Mexico Mobilizes Army in Face of Election Protests

[bemildred]

The Mexican government deployed thousands of federal police officers Saturday across the country as teacher-organized protests continued ahead of Sunday's midterm elections.

The interior ministry did not specify the number of those deployed, but said that their mission was to enure that citizens would be able to cast votes on Sunday.

"The government has launched a nationwide operation in order to guarantee citizens the conditions that will let them exercise their vote," the ministry said in a statement.

The government would focus on the southern province of Oaxaca, where the protests have been the most intense.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mexico-Mobilizes-Army-in-Face-of-Election-Protests-20150606-0019.html

[bemildred]

1. Gunfight Among Mexican Paramilitaries Kills 13 Ahead of Midterm Elections

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) — A shootout among Mexican paramilitary troops in the southern state of Guerrero killed 13 people overnight as the country prepared to vote in midterm elections, local authorities said early Sunday.

Fierce fighting flared up between two paramilitary groups in the town of Xolapa on the outskirts of the resort city Acapulco, according to officials as cited by the Proceso news website.

Police were alerted to the shootout but they were hours late due to being currently understaffed. Many officers have been redeployed to ensure security elsewhere as the country has been rock

http://sputniknews.com/latam/20150607/1023041292.html

[bemildred]

2. Violent demonstrations and political killings threaten to disrupt mid-term elections in Mexico

A string of violent demonstrations and political killings threaten to disrupt today’s mid-term elections in Mexico, where a wave of disillusionment has left the ruling party at risk of losing several key seats.

The elections represent a referendum on the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who still has three years left in office. Mr Peña Nieto has been hampered in the past year by surging levels of drug-related violence. Most opinion polls suggest that his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its allies will retain their slim majority in Congress, but the party faces strong challenges across the country, where nine state governorships and hundreds of mayoral positions are at stake.

The elections come after one of the most violent campaign periods in recent Mexican history. At least eight candidates have been murdered since February. Much of the violence has been centred on the south-western states of Michoacan, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas. Parents and classmates of 43 trainee teachers who disappeared in Guerrero last September have led a campaign to boycott the elections. Members of a radical teachers’ union have also tried to block the vote and attacked the Chiapas offices of a number of political parties on 5 June.

Two central battles that the PRI risks losing are in Nuevo Leon, one of Mexico’s most economically important states, where independent candidate Jaime Rodriguez is neck-and-neck with the ruling party in the polls; and Guadalajara, the nation’s second city, where Enrique Alfaro of the liberal Citizen’s Movement has a narrow lead.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/violent-demonstrations-and-political-killings-threaten-to-disrupt-midterm-elections-in-mexico-10302644.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Really sad. Mexico needs help so badly, not more militarization,

and most clearly not more foreign owned slave labor factories.

Apparently as long as foreign powers can find Mexican politicians to buy, they can keep Mexican people in hell forever.

[bemildred]

4. Teachers can be very dangerous when they are enraged.

Such big men they are.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Known as all-out bullies! After school, they are always in the bars, hanging over bar stools,

plotting their next terrifying attacks.

[a la izquierda]

5. I'm in Guadalajara at the moment...

it's very quiet.
I was in Oaxaca a few weeks ago. Not so quiet there. The difference between the two parts of the country is...striking.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Thanks for the info. n/t