Mexican election raises fears in Washington

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

Mexican election raises fears in Washington

The frontrunner in Mexico’s presidential election has promised to bring down the death toll in his country’s bloody drug war, prompting American fears he may step back from directly confronting the cartels.

By Raf Sanchez, Washington
4:37PM BST 29 Jun 2012

Mexico’s 80 million voters will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president for the first time since the military was deployed against the drug barons six years ago, beginning a bloody conflict that has already cost 50,000 lives.

Enrique Peña Nieto, a telegenic former governor who enjoys a commanding 14-point lead, has vowed to shift the focus away from disrupting the cartels’ smuggling operations and look instead to curb the violence that all too often ends in beheadings or with bodies hung publicly from bridges.

“This doesn’t mean that we don’t pay attention to other crimes, or that we don’t fight drug trafficking, but the central theme at this time is diminishing violence in the country,” he told the Associated Press.

He has promised to gradually withdraw the roughly 40,000 soldiers deployed across the country, replacing them with a national gendarmerie tasked with bringing down violent crime.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/9365421/Mexican-election-raises-fears-in-Washington.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Fraud Concerns on Eve of Mexico Elections

Fraud Concerns on Eve of Mexico Elections
By Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Jun 29 2012 (IPS) - Political patronage, busing of voters, bribery, vote-buying and coercion are deep-rooted practices in Mexico and a source of unease for observers and citizens preparing for the Sunday Jul. 1 presidential elections.

“All the conditions are in place for (electoral fraud) to occur. We are concerned that there could be vote buying, voter coercion, and excessive numbers of observers registered in some regions, whose role is not clear,” Bernardo Portillo, spokesman for the Comité Conciudadano para la Observación Electoral (CCOE – Citizens’ Election Observation Committee), told IPS.

The Committee, which groups 17 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), analysed gender representation, transparency and internal democracy in political parties taking part in the electoral campaign which began in March.

The CCOE asked the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the autonomous public body responsible for organising the elections, to disseminate as widely as possible descriptions of election crimes, as well as the complaints procedures.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/06/fraud-concerns-on-eve-of-mexico-elections/

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. Fears that Mexico no longer wants to be the sacrificial lamb...

...paying the price in blood for America's war on the drugs it hates to love, or loves to hate.

[iandhr]

3. because the war on drugs as worked so well?

[Posteritatis]

4. "promise to bring down the death toll"

That's one hell of a promise to be making as a presidential candidate, isn't it? Gah.

[JDPriestly]

5. Does this mean we have to deal with our terrible drug abuse problem all by ourselves?

[lefthandedlefty]

6. I know a simple way to break the drug cartells.

Just end the war on drugs just turn it loose the drugs will get so cheap they won`t be worth the effort.Don`t say everyone will be on drugs either,the only ones that will be on them is he ones that were going to use them anyway.

[bemildred]

8. +1.

No sugar, no ants.

[inwiththenew]

7. Doesn't really matter what they do in Mexico as long as demand in through the roof here

A lot of the fighting has to do with trying to control routes to the US.