Mexico Goes to the Polls...

Mexico goes to the polls today. There are four candidates for election – the probable winner is the candidate for PRI, Henrique Peña Nieto. The PRI ruled Mexico for 71 years, by way of intimidation, vote buying, ballot stuffing, murder and general skulduggery. The acronmy stands for Partido Revolucionario Institucional or Institutional Revolutionary Party – which strikes me as somewhat an oxymoron. A revolutionary party that is institutional? Anyway the party seems to have reverted to type and most commentators think it will “win” the election. The party has thrown tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars at the election – shattering the election spending limits.

The PRI's stranglehold on power was broken in 2000 by Vicente Fox of the Partido de Acción Nacional. The PAN, led by Josefina Vasquez Mota, seems destined to run second. She is the most attractive of the candidates, but being a woman will count against her. Fox has endorsed her opponent, Peña Nieto, much to the annoyance of PAN! Fox probably did that because Josefina was trailing Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador.

AMLO, as he is known, is the candidate of the Partido de Revolución Democratica or the Democratic Revolutionary Party – which also seems to be a bit of an oxymoron! His motto is “AMLOve”, though a less loveable chap would be hard to find. Fox has described him as Mexico’s Chavez (for the Cuban sympathizing Venezuelan President). The fear is that he’ll take Mexico down the same Cuban road as Venezuela.

AMLO was narrowly beaten at the last presidential election. In a fit of pique he called his followers out onto the streets and paralyzed the country for ten days. He does seem to have mellowed however…

The last contender has no chance – it’s generally agreed that he’s the puppet of the all-powerful president-for-life of the teachers union, Ester Gordillo. She’s an ancient, ruthless face-lifted caricature of herself. She controls the teachers union – possibly the biggest union in the country. So she is universally feared by politicians. Latterly she was spotted and photographed buying a Gucci bag in Mexico City. She also has a house in the USA. Hard to understand how she maintains that lifestyle on her union salary…

The most interesting development in the campaign is the rise of the internet generation. A month or so ago, Peña Nieto visited a Jesuit run university in Mexico City. There he was booed and had to take shelter in a toilet until he could be smuggled out of the university. It was, of course, all filmed…

Later his team claimed the students weren’t students at all, but rent-a-protesters. The students made a video of 131 of them showing their student ID cards and posted it on YouTube. It was a hit in Mexico and spawned a new movement called #YoSoy132 or I am number 132. The movement has spread like wildfire in social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

#YoSoy132 have been holding rallies all around the country, describing it as the Mexican Spring in allusion to the Arab Spring. If they all vote it could throw a spanner in the plans of the PRI. We’ll know this evening. 

Whoever wins, I suspect the drama is not over. First of all the outcome has to be accepted by the country. There will be legal challenges – for example for overspending and vote buying. The University Parish was even given a couple of computers by the PRI run State government. We accepted the gift – I don’t vote and the secretary votes for PAN!

The Parish of San Bernardino was also given computers – and some debit cards with around $90.00 charged on them. I think all the parishes got them. I can’t see how it’ll influence the election, but they don’t give these things out between elections!

Tensions run deep and with the corruption and vote rigging that’s characterised the election it may take a while for the dust to settle. We could be in for some interesting days!