Vote shows Mexicans have little faith in any party

AP on Yahoo ^ | 7/5/10 | Olga R. Rodriguez and Alexandra Oloson - ap

[NormsRevenge]

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico – After a Super Sunday of elections across Mexico that was widely seen as a test for the 2012 presidential race and the nation's future, the winner turns out to be — well, not really anyone.

President Felipe Calderon's party is weak, the left is in collapse and the Institutional Revolutionary Party that is on a tentative path to recapture the presidency it held for 71 years was shown to be vulnerable. Drug cartel intimidation dissuaded many from voting at all.

The mixed outcome in elections across 15 states showed no party has won the faith of Mexicans desperate to bring their country out of a quagmire of economic stagnation and relentless gang wars that have killed more than 23,000 people since Calderon took office three years ago.

[NormsRevenge]

Looks like the lowly voters South of the Border that dare risk the bullets and blackshirts have the same choices on the ballot that we do here.

Moderately Corrupt and Totally Corrupt.

[NormsRevenge]

The killing of a man pegged to win a governorship in Mexico's election on Sunday has heightened tensions across the country. The shooting of Rodolfo Torre Cantu is being seen by politicians and voters alike as yet another sign of the drug cartel-fuelled violence that has killed almost 23,000 people since the end of 2006. (AFPTV)

[NormsRevenge]

Map of Mexico showing states where elections have taken place. Voting in nearly half the 31 states plus the capital's district was seen as an unofficial referendum on President Felipe Calderon's tough crackdown on drug-related violence. (AFP/Graphic)

[NormsRevenge]

A Mexican federal police officer stands guard at the Jose Vasconselos school in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico. In addition to violence, the electoral campaign has been punctuated by allegations of espionage, illegal use of public funds and the arrest of leftist gubernatorial candidate Gregorio Sanchez, a former Cancun mayor, on racketeering and drug smuggling charges. (AFP/Luis Acosta)

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Federal policemen stand next to the body of a woman, who was killed along with her boyfriend, in Ciudad Juarez, July 4, 2010. The couple were on their way home when gunmen shot at them, police are investigating the killings. REUTERS/Alejandro Bringas

[livius]

Also, Calderon’s party (the PAN, basically, the conservative party) has been able to accomplish very few reforms because the Congress has been controlled by the PRI (think Dems).

[NormsRevenge]

A sad state of affairs.. Calderon is the best of the lot ,, unfortunately, he faces an uphill battle against the Cartels and the entrenched rival opposition..

—

just saw this ..

3 headless bodies found in car in Mexico
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/05/international/i174354D04.DTL&tsp=1

[Seven plus One]

¿Plata O Plomo? That is the question today. What would you do when they make you an offer you can't refuse? It's gone way beyond mere politics.

[dufekin]

PRI used to be the hard-line communist party and ran Mexico as a one-party dictatorship for decades but ultimately devolved into the party of corruption. The Mexican people revolted against the worst excesses of communism and got a relatively weak, corrupt federal government.

PRD is the new, serious hard-line “Chavista”-style communist party, possibly partially aligned with the drug cartels, at least the Colombian narcoterrorist group FARC.

Elections in 2012 should prove interesting. Most worrisome, drug cartel violence suppressing turnout could lead to a surprise victory for some undesirable candidate. Meanwhile, Mexican federal treasury revenues likely will decline with declining oil production.

[Clintonfatigued]

They seem to have a lot of faith in the Democrat Party, which seems to value them more than they do American citizens.

[Nateman]

The Mexican Constitution is socialist and nearly impossible to change. They will stay poor and corrupt for a very long time.

[Rabin]

Is it out of the question that we simply invade the southern neighbor and strategically scrub the septic tank?

Help the goodly folks form a real gov. or...

Offer a path to statehood. Rather than perpetual servitude.

OK Mexico isn’t a exactly a plantation, it’s a more sorta a slave state farm club. Kinda sick how they squeeze their citizens. Kind sick how we help em do it. Kinda sick how the red hearings divide the sheeple, and the goes on, goes on.

Hell, no wonder the other crooks want a piece of the action.

Rab thinks it’s a poor plan.

[RitaOK]

You’re exactly right. This is the future for North America. Past our southern border states is chaos and ripe pickings, for either us or the communists of South America who may eventually be influenced by Al Quaida types rising.
To me the border issue is the primary issue, before all others. No borders, no democracy.