Free Televisions in Mexico Are Seen as Having Political Strings Attached Elisabeth Malkin - The New York Times
go to original June 4, 2015

Isabel Valdez Rodríguez is expecting to pick up two free 24-inch digital televisions — one for herself; the other for her mother — courtesy of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government.

Her windfall, just two coupons printed with a promise at this point, is part of the government’s effort to switch the country to digital television. To help Mexico’s poorest citizens keep pace with technology, officials are vowing to give away 10 million free televisions.

But here in Mexico’s most populous state, the handout has merged with something else: an election campaign.

While the government describes the television plan as the way to bring all Mexicans into the digital age, opposition parties on the left and the right call it old-fashioned vote buying.

On Sunday, Mexicans will vote in midterm elections that are widely seen as a referendum on Mr. Peña Nieto’s performance.

Over the past couple of months, voters have been assaulted by millions of radio and television spots. They have been bused in for rallies. And they have been offered gifts by candidates from every party and every political stripe: baseball caps, food packages, school supplies and even rooftop water tanks.

Now voters are queuing for televisions.

At least some of the residents here in the State of Mexico, home to the densely populated working-class municipalities that wrap around Mexico City, agree with the opposition.

Read the rest at The New York Times

Photo: John Holman

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