Mexican Left seeks annulment of over 3 million votes in presidential election recount (Translation)

La Crónica de Hoy ^ | August 12, 2006 | Daniel Blancas Madrigal ( translated by self )

[rpgdfmx]

Florida in 2000, they want to change the rules in mid-recount, when the recount is not going their way.

Nope... these are the rules, as laid down by some pretty tough jurists. You're not going to hear anything about how the count is going because it is an evidentiary procedure (every ballot is being seen by federal judges, working in shifts 24/7) and the justices are sticking to very strict rules, overseen by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Mariano Azuela.

[Shuttle Shucker]

I haven't been able to find (at http://images.google.com.mx) a cartoon of Lopez Obrador wearing a straight jacket, but I don't doubt that they abound.

[shield]

Thanks for the update...nothin' new...the commie's are a bunch of sore losers...and taken from the Communist Manifesto...scream fraud when you've lost a legal election...didn't work for goon gore, skerry and will not work for yellow tennies mckinney...and will NOT work for this commie mexican....LOL

[Texan5]

Oh, good grief-I'm having Florida flashbacks-and has Obragore run mad? It sounds like he is threatening to foment a riot, at the very least with his temper tantrums.

[StJacques]

AMLO is getting very close to an attempted coup d'état here Shuttle Shucker. He has practically announced it.

The portents are dark in my opinion. I do not think even the majority of AMLO's supporters will back him in this, and we are already seeing some rather prominent supporters break ranks publicly. At http://www.mexicoenpeligro.blogspot.com/ there are two very important articles in Spanish up which show some of this, though you have to scroll down to find them. One is entitled AMLO el intolerante (AMLO, the intolerant) and is written by Jose Luis Cuevas, an artist who had produced numerous works of art in support of AMLO's candidacy and was among those whose works were vandalized a couple of weeks ago in Mexico City, evidently by pro-Calderon sympathizers. He describes his history with AMLO, how he met AMLO when he was the DF Head of Government, and how he worked for his campaign. He also tells how he met Calderon after the vandalization of his artwork a couple of weeks ago and describes how Calderon apologized to him meaningfully and, to his surprise, he discovered that Calderon knew his work very well and even brought a lithograph of one of his pieces along and asked him if he would personally autograph it, which Cuevas did. He pointed out that AMLO never showed any interest in his work or an understanding of it either. And he states quite directly that he has abandoned AMLO's cause because AMLO has abandoned the people who supported him.

Perhaps even more interesting is the interview with one of the founders of the PRD, Marco Rascon, that is located right below the above article. Rascon accuses AMLO of only being a "caricature" of a leftist, whose ambitions are entirely personal. Look at this quote from Rascon:

. . . He [AMLO] is a politician who uses people, parties, the masses, and institutions when it is convenient, when he is in difficulty. In other cases, he throws them all into the trash, because he likes to be a solitary leader, who takes control of the bandstands, who enters by way of a fence of cheering people, in which no one touches him . . . for the idea of conviction he substituted acts of faith, it was necessary to believe in him and to compel the vote by fear. He was the first to stimulate a campaign of fear: either one voted for him or Felipe Calderon would come with his crematory oven to incinerate everyone. . . ."

Some of his own people are now starting to tell us how shallow and dangerous he is as this post-electoral controversy unfolds. And the desertions from his cause are important at this moment for a very prominent reason, AMLO knows that if the entire election is annulled, he will have no chance in a second round with Calderon, because of the disenchantment of many of his own followers, and even more so perhaps because of the "making of the peace" between the PRI and PAN, which AMLO himself has brought about. Either AMLO becomes president by the results of this election or not at all. And since he has clearly lost this one, his only recourse is a coup. I am very worried that he is going to try to do exactly that.

[StJacques]

"I haven't been able to find . . . a cartoon of Lopez Obrador wearing a straight jacket . . ."

Here you go, he is falling from a plane and shouting I am the President of Mexicoooooooooo . . . ."

[StJacques]

"I find it suspicious that he choses Chiapas right NOW to make this statement. Chiapas being the most socially and politically unstable part of Mexico. Sounds like he's itching for revolution."

The only place he might have been right now where he could have made his statement in a more incendiary setting would be Oaxaca, and I'm just waiting for him to go there.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

These lefties are all alike. If they can't get enough people to vote for them, they try to disenfranchise voters.

[StJacques]

". . . Whew - is it me or is it HOT right now?"

I'd say it's getting very hot indeed. This is one of those controversies that just keeps me in front of my PC. I can't get away from it. And it's not as though I'm not following what's going down in the Middle East, no I'm genuinely paying very close attention to that mess also, but Mexico is just right across our border. I could get in my van right now and be there in about 14 hours (from Lafayette, Louisiana where I live). And I have been there which makes it even more prescient in my mind.

