Evidence of the mammoth electoral fraud that
took place in Mexico on July 1 continues to accumulate. Every day, Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador (AMLO), the candidate who allegedly came in second, and the three
parties of his coalition are learning more about the massive fraud that took
place virtually everywhere in Mexico before and during that election. Thousands
of people are coming forward with testimonials of the pre-paid debit cards they were given, either by the
supermarket chain Soriana or the financial company Monex, in exchange for
voting for Enrique Pena Nieto, the candidate of the PRI (the Partido
Revolucionario Institucional: The
Institutional Revolution Party).
Lopez Obrador maintains that the PRI purchased a minimum of five million
votes not only via the widespread dissemination of those cards but also through
outright gift giving such as food, building supplies, campaign memorabilia,
money or a combination of all of the above. Preying upon the country's most
vulnerable population, the PRI's voting tallies were uniformly higher in the
Mexican countryside where the poorest Mexicans are most susceptible to vote
buying. In the impoverished State of Chiapas, for example, the rural vote for
the PRI increased 274% with respect to the previous election, with reported
turnout at certain precincts, incredibly, surpassing even the 100% mark.
As more information and testimonials pour in, the
magnitude of what actually transpired has become apparent. This realization has evolved gradually
like an unfolding puzzle. As
the pieces of that puzzle slowly fall into place, it becomes clear that the PRI
implemented "creative" outside-of-the-law financial schemes, i.e., money
laundering, so that it could fund its ambitious vote buying efforts. According
to AMLO, they did this with an expenditure of US$310 million over the campaign
maximum that by law Mexican candidates are authorized to spend. To keep the origin of these funds
secret, the money, pilfered from state budgets where the PRI governs as well as
a web of international connections and, it is alleged, drug sources, was triangulated
between six front businesses and a Monex employee.
Some of the critical information AMLO and his
supporters have used in making his case against Monex was provided by the
conservative ruling party, the PAN (Partido Accion Nacional: The National Action Party). The president of that party, Gustavo
Madero, appeared at a joint press conference with Jesus Zambrano, the head of
the PRD (Partido de Revolucion Nacional: the National Revolution Party), the
largest party in Lopez Obrador's coalition, to confirm the most unsavory
aspects of the debit card buying scheme, calculated to be at least $700 million
pesos ($60 million US) in Monex cards alone, not to mention the Soriana
supermarket cards and pre-paid telephone cards distributed across the country. Other
critical information about the triangulation of funds was provided by the
investigative journalist Carmen Arestegui
and her capable staff. Ms.
Arestegui, who has a daily national news program, is well known throughout
Mexico for her gutsy and hard hitting reporting. The PRI, meanwhile, is not
amused by the adverse coverage it is receiving and, in its traditional style,
is attempting to gag the press: on July 31, Dr. John Ackerman, the nation's
foremost expert on electoral law, resigned from his position as commentator for
MVS radio in protest against the station's refusal to air his pieces following
the election at what appears to be the behest of Pena Nieto operatives.
Ackerman is strongly in favor of the election being invalidated.
All of the aforementioned information, plus six
carloads of evidence, has been submitted to the Federal Electoral Tribunal (el Tribunal Electoral del Poder
Judicial de la Federacion: el
TEPJF) for its scrutiny. It is this institution which will make the final decision
regarding the viability of the election; i.e., either it will decree that the
election was valid and officially declare Pena Nieto as Mexico's
President-Elect or it will decree that it was invalid, in which case an interim
president will be selected by the congress and new elections called in 15-18
months. It is AMLO's contention that the presidential election results as they
now stand are spurious. Due to the
PRI's broad-based fraud plus its massive overspending (hundreds of times over
the legal limit), he and his supporters strongly believe that these results
should be overturned.
Unfortunately, however, the judges of the TEPJF are not known for their
objectivity. The president of the
tribunal, Alejandro Luna Ramos, a member of the PRI in his youth, has already
publicly stated that Lopez Obrador should not expect to win in court what he
was unable to win at the ballot box. Another tribunal member, Maria del Carmen
Alanis Figueroa, was caught attending a meeting with Pena Nieto operatives.
Because of their perceived bias, AMLO requested that they recuse themselves from
the deliberations but without success.
A third judge has taken it upon himself to inform Mexico's youth that
they need to realize that their many anti-Pena Nieto rallies and marches will
have no influence upon the court's final decision.
One of the more curious critics of the massive
vote buying that took place was President Felipe Calderon, who publicly
denounced the PRI's use of that tactic which he labeled as "unacceptable". These
remarks were particularly surprising since Calderon himself was the beneficiary
of fraud in 2006 used against the very same candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador. To make matters even more
confusing, several days later Enrique Pena Nieto visited Felipe Calderon at Los
Pinos (The Mexican White House) where the two of them were photographed
together while discussing the transition from a Calderon to a Pena Nieto
administration. Under normal
circumstances such a meeting would be inappropriate. But considering Calderon's earlier comments, the ongoing controversy
surrounding the July 1 election and that Pena Nieto has not officially been
declared President Elect, this meeting was even more so.
It is important for the readers of this article to be aware that Mexico's President Elect has yet to be named. It is a common misconception that Enrique Pena Nieto, because he has the highest number of votes, is already the holder of that title. According to Mexican electoral law, that vote tally does not automatically make him President Elect. The responsibility for assigning that title belongs to the TEPJF and the TEPJF alone and it has until September 6 to make its final determination. That will only take place after it has resolved all of the complaints of electoral maleficence that have been brought before it which of course, includes Lopez Obrador's demand for the invalidation of the presidencial election.
So what happens between now and September 6,
the deadline set for the Tribunal to validate or invalidate the election? Clearly, the massive marches and rallies
against the imposition of Pena Nieto will continue. Many of them will be organized by the rapidly expanding "Yo
Soy 132" (I Am #132, a reference to the initial anti-Pena Nieto protest by
students of the Universidad Iberoamericana, a private Jesuit university in
Mexico City) student movement. The broad based support of all age groups has
further strengthened the movement.
One example of a successful "Yo Soy 132" effort was its organization of
thousands of supporters on July 27 and 28 to form a symbolic blockade around
the headquarters of Televisa Chapultepec, Mexico's largest television
conglomerate, in protest for its one-sided support of Enrique Pena Nieto and
his "imposition" as Mexico's next president.
To make sure that AMLO's cause remains at the
forefront of Mexicans' hearts and minds, a National Plan for the Defense of
Democracy and the Dignity of Mexico is being implemented. The ambitious plan, announced by Lopez
Obrador himself, incorporates both information giving and gathering as well as creative
cultural events. On July 29,
information tables were installed in the principal Mexican plazas, 142 cities
in all, and the same will occur in Mexico's 32 state capitals on August 5. A
video of Lopez Obrador's July 12 presentation outlining the justification for
the invalidation of the election will be shown. Mexicans also will be
encouraged to come forward with any additional evidence, proof, documents,
photographs and/or videos which further substantiate the fraud. They will also
be given the opportunity to sign a petition requesting the invalidation of the
presidential election.
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