Posted on 08/24/2006 4:47:57 PM PDT by StJacques
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: "They are stealing the presidency from me" Which are the elements making it possible to establish that there was fraud at the time of the elections of July 2 in Mexico? For more than three years we were victims of a campaign of all the state apparatus with the active participation of the President of the Republic because we represent an alternative project. Our adversaries wanted to destroy us politically. They tried to discredit me with the help of videos, but it was demonstrated that it was the acting out of a plot of former President Carlos Salinas and the present government. What? In the first place, the candidate of the right did not win. They committed an electoral fraud. I am proud to have won in spite of the state apparatus, the dirty war, the participation of the employer directors and the regrouping of the right, and the understanding of the Governors of the Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI -- in power during the 71 years up to 2000]. We are witnessing a political recomposition in Mexico with the formation of two blocs, right and left. The PRI, or at least the direction of the PRI, is that it has allied itself with the Party of National Action [PAN -- Right Wing Party, in power], to form what we call the PRIAN, and with the director of the teacher's union, an old woman responsible to the PRI, Elba Esther Gordillo. In spite of all this, they could not win. The day of the elections, they had to stuff the ballot boxes, to remove our votes, to falsify the voting process. It is only in this manner that they could obtain a supposed advantage of 0.58%, a difference of 240,000 votes. This is why from the beginning we have demanded that they clean up the election, that there should be transparency and that we recount the ballots. The tribunal (electoral) accepted doing it in a partial manner, only in 9% of the precincts, and the result of this new partial counting is that they are missing ballots from certain precincts and that there are too many in others. On the whole this partial recount reveals 120,000 ballots either missing or in excess. Where does this figure come from? By word of mouth. Up to this moment, the tribunal still has not said anything. But the [political] parties and a judge participated in the recount within each district. Our adversaries maintain that some citizens kept their ballots in place of putting them in the ballot boxes. But these are thousands of ballots and, to my knowledge, there are not that many ballot collectors in all Mexico. And where there is no other explanation but the stuffing of ballot boxes it is because there are too many ballots. If we were to make a projection for all precincts taken together, it comes to nearly a million ballots either missing or in excess. How do you explain that the international observation missions have validated the elections? They undertook a formal observation. An example: some observers from the European Union passed within the third district of the State of Querétaro. Then in one ballot box they noted that the PAN candidate have 240 excess votes. I have a video which witnesses this. Beyond that the observers often were members of political parties. For example, I was told that the head of the European Union mission is a member of the Popular Party (Spanish), the fraternal party of the PAN. You criticize the Federal Electoral Insitute (IFE), which is internationally recognized for having aided the organization of elections in Iraq and Angola . . . All of that is a farce which shows that we are living in a simulated republic. We are no longer disposed to tolerate the eternal comedy of lies and hypocrisy. The reality is that there is no democracy. They want to impose a simulated democracy, under the control of the powers of Mexico, of a privileged elite who dominate the country. The candidate of the Right is the puppet of these groups who have kidnapped the institutions [of the country]. In Mexico, the institutions are decaying, they no longer fulfill their constitutional mandate and it is evident they do not respond to the public interest. Why have you not denounced abroad the fact that the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD, supporting Lopez Obrador) was not represented within the council of the IFE? That has now begun in earnest. The council of the IFE was put together by Elba Esther Gordillo and Felipe Calderon while he was a PAN Deputy. We did not think that they would go to these extremes. We thought that in spite of all that we were going to win and that the dirty war and the base maneuvers were going to come to an end July 2nd and that on the day of the elections they were going to respect the popular vote. You did not expect fraud the day of the elections? No, I did not imagine it. I knew that the dice were loaded. The day of the elections, they committed a series of evident irregularities. But even under these conditions we won. We are awaiting the decision of the tribunal, and if the tribunal validates electoral fraud, we will not recognize an illegitimate President. How do you explain that your coalition did not have delegates in nearly 30% of the precincts? Some of them could not make it, others missed their appointment or were intimidated. But in a democratic country, that should not be necessary. Moreover, neither the PAN nor the PRI covered all the precincts. Elba Esther Gordillo, yes, and she controlled a number of electoral officials. What role has Elba Esther Gordillo played? An important role. But there are a series of factors; the PRI Governors, the PAN, Elba Esther, the use of money and social programs of the federal government. But the true electoral misconduct, which we call mapaches in Mexico, was operated by the Governors and Elba Esther. Your adversaries say that you are most responsible for your defeat, in refusing, for example, to participate in the first debate and by showing a triumphant attitude . . . Some errors were committed, but this is not that which is fundamental. We won but it is difficult to overcome a mafia, a powerful group who acts without moral scruples. In politics one always makes mistakes. But here, they made the decision to prevent me from being elected by all means. Fox and the others condemned me because they did not want things to truly change in this country. What will happen if the electoral tribunal proclaims the victory of Felipe Calderon? We have already summoned a national democratic convention for the 16th of September. There is an article of the Constitution, which comes from French legislation, and which stipulates that power emanates from the people. This article 39 appends to the people, at all times, the inalienable right of changing the form of their government. It is by virtue of this article that we have summoned the national democratic convention which is going to make decisions which could go in different directions. But one thing is clear: we are not going to recognize the government. Will it act as a sort of constituent assembly? Yes. It will also be