Mexican Democracy: A Post Mortem Paul Imison - CounterPunch.org
go to original September 5, 2012

Anti-PRI protesters from opposition movement "I am 132" take part in mock funeral for democracy during march in Mexico City. (Reuters)

On Friday, thousands of people in Mexico City joined a mock funeral procession to mourn the “death” of Mexican democracy. They needn’t worry. The very resistance by citizens to the electoral fraud this summer – exemplified by the student-led #YoSoy132 movement – shows that its vital signs are still ticking.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)’s Enrique Peña Nieto is now officially Mexico’s president-elect and will be sworn in on December 1. We all knew this the night of July 1 when President Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) effectively anointed his successor dedazo-style (i.e. old-school) three days before the final count was in. We knew it for sure the next day when US President Barack Obama recognized the victory.

“The presidency can’t be bought!” screamed members of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) as the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) announced it would ratify the election on Thursday. The Progressive Movement coalition – made up of the PRD, the Workers’ Party and the Citizens’ Movement Party – had demanded a full investigation into the election after evidence emerged of illegal campaign spending, rampant vote-buying and an overwhelming bias by the right-wing media.

Unlike in the US, Mexican elections are tightly regulated to ensure maximum transparency and fair play. Candidates get roughly US$26 million each to play with; private funding and negative campaigning are banned; TV and media spots are allocated by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). That’s the theory, at least.

Even before Mexicans went to the polls, hundreds of thousands of people were marching in protest of the PRI’s attempts to buy the election as well as against a corporate media so biased it could teach Fox News a thing or two. As for the supposedly “autonomous” TEPJF and IFE – it’s hard not to believe that the jury’s rigged.

One wonders if Enrique Peña Nieto, like Calderon in 2006, will have to be sworn in at midnight behind closed doors to prevent the angry hordes from crashing the party. It’s fast becoming a tradition since Mexico “transitioned to democracy” in 2000.

Read more at counterpunch.org

Paul Imison is a writer living in Mexico City. He can be reached at: paulimison@hotmail.com

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