Mexico crisis deepens with civil resistance plan

[AnOhioan]

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A campaign of civil resistance by leftists to force a recount in Mexico's disputed presidential election will start this week, taking the U.S. ally further down the road of crisis.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist who lost the July 2 vote by a hair's breadth, said high-profile actions to bring attention to his claims of fraud and demands for a recount were imminent.

"As of today, we will work out the plan and what I can say is that the first civil resistance actions will begin this week," he told a left-wing radio station.

Snip

Leftist leaders refused to say what kind of protests were planned by Lopez Obrador, who pulled a crowd of hundreds of thousands of supporters at a demonstration on Sunday.

More at http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2203696

[reichstag911]

1. Gee, if only Americans had the balls... nt

[gratuitous]

2. Gosh, won't the nation completely collapse?

Remember 2000? How the United States would completely fall apart if George W. Bush wasn't declared the winner of Florida, and that right soon? How the country would be totally paralyzed while the Florida mess got straightened out? And how there was just no way all the nervous nelly hand-wringers in the Right would be able to hold their water if their boy wasn't installed right away?

I guess Mexico is made of tougher stuff than the United States.

[tom_paine]

6. It is. But that isn't saying much

The Imperial Subjects of Amerika are perhaps amongst the world's fittest for slavery.

Which is what we all are getting, inch by inexorable inch and yard by inexorable yard.

[fasttense]

3. Boy Reuters just loves showing that they are

a right-wing wacko propaganda rag for the bushes. "The leftist who lost"???? If the election was rigged did he really lose???? Because he wants to help the poor he is labeled a leftist, spin, spin, spin.

[MoseyWalker]

4. Is there really a chance

that the votes can be recounted? I don't know enough about the ways of Mexico, but did read something last week about some tribunal or something similar maybe deciding.

I hope they can get the recount accomplished. I really hope that this can be a case of the truth winning out for once in a long, long time.

[gorbal]

18. Check out the "Democracy Now" coverage

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/17/1424201

Over a million people marching? Proof of fraud? I say there is a fighting chance:)

[Vidar]

5. Way to stand tough, Mr. Obrador!

[goforit]

12. He's certainly showing Kerry a thing or two.

[Vidar]

22. Kerry's a great senator, but he broke a lot of hearts by not fighting.

[redqueen]

26. many here think there was no reason for him to fight n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Ukrainians and Mexicans

It's good to know that Ukrainians and Mexicans know what to do about election fraud.





If only Floridians and Ohioans did.

Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugène Delacroix
From the website of the University of Southern California

[pokercat999]

10. Ms Liberty and Janet Jackson, who'd thunk it....nt

[Barkley]

8. After Canada, Mexico is our largest foreign oil source

VZ. is 3rd
S. Arabia 4th
Nigeria 5th

... we gotta get on with alternative fuels and stop
trying to run the world.

[PSPS]

9. Wow. No bias here!

Let's see. In just the quoted text we have:

"... civil resistance by leftists"

"Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist who lost..."

"... he told a left-wing radio station."

Way to go, ABC. Keep propping up the fraud!

[EFerrari]

11. None. Stolen election gets a congratulatory call. Protest

is a "crisis".

This is fascism.

[Sadie5]

13. A crisis?

And for who? It will become a crisis if the *s pick(PAN) does not get in office. Oh what will become of all of that precious oil that Bush so covets? My guess is that for once the people of Mexico will have decent housing, decent wages and enough food to put on their families.

[FredStembottom]

14. Leftists, leftists, leftists!

Why don't I EVER see someone called "rightist" or "corporatist"?!?!

[nolabels]

25. Control freaks are never self effacing

The idea of self-aggrandizement and humility seem kind of at the opposite ends of the sociological spectrum.

Try this Wiki writ

Left-Right politics
(snip)
Historical origin of the terms

The terms Left and Right have been used to refer to political affiliation since the early part of the French Revolutionary era. They originally referred to the seating arrangements in the various legislative bodies of France, specifically in the French Legislative Assembly of 1791, when the moderate royalist Feuillants sat on the right side of the chamber, while the radical Montagnards sat on the left.

Originally, the defining point on the ideological spectrum was attitudes towards the ancien régime ("old order"). "The Right" thus implied support for aristocratic, royal, or clerical interests, while "The Left" implied opposition to the same. At that time, support for laissez-faire capitalism and free markets were regarded as being on the left whereas today in most Western countries these views would be characterized as being on the Right. But even during the French Revolution an extreme left wing called for government intervention in the economy on behalf of the poor.
(snip)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-Right_politics

[redqueen]

27. Because rightists and corporatists own the vast majority of the media...

so they go to great lengths to keep the discussion of ideas tilted heavily in their favor.

"Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it." --Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 1786.

[Voltaire99]

15. When the right protests in Latin America, say, in Venezuela...

...the U.S. press is quick to explain how it's a fitting response to "repressive" and "authoritarian" governments.

Should the left protest, however, this is seen as "taking (a) U.S. ally further down the road of crisis."

Mainstream media: proudly carrying Washington's colostomy bag...and dipping its quill inside as the need arises.

[gorbal]

20. Good point

Notice how the right in Venezuala are characterized as fighting for Democratic ideals while those truly fighting for Democratic ideals are "leftist"

[Jack Rabbit]

24. Empires create their own reality

and have the right to steal elections.

The common people are only good for producing wealth for the elite and for use as cannon fodder in imperialist wars. They have no right to complain. Only artifcial people are real.

[Judi Lynn]

16. It's hard to grasp how Calderon embarked suddenly upon a vicious

program of character assassination against López Obrador, started circulating the claim he's crazy, wild, irresponsible, dangerous, (a visiting poster actually lodged those slurs here) then, during this post-election phase, has made a quick 180, and offered López Obrador a future position in his administration. Some would think it sounds like a bribe to lure him away from his claim.

[Judi Lynn]

17. McClatchy (formerly Knight Ridder): Day after big rally, acrimony grows in

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Day after big rally, acrimony grows in Mexico election
By Kevin Diaz

McClatchy Newspapers

MEXICO CITY —

~snip~
One Mexico City newspaper, Milenio, dubbed the demonstration "the great yellow beast," referring to the swarms of yellow-clad López Obrador supporters — many of them elderly and poor — who believe the election was stolen.

John Ackerman, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the outpouring of support for López Obrador raises the stakes for the election judges, who have the power to annul the election or order a recount.

"It's a clear demonstration that it's not going to be easy to sweep the apparent irregularities under the rug," Ackerman said. "They're going to have to take this seriously. They can't be a rubber stamp."

Many legal observers say there is nothing in Mexican law to prevent a total recount in the election, which Calderón won by a margin of less than 1 percent out of 41 million ballots. But Pamela Starr, a Latin America analyst for the Eurasia Group in Washington, D.C., said the court is unlikely to go that far, noting that in the past, "it has expressly limited itself to reviewing only those ballot packets that have been specifically challenged."
(snip/...)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003133835_mexvote18.html

[gorbal]

19. It sounds like something is going to happen...whatever it is.

I hope they at the very least investigate all of the accounts of fraud and thrown away ballots. I wish they did a better job here, but Mexico could be proud to ba able to show us how a true democracy really works.

[BrotherBuzz]

23. Good balanced article - the last four paragraphs says it all

<snip>

The central argument of López Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, is that a recount would best serve the interests of political stability.

His opponents argue that democracy depends on adhering strictly to the rule of law, whether or not that leads to a reopening of the ballot boxes.

"There's no need to improvise or invent new ways to do things," former treasury secretary José Ángel García told Reforma. "The law is what it is, and it's our main guarantee that things will move ahead with total transparency."

"The beauty of López Obrador's position is that he offers an opportunity for closure," said Robert Pastor, director of the Center for North American Studies at American University. "The worst outcome is one in which a third of the voters are left thinking the election was fraudulent or stolen."

<end>

[knight_of_the_star]

21. This could get ugly

Depending on how intent Calderon and his backers are in holding power. Mexico has a long and sad history of the right-wing parties being completely willing to use blood and iron to nullify the democratic process.

[coalition_unwilling]

29. But if it does get "ugly," then it's a question of how the

Mexican army and security services break, isn't it? Is it a sure-fire bet that those forces would back Calderon? (I don't follow Mexican politics or society very closely, despite living in Los Angeles and have only recently started paying closer attention.)

[coalition_unwilling]

28. As usual, when the demo is left-wing, ABC undercounts.

Most independent observers pegged the Sunday demo at "1.1 million" (official Mexican police estimate) to "1.5 million" (Obrador campaign estimate), not the "hundreds of thousands of supporters" that ABC reports.

Fuck 'em, I don't watch them any more and I certainly don't buy their advertisers' products any more either when I can possibly avoid it.