able to decide the naming of a legitimate president, a head of government or a coordination of civil resistance. That will depend on what the delegates will decide, they will be those who will decide the direction of the movement. It will act as a passage from the simulated republic to the restoration of the [true] republic. Will it be able to proclaim AMLO President? It is the delegates who will decide that. Will Mexico possibly have two Presidents the 17th of September? That is a possibility which depends on the vote of the convention. Who will participate in this convention? Delegates have come from all corners of Mexico. We are waiting for more than a million delegates, elected by assemblies throughout Mexico. Why are you only contesting the results of the presidential election and not those of the legislature? We did not buy the vote, we did not falsify the verbal process, we did not stuff the ballot boxes. Our Deputies and our Senators were elected in a legitimate manner. The fraud was concentrated in the presidential election. Are the elected officials of the PRD going to be in session? It is the Deputies and Senators who will decide that. How are you going to articulate the actions of elected officials and those which the convention may decide to take? They are two distinct things. The convention and what can emerge from it are independent of the parties of the [For the Good of All] coalition and the attitude of the Deputies, the Senators, and the local PRD governments. The government is different from the parties, the executive from the legislative and the local governments from the federal government. Have emissaries of Felipe Calderon endeavored to engage in negotiations with elected officials of the PRD? They are used to this kind of practice. Co-optation has always been practiced here. But the circumstances are different. We are not traditional politicians. We are not going to negotiate our principles for public sector jobs or for payoffs. There will not be an arrangement because negotiating an agreement with an illegitimate government would legalize the democratic simulation and this country would never change. Democracy is not only a system of government or a political system. In a country like ours with such economic and social inequality, democracy is a matter of survival, it is the only way for the poor to have a government which occupies itself with them. If one annuls the democratic vote and if we legalize simulated democracy, we will have annulled the future of millions of Mexicans. It's the acting out of a basic problem. The problem is not whether I arrive at the presidency or not. I am not a crude ambitious man, it's the acting out of a problem of principle, of ideals and conviction. The important thing for us is to save democracy. Why did the offer of mediation of Robert Pastor (of the Carter Center) fail? I did not speak with them. Someone told me that there would be an offer of mediation. I said that our principal demand would be that we count all the ballots. I said it in a letter which I sent to the PAN candidate. I said to him "accept the recount and we will commit to accept the result and to end the protest." But they did not accept and that is the clearest proof that they did not win, because those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. We accepted a new recount in the recent election in Chiapas. In Costa Rica, when they asked for a new recount from Arias, he accepted. The recount confirmed his victory and everyone rested peacefully. Do you fear the repression of the protest movement? We are a peaceful movement and we are going to continue being one but authoritarianism is present. We are not going to fall for some provocation and we are not going to give a pretext for provocation. We are facing a very reactionary right wing, and even if this seems hard to say, fascist if things are called by their name. But there are a series of factors in the country, a correlation of forces who do not permit the use of repression so easily. Would the army participate in the repression? I do not believe so. It is the directors of the right wing; Fox, Calderon, the leading employers who give proof of authoritarianism. The army has a distinct attitude because it is not disposed to assume this type of responsibility, especially after the consequences of its use against the student movement (in 1968). It is not disposed to be used for suppressing the people, to mitigate political incapacity or to hide the corruption of civil governments. The occupation of the Zocalo (principal plaza of the capital) and of Reforma Avenue by the protest encampments has a political cost. How long is it going to last? Yes, there is a cost. It is the price which we must pay. We cannot stop a brutal attack on rights, an authoritarian offensive without showing firmness. If we were not firm, they would have swept us. The people are going to continue to struggle for the transformation of the country. They are not going to return to their homes. They can become fatigued, the movement can know a stage a of wearing down, but there are millions of Mexicans disposed to seeing things really change. Politics is not an exact science. It is made of approximations. We do not know what is going to happen. the important thing is to maintain clear principles. Before the elections, some compared you to Lula or Kirchner, others to Chavez. As a result of the postelectoral crisis, your image has been radicalized and your adversaries present you as a Caudillo thirsting for power and putting democratic institutions at risk . . . It is the vision of our adversaries and of the media which act as intermediaries of this anti-democratic regime. Of the national and foreign media. For example the Washington Post wrote an editorial saying that there was no fraud. I responded to them that the Watergate scandal was a child's game compared to the conspiracy and the fraud of which we are victims in Mexico. I explained the attitude of the Spanish press by the very strong presence in Mexico of Spanish economic groups. They possess banks, printing houses, they have interests in oil. I do not reproach them for anything, everyone defends their interests. They sold the idea that Mexico would become a democratic country after the election of Fox in 2000. This is why they are now selling the idea that I am an ambitious man, a capricious man ready to put democracy in peril to satisfy his ambition. Does the fatigue of the movement and the eventual negotiations imply that the elected officials of the PRD could tame your leadership? All of that could come. But I believe that it is fundamental to [bringing] an end to the simulation and to fight for the basic transformation of this country. It is necessary to save democracy, to combat poverty, to no longer permit the selling of national riches and to guarantee the right to information. The big media are themselves completely closed after the election and they are participating in a campaign against us to validate fraud. They do not understand the word fraud within the media of this country, with only some rare exceptions.