I have to fight the tendency to drown others in my anxiety about all of this, but I really am concerned. I know the Latin American Left -- with which AMLO is very well connected -- only too well from the time I have lived there and I do not expect them to let this opportunity slip away. The Latin American Left will punish the Mexican people if they do not give them what they want.

[Enterprise]

I agree. The Middle East is hot, but we still need to pay close attention to Mexico. As for me, it would take me 6 hours to get to Tijuana. (Been there, and don't really want to go back, it's too scary now.)

[StJacques]

"These lefties are all alike. If they can't get enough people to vote for them, they try to disenfranchise voters."

Yes; and I find it difficult to even imagine that anyone would step up and say that they want to throw out 3 or 4 million votes. Jeez!

And if I may, I would like to add to your statement that when things don't go their way in a recount, the Left then proceeds to try to tear everything down. In the case of Mexico that has far more frightening possibilities than anything we can envision happening here.

[StJacques]

". . . has Obragore run mad? It sounds like he is threatening to foment a riot, at the very least with his temper tantrums."

If you'll take a look at the "straight jacket" cartoon above Texan5, you'll see that there are more than a few Mexicans who are telling us that he's always been mad, we're all just getting to see it clearly now.

[StJacques]

"Nope... these are the rules, as laid down by some pretty tough jurists. You're not going to hear anything about how the count is going because it is an evidentiary procedure (every ballot is being seen by federal judges, working in shifts 24/7) and the justices are sticking to very strict rules, overseen by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Mariano Azuela."

jimtorr, I want to back up rpgdfmx's comment here. That is exactly right and the certainty with which rpgdfmx expressed that is something else I agree with.

[Doohickey]

The jokes on this thread are going to be funny, but the fact that the socialists have been since 2000 attacking the very foundation of the Republican form of government - the election - isn't.

Leftists aren't worth an iota of kindness or compassion. They want to destroy freedom and all those who value it.

[StJacques]

". . . Leftists aren't worth an iota of kindness or compassion. . . ."

Doohickey, I want to repeat something I have said repeatedly. I know the Latin American Left only too well from the time I lived in both Colombia and Mexico. I have seen first-hand how they think nothing of promoting misery among the poor and downtrodden to isolate them from the support of anyone but the Left. I have spoken with them personally and listened to their indignant claims of intellectual superiority, their immoral willingness to choose violence as a means to political ends, their uncaring lack of sensitivity to true human equality, and, well . . . I could go on but I think you get the picture.

I hate all Leftists, but I have a very special hatred in my heart for the Latin American Left. I know them!

I'll stop now, forgive my rant.

[livius]

. He [AMLO] is a politician who uses people, parties, the masses, and institutions when it is convenient, when he is in difficulty. In other cases, he throws them all into the trash, because he likes to be a solitary leader, who takes control of the bandstands, who enters by way of a fence of cheering people, in which no one touches him .

Sounds like the perfect leftist leader! Think Stalin...

Do you think that if AMLO tried a coup, he'd get enough support from anybody who mattered (i.e., military or police)? It doesn't sound as if he has a lot of support, at the moment, at least.

Of course, when I think back on it, the way Morales did it in Bolivia (even though he was actually just the front man for other more intelligent leftists) was incrementally. That is, a few rounds of strikes, union-inspired battles between the different police and security forces, and increasing instability all around with kidnappings, blockades of roads, etc. And of course he had the support of the indigenas, even though he did have to kill a few of their legitimate leaders to get it...

Granted, Mexico has nothing like the coca growers as a sort of wedge force, but I wonder if AMLO is likely to begin a campaign of destabilization, if he can't pull off a true coup.

[SAJ]

Saint--

The analysis in your last pgh is spot on. Nothing to do know, really, except hope that Obragore can't muster enough support for a violent coup. A non-violent coup doesn't seem to me to be on the cards.

Key question here would seem to be: would any significant portion of the army support a violent coup? If not, Obragore hasn't a chance...although clearly he could and would get X number of citizens killed in the attempt.

Yr hmbl srvnt was warning about this bozo back as far as a year ago March. Frankly, I'm damned sorry I was right.

[SAJ]

Er, that should be ''nothing to do now'', sorry.

Sheesh.

[A CA Guy]

Obrador needs to be snatched up and placed in a humidor.

[StJacques]

No need to worry about the Mexican Army SAJ, they will not back a coup, and especially for a man who has the support of the Zapatistas in Chiapas who embarrassed the army a few years back.

I'm seeing some more reports come in on the counting, I'll be putting up a summarizing post in an hour or so after I eat.