains that Calderon's security chiefs are tapping her phones but not Chapo Guzman's, confirming for many the perceived pact Calderon has with el mero narco. Following that, the exhausted candidate nearly faints at a rally & so decides to invite the cameras into the gym so they can see for themselves that she's, I don't know, healthy? Lastly she says that she wants to 'strengthen money-laundering.' D'oh!

All silly and forgivable on their own, but in Mexico's compacted campaign season (the election is July 1) an accumulation of missteps may leave this candidate permanently in Pena-Nieto's dust.

By the way, I went to hear Vazquez-Mota speak here in LA in early March. While she was impressively composed and sharp with her answers, she was an hour late.

"Estamos ya en la sucesión presidencial"

La UNAM's Manuel Quijano states the obvious, with about 20 months to go, Mexico's presidential potrillos are out of the gates. EdoMex governor and heart throb, Enrique Peña Nieto, has maintained his frontrunner status, a large number of Calderon's cabinet secretaries are jockeying for position, and Marcelo Ebrad and Lopez Obrador are in an awkward dance to push the other out of the way and a clear path for the PRD nomination, one that will most likely not lead to Los Pinos.

In the meantime, Calderon has lost momentum on any chance for telecommunications or political reform due to his insistence since Day 1 to fight the narcos to the death.