Or to offer him Howard Dean's job...
This guy makes Gore look stable. Scary.
It might be An Inconvenient Truth--Algore probably knows some spanish too.
The man has lost any connection to reality. He is off his meds and has become the first Mexican astronaut.
I can't believe it but this is what leftists all over the world end up with as heroes.
If his "convention" can prevent the value of the Peso from dropping like a stone after it "legally names him President-Elect of Mexico" he might really be on to something.
More like Al Gore on drugs.
I am not a crude ambitious man, it's the acting out of a problem of principle, of ideals and conviction. The important thing for us is to save democracy.
The man has lost his sense of the ironic.
Nutty in a Cynthia McKinney sort of way..
And here I thought Peewee Herman was the only one who could name him Prez.
The tone of the editorial was rather pessimistic, and the writer addded that AMLO's goon tactics may have already been validated to some extent by what has happened down there since the election. The prospect of a year of a headless Mexico is frightening - it would give AMLO's string pullers (think Hugo Chavez) lots of time to consolidate their power and move more pieces into place to bring about a real revolution.
I really would hope that many of those in Mexico who voted for him are feeling now that they have dodged a bullet and are secretly or even openly glad that he was not elected.
As far as his call for a constituent assembly to establish a new government, how would that be possible and what are the chances it will do anything but continue the turmoil?
I have to wonder how many of those "delegates" aren't even Mexican citizens, but are agents of Chavez and Castro, as well as ANSWER-type riff-raff and other assorted useful idiots of the communists.
Let alone ramp up the number of Mexican's trying to cross the border before a possible Cuban or Chavezstyle "revolution" takes place.
AMLO was giving away coupons all expense travel to Cuba to his friends, I heard at my breakfast table first hand account of someone who not only got a trip to Cuba, but got a pad in downtown Mexico City, one of the URBAN complexes for people who work for the gov't.
It would be an avalanche, and it wouldn't be just lettuce pickers and others coming over to "do the jobs Americans won't do." It would be a flood of upper and middle class people; business owners and managers, doctors, professionals and technical people like engineers and scientists. Production of Venezuela's oil industry is down something like 40 percent from its pre-Chavez levels, mainly because the managers, the engineers and geologists, and the highly-skilled field technicians have fled. Chavez has packed PDVSA with cronies and toadies who are great at mouthing "Viva la revolucion!", but don't know doodly-squat about pumping oil out of the ground and shipping it to customers around the world.
This happens every time a communist regime seizes power in any country. No reason to expect anything different if AMLO somehow gets himslef "elected."
Agreed that it's not legally possible - AMLO's "convention" would have about as much meaning as John Conyers' phony "committee hearings" with Cindy Sheehan and Joe Wilson in the Capitol basement. But adding to the turmoil, as CedarDave pointed out, serves his purposes, too.
The best hope for this mess, and your post gives me a lot of reason to think that this may well happen, is that the Mexican people will realize that AMLO has sailed so far around the bend that he can't even see it from where he's at, and will basically tell him to just shut up and go away.
Real democratic institutions in Latin America are still fragile things, especially when compared to those we have here in America. That's the main reason we don't see AMLO's antics here, even though the Left has been trying with all it's might to tear our democratic institutions down for as long as I can remember. If Gore or Kerry had thought for even a second that they could get away with the insanity that the Latin Left has brought to Mexico, is there any doubt that they would have brought it here without a second thought?
If Mexico's democracy can survive the Left's onslaught and leave Calderon with a nation that he can govern, it will go a very long way toward the maturation you describe, and AMLO and the Left will become more like the American Left - a motley crew of fringers and crazies that make a lot of noise but little else, unless carefully watched.
That's the thing though - they have to be carefully watched and dealt with when they start to get out of hand. Kind of like kudzu - you can't ever get rid of it completely; all you can do is keep it cut back so it's not too much of an annoyance. But if take your eye off of it and stop keeping it under control, it'll swarm all over everything in sight. That's a lesson that even we had started to forget. We're starting to remember it now, but there sure is a lot of vine we have to clear.
We have to remember that "our" left is only a step away
from what we are seeing in Mexico. They have seen the power
street protests and media attention can bring, they will
contest a national election again SOON.
While Obradore may sound loony as a fruit cake, his attempt
to create a shadow government is very dangerous.
Our nation has never had to share a border with a communist
state, it will make the border of today look positively appealing.
"Some errors were committed.." - the usual totalitarian response.
Yes, Utopia is just around the corner, Jefe Supremo...and of course a few eggs may have to be broken getting there -
"Some errors were committed.." - the usual totalitarian response.
Yes, Utopia is just around the corner, Jefe Supremo...and of course a few eggs may have to be broken getting there -
Lopez Obrador claims his "convention" can legally name him President-Elect of Mexico (Translation)
"Now why didn't I think of that!"
John Kerry
GREAT reporting, as usual. I'm surprised Bush wasn't named on the list of those conspiring to defeat him. We all know it's always W's fault. sarc/
>> The conspiracy includes: former President Carlos Salinas; the PAN Party; the PRI Party (now combined with the PAN Party as the "PRIAN" in AMLO's view); the Mexican teacher's union; its leader and former PRI Party member Elba Esther Gordillo; international election observers from the European Union, especially its Spanish head; the Spanish Popular Party; the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute (IFE); the PRI Governors of Mexican states; President Vicente Fox; right-wingers (who he says are "fascists" if things are called by name); the leading employers of the country; the national media in Mexico; the foreign news media; the Washington Post; the Spanish press; and Spanish economic groups. <<
I think that's an electoral majority there, no?
87% of the country is in a conspiracy to thwart the will of the majority!
Meanwhile his party, in the minority, is about to propose a (vote buying) Constitutional amendment to guarantee a "right" to food for the [nuthin' better to do than vote and tattle tail on non PRDsters] elderly:
http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/5.html
Thanks very much for the links and info - they pretty much confirm what I have suspected about AMLO and his ties to Chavez.
I have to grudgingly give Hugo some credit here. He seems to have learned from his recent attempts to make Colombia and Peru additional client states of his. In those countries, he was blatantly in-your-face with his attempts to meddle with their electoral processes, and this created big backlashes resulting in his stooges getting their clocks cleaned when the people showed up to cast their ballots. In Mexico, he's managed to keep a much lower profile. He's learning the art of subtlety, it seems.
If Hugo's trying to stay out of sight, pulling the strings from the shadows, that would go a long way toward explaining the virtual news embargo the American drive-by media has going over the Mexican election, as well as the absence of Hugo's high profile useful idiots (Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, the Susan Sarandon/Tim Robbins/Danny Glover Hollywood set) standing arm in arm with AMLO. It would mean that Chavez doesn't want the media or his celebrity friends there right now, and that they are all in the tank for him, purposefully carrying out his wishes. Big surprise there, huh?
There's no questioning that Hugo Chavez wants Mexico under his thumb so badly that he can taste it. I'll even go so far as to speculate that his tinkering with the elections in Colombia and Peru may have been mere dress rehearsals for the main event going on right now. Besides giving him control of virtually all of the oil in the Western Hemisphere outside of Canada and the US, taking Mexico would give him unlimited access to our wide open southern border, allowing him to smuggle in drugs, agents and saboteurs, maybe even nuclear weapons purchased from his allies, the mullahs in Iran.
However, it sounds like AMLO's increasingly nutty tirades and ideas about a shadow government may end up forcing Chavez's hand, making him come out into the open if he wants Mexico badly enough. Even he may have given up on AMLO becoming president by now, and is merely using him to sow the seeds of anarchy and malcontent, to lie in wait until he gets the chance to make his next move.
Ha ha! :-)
It's fun to see periodically how ObraGore's doing among those who bet on whom the next president of Mexico will be: 
Looks like ObraGore's a flat-liner, doesn't it? :-)
Some well place bullets can fix all this IMO.
Thanks for posting this. I think he's delusional. It sounds to me as if most Mexicans agree.
...er, that is, agree that he's delusional.
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