CENSORED: Mexico's Stolen Election
 
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:00:02 -0500 (CDT)

*# 18 **Mexico** s Stolen Election*
Sources:
/AlterNet/, August 2, 2006
Title: Evidence of Election Fraud Grows in M xico 
Author: Chuck Collins and Joshua Holland
http://www.alternet.org/story/39763

/Revolution/, September 10, 2006
Title: Mexico: The Political Volcano Rumbles 
Authors: Revolution Newspaper Collective
http://revcom.us/a/060/mexico-volcano-en.html

Researchers: Bill Gibbons and Erica Haikara
Faculty Evaluator: Ron Lopez, Ph.D.

Overwhelming evidence reveals massive fraud in the 2006 Mexican
presidential election between president-elect Felipe Calder "n of the
conservative PAN party and Andr s Manuel L "pez Obrador of the more
liberal PRD. In an election riddled with arithmetic mistakes, a
partial recount uncovered evidence of abundant stuffing and stealing of
ballots that favored the PAN victory.
 Meanwhile, US interests were significantly invested in the outcome of
Mexico s election. Though neither candidate had any choice but to
cooperate with the US agenda, important differences existed around
energy policy, specifically with regard to foreign privatization of
Mexican oil and gas reserves.
 Though the energy sector of Mexico is already deeply penetrated by US
capital, as it stands, the Mexican government owns and controls the oil
industry, with very tight restrictions on any foreign investment.
Petr "leos Mexicanos (Pemex), the fifth largest oil company in the world,
exports 80 percent of its oil to the US. Sixty percent of its revenue
($30 billion per year) currently goes to the Mexican government,
accounting for more than 40 percent of the Mexican government s annual
revenues.
 Calder "n promises a more thorough and streamlined exploitation of
Mexico s oil, demanding that Mexico remove barriers to private/foreign
investment (which are currently written into the Mexican Constitution).
Obrador, on the other hand, insisted on maintaining national ownership
and control of the energy sector in order to build economic and social
stability in Mexico.
 In June 2005, Mexico signed an accord called Alliance for the
Security and Prosperity of North America (ASPAN) with Canada and the US.
The point was made that this accord would be binding on whoever became
president of Mexico in the upcoming elections. Included in ASPAN is a
guarantee to fill the energy needs of the US market, as well as
agreements to forge a common theory of security, allowing US Homeland
Security measures to be implemented in Mexico.
 Five months later, in November 2005, an audition was held with
Mexican presidential candidates before members of the US Chamber of
Commerce in Mexico City. All candidates were asked whether they would
open the energy sector in Mexico, especially the nationalized oil
company, Pemex, to US exploitation.
 Felipe Calder "n received resounding applause when he answered that he
is in favor of private investment in Pemex, and of weakening the labor
unions. He also received applause when he stated that he supported
George Bush s guest worker program and that he agreed the border needed
to be secured or militarized. Obrador said that he would not allow risk
capital investment in Pemex "but hastened to add that other sectors
/would /be opened to investment.
 Calder "n won the audition, Obrador was granted the role of
understudy. Former US Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow told Obrador,
 If you win the election, we will support you. But when Obrador
appeared to be the front-runner in the election, PAN allied with forces
in the US to launch a feverish campaign against him.
 Though US laws prevent US influence in other countries * *elections,
anti-Obrador ads airing on Mexican TV were designed by US firms and
illegally financed by business councils that included such
transnationals as Wal-Mart and Halliburton. US election advisers Rob
Allyn and Dick Morris were contracted to develop a media campaign that
would foment fear that Obrador, with ties to Chavez and Castro, posed a
dangerous Socialist threat to Mexico.
 Outgoing president Vicente Fox violated campaign law by making dozens
of anti-Obrador speeches during the campaign, as the PAN party illegally
saturated airwaves with swift-boat style attack ads against Obrador.
Under Mexican law, ruling party interference is a serious crime and
grounds for annulling an election.
 While Obrador s campaign and hundreds of independent election
observers documented several hundred cases of election fraud in making
their case for a recount, most Mexican TV stations failed to report the
irregularities that surfaced. Days after the election /The/ /New York
Times/ irresponsibly declared Calder "n the winner, and Bush called to
personally congratulate Calder "n on his win, even though no victor had
been declared under Mexican law. Illegal media campaigns combined with
grand-scale fraud had had their effect.
 Dominant forces in the US thus had a strong presence behind the
scenes of the 2006 Mexican election. As a consequence, Washington looks
forward to working with Calder "n, who promises tighter (repressive)
control and cooperation on all matters of interest to the US, in an
accelerated plan to put Mexico more directly under US domination.
 Mexico has thus been denied the democratic election of a president
who might have joined Latin America in standing up to aggressive US
neoliberal policies.

 

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