US Media’s Aggression towards López Obrador
Put forth on July 30, 2006 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Felipe Calderón, Mexican Election, Mexico, PAN, PRD
It is not a surprise that the Bush administration has been chagrining by the Latin American New Left. The electoral results throughout South America have not been going Dudya’s way, the countries being governed by new left-leaning presidents are: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Chile. And when it comes to attacking unbacked leaders, the US is famous for its propaganda style attacks, such as those used during the US “dirty wars” in the 1980s.
The White House maintained that the an official policy is not to intervening in other countries’ elections. However, this rule has always been violated when it concerns US interest and Mexico is no exception.
In February 2005, in congressional testimony, then-CIA director Porter Goss included Mexico in a review of “potential areas for instability,” placing the country in the company of Colombia, Venezuela, and Haiti as one of the “flashpoints” in the Western Hemisphere.
POTENTIAL AREAS FOR INSTABILITY
In LATIN AMERICA, the region is entering a major electoral cycle in 2006, when Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela hold presidential elections. Several key countries in the hemisphere are potential flashpoints in 2005.Campaigning for the 2006 presidential election in Mexico is likely to stall progress on fiscal, labor, and energy reforms.
Since the congressional testimony, Dudya was uncharacteristically been silent about Mexico’s political stirrings. It was not until a few days before the July 2 election, Dudya said that it is willing to “work with whoever is chosen by the Mexican people.”
Although Washington has been uncharacteristically silent, efforts to discredit Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) the pundits were tasked to do Dudya’s dirty work. This time around, the strategy is to turn AMLO into a future Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s lapdog. Attack ads had the Venezuelan president’s face next to AMLO’s during the presidential race until it was told to take it down.
Beginning in March 2006, the Wall Street Journal published an anti-AMLO column by Mary Anastasia O’Grady – who also vehemently attacked Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez – who argued that AMLO’s opposition to President Vicente Fox’s pro-corporate economic policy should signal “a worrying authoritarianism with moralistic overtones” and suggested that an alternative path for development would qualify as “wild populist experimentation.”
In April 2006, Conservative Felipe Calderón – although denied by the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) – informally hired two American consultants political advisor and Fox News commentator Dick Morris and Republican strategist Rob Allyn to help him in his failing campaign. In June, El Universal report how Juan Camilo Mourino, Calderón’s campaign manager, suddenly started running campaign ads that resembled those of the United States, electoral techniques evidently imported from the United States.
Importing electoral techniques from the United States …. the campaign ran a series of negative television and radio ads – the first significant use of such ads in a Mexican presidential race – portraying him as a threat to Mexico’s hard-won gains.
El Universal also reported that Camilo received his training in campaign dirty tricks in the US at “campaign seminars” and he also received “advice” from Dick Morris, who supposedly didn’t have “an official role in the campaign.”
In May, Proceso, “Mercenary Strategists Without Rival“(in Spanish and by subscription), reported that Calderón contracted Morris and Texas-based political consultant Rob Allyn “to handle not only his image, but the development of his campaign.” However, in a phone interview, Allen told Washington Post’s Jefferson Morley, “I’ve never met Dick Morris and we’re not associated in any way.”
Which explains Morris’ action in April 2006, when he published a couple of hit pieces – one in The New York Post, The New York Post, “Menace In Mexico” and other at the ultraconservative online magazine FrontPageMag.com, Mexico’s Hugo Chavez – that linked AMLO to President Chávez. Morris’ editorial attempted to terrorize readers into believing AMLO’s campaign was bankrolled by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, which means Mexico will become the primary threat to US national security. Morris also claimed an elected AMLO would be the “final piece” needed by President Chávez and Cuba’s President Fidel Castro in their “grand plan to bring the United States to its knees before the newly resurgent Latin left.”
Chavez is a firm ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Lopez Obrador could be the final piece in their grand plan to bring the United States to its knees before the newly resurgent Latin left.
Morris’ linked the so those living here and in Mexico would begin to have a distaste for economic policies that have failed Latin America by Populist leaders.
In Mexico, both Felipe Calderón Hