Dirty Politics 'Ingrained' in Mexico

[cal04]

As Presidential Vote Nears, Studies Suggest Coercive Tactics Are Still Pervasive
The death of one-party rule in Mexico promised a new era of cleaner elections.

But two studies suggest that the first presidential contest since Vicente Fox ended the Institutional Revolutionary Party's seven-decade hold on power in 2000 may be tainted by many of the same coercive tactics that marred previous balloting.

(snip)
The authors of the studies said the coercion is so pervasive that it could swing the outcome of the July 2 election, particularly if the front-runners, Felipe Calderon of Fox's National Action Party and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, finish within two percentage points of each other.

(snip)
The studies said that all three major parties pressure and pay off voters. Each of the studies found that the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is the most coercive, followed by the National Action Party, whose standard-bearers are Fox and Calderon. Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolutionary Party, which is the smallest and youngest of the three major parties, is the least coercive, the studies showed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062500790.html

[sam sarrha]

1. the UN declared Mexico "Morally bankrupt and democratically irretrievable"

it is also said that if everything changed today it would be at least 3 generations before the corruption could be ferreted out

[hunter]

2. I'm so glad politics is clean in the United States.

:sarcasm:

My grandma, who was a chain smoking drunk, always insisted she was so much better than her crack smoking neighbors.

Funny thing was she never left the house. She paid the crack smoking neighbors to bring her cigarettes, booze, and groceries.

[MrTriumph]

3. My daughter is in Mexico this summer

And reports an strongly felt attitude she did not expect among the population: Disgust at young men who stay in Mexico; they should be working in the US and sending dollars home.

[Bridget Burke]

5. Let's hear more information from your daughter.

Where in Mexico is she staying?

Is she working among the people who see their relatives heading North?

[MrTriumph]

7. Thankfully, she is not in Mexico City

Although she did travel there about a month ago. Mexico City has a terrible problem with kidnappings.

[DistressedAmerican]

4. I work for months out of just about every year in Mexico.

While as with all politcal systems, powere abuses still occure in some parts, however, Fox has done a great deal to cut corruption. Especially among the police forces. The days of the cop bribe are basically dead and that was a well established form of corruption for decades.

This article is bogus. It should acknowledge the massive progress that has been made. Instead it just paints Mexico as a big fat (and wildly out of date) stereotype.

I would take Mexican Politics over American politics anyday!

What a pot calling the kettle back piece of writing.

I suggest the author spend some time looking at how Dirty Politics is "ingrained in America.

[Bridget Burke]

6. This is news?

Fox's election was a step in the right direction. He's no "liberal"--although party alignment in Mexico is not identical to ours. But Fox did not represent the old, corrupt PRI. The article showed that progress has taken place, although there's quite a way to go. And this study shows the problem is being analyzed.

I know quite a few people from other countries. They had not been fed the lie that their country, alone, was the Shining Light of Pure Politics. They recognized that the presidency was stolen in 2000 & wondered why more Americans were not incensed.

"In a democracy," Aguayo said, "you have to fight for democracy every day." Let's fix OUR Democracy first.