Will revolt in Mexico spread to US?

B

badbob

Moderator
The Mexican people seem to want free elections. Will US news dare to report it?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003452579_mexico29.html


Fistfights break out in Mexican Congress over inauguration of president
By Jay Root
McClatchy Newspapers


AP
Mexican legislators fight near the podium of Congress on Tuesday in Mexico City. Leftist lawmakers stormed the podium in an effort to block President-elect Felipe Calderón's inauguration.
MEXICO CITY — Fistfights and shoving matches broke out in the Mexican Congress on Tuesday after leftist lawmakers, hoping to block the inauguration of conservative President-elect Felipe Calderón, stormed the podium and tried to seize control of the chamber.

Conservatives, surrounded by security guards, pushed back the protesting lawmakers and vowed to keep order until they formally bestow the presidential sash on Calderón in a ceremony in the Chamber of Deputies on Friday.

The fisticuffs underscore the deep well of bitterness that remains after the closest and most hotly contested presidential race in modern Mexican history and highlight the possibility that Friday's ceremony will be marred by violence.

Members of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, claim Calderón, a member of the National Action Party, or PAN, stole the July election.

"We're not going to allow this inauguration to happen," said Roberto Lopez, a PRD spokesman. "Felipe Calderón will not govern a single day in this country."

Calderón's transition office declined comment. Calls placed to the PAN headquarters weren't returned.

But Ruben Aguilar, a spokesman for outgoing President Vicente Fox, said Calderón will take over Friday no matter what happens in Congress.

Calderón won the July elections by less than 1 percentage point over populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But the charismatic leftist claimed widespread fraud and never conceded, even after the nation's highest electoral court pronounced Calderón the victor in September. For weeks his followers camped out in downtown Mexico City, snarling traffic and shuttering shops.

Last week, López Obrador declared himself the "legitimate president" of Mexico, strapped on his own presidential sash and began making plans for a "parallel" government. His supporters are planning a massive protest in Mexico City's central square, or Zocalo, to coincide with the inauguration Friday.

Though Tuesday's clashes signal volatile times ahead, the increasingly bizarre protests have taken their toll on López Obrador and his party. Polls taken weeks after the election show Calderón would now trounce López Obrador. Likewise, a poll in El Universal newspaper this week showed 64 percent of those surveyed opposed PRD moves to seize the chamber.



Calderón has promised to reach out to those who didn't support him. But his critics on the left say his Cabinet picks suggest otherwise.

So far, he has stacked his Cabinet with militants from his National Action Party.

Francisco Ramirez Acuña will be the new interior secretary, the government's No. 2 post in charge of domestic security and political affairs. The former Jalisco governor has been criticized for turning a blind eye as police detained dozens of protesters during an international summit in 2004.

Critics said his appointment could signal a departure from Fox's hands-off approach to demonstrations.

Ramirez Acuña pledged to respect human rights and work with unions, rural organizations, university students and opposition parties.

The U.S. Embassy announced Tuesday that former President George H.W. Bush will attend the inauguration, welcoming the Harvard-educated Calderón, who has promised to be tough on drug trafficking while maintaining close U.S. ties.

Drug violence and political violence have rocked Mexico in recent years as Fox, the first opposition president in 71 years, generated widespread frustration with his inability to usher in reforms, alleviate poverty or secure a U.S. migration accord.

Additional information from The Associated Press
badbob
 
Bush's immigration "policy" serves as a pressure relief valve on Mexico's society. The malcontents who are likely to make their situation better in Mexico are in the US.
 
Calderón has promised to reach out to those who didn't support him. But his critics on the left say his Cabinet picks suggest otherwise.
Click to expand...
Calderón won the July elections by less than 1 percentage point over populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But the charismatic leftist claimed widespread fraud and never conceded, even after the nation's highest electoral court pronounced Calderón the victor in September.
Click to expand...
Last week, López Obrador declared himself the "legitimate president" of Mexico,
Click to expand...
Polls taken weeks after the election show Calderón would now trounce López Obrador. Likewise, a poll in El Universal newspaper this week showed 64 percent of those surveyed opposed PRD moves to seize the chamber.
Click to expand...

Change a few names and it's almost like Deja Vu.
 
First taste

Of Electronic machines and vote fraud. We should of be doing the same here,in 2000, sad to say. If they clean up that country, it will be better for us. If Bush attends, you know it's wrong.
 
Bush's immigration "policy" serves as a pressure relief valve on Mexico's society. The malcontents who are likely to make their situation better in Mexico are in the US.
Click to expand...

Ding, ding, we have a winner! And as a result of those with a will to do something getting out, it makes conditions right for continued oppression and corruption indefinitely. The USA's immigration policy (virtually no controls on illegals) results in keeping people in an oppressive craphole down there. If we tightened things up, revolt and/or reform would happen, less people would want to come here, those that do will do so legally, we'll be glad to have them, and they won't send all their money back to Mexico once they're here and earn it - they'll spend it all here instead, helping our economy.
 
Will revolt in Mexico spread to US?
Click to expand...
This is just the mexican legislators behaving as children with a lunch pail full of sour grapes. It's not even CLOSE to being a "revolt." The widespread disobedience down there of prohibition part II (aka the war on citizens possessing CERTAIN drugs) is closer to a revolt than anything. Remember when Fox was going to sign the repeal of the idiotic drug laws then suddenly changed his mind? He all but had his pen out to sign it, then it appears that someone from the powers-that-be (he IS a globalist ex Coca Cola executive after all) GOT to him. The powers that be use the "drug" war to undermine liberty and expand government power around the world, not to mention protect their monopoly. South of the border, it's common knowledge that the police and the government all up the chain USE drug prohibition to protect THEIR secret and highly profitable drug running. Government in some areas makes more money from THAT than from taxes :eek: .
 
VC, I have to disagree on the revolt thing. I've been watching for a few months and things are getting heated.
http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...TRIDST_0_MEXICO-CALDERON-UPDATE-1-PICTURE.XML

By Alistair Bell

MEXICO CITY, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Mexican conservative Felipe Calderon takes the helm of an increasingly violent country on Friday, facing street protests over his razor-thin election victory, a southern state in chaos and a worsening drug war.

Leftists who accuse Calderon of stealing July's election plan protests in the streets and in Congress when he receives the presidential sash from ally President Vicente Fox.

In what might foreshadow things to come, lawmakers from the ruling National Action Party brawled on Tuesday with leftist deputies who dispute Calderon's victory

A 44-year-old lawyer from the provinces, Calderon inherited a separate political crisis in the southern state of Oaxaca and a war between drug cartels that torture and behead rivals.

More than 2,000 people, mostly drug traffickers and police, have died in two years in a feud that has spread south from the U.S. border area, including to Calderon's own Michoacan state.

"There are a lot of challenges to stability and they seem too much to handle," said Jorge Zepeda, a biographer of the main candidates in the July 2 election.

Although Mexico's top electoral court and foreign observers found no vote rigging, leftists claimed fraud in the election and they crippled central Mexico City for weeks with a mass sit-in. More protests are planned for the coming days.
[-] Text [+]

"The bad news is that the country is worse than we thought, The good news is that we've underestimated Felipe throughout the campaign. He has managed to overcome a lot of obstacles," said Zepeda.

The Harvard-educated Calderon showed mettle by unexpectedly winning his party's nomination and then coming from far behind to beat leftist presidential favorite Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador by less than a percentage point.

Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, has vowed to prevent Calderon from swearing in at a ceremony in Congress on Friday.

Rival lawmakers occupied the platform in Congress on Wednesday, preventing a congressional session from taking place, after PRD deputies and pro-Calderon lawmakers got into a shoving match there on Tuesday.

A huge security operation both on the streets and in the legislature is planned for the inauguration.

POVERTY FIGHT

Mexico only implemented full democracy when Fox ended seven decades of one-party rule in the 2000 election.

A partner of the United States and Canada in the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico has recently avoided the kind of financial upheaval that plagued it in the 1980s and 1990s but the gap between rich and poor is still gaping.

Calderon, a former energy minister under Fox, says fighting poverty and crime will be his main goals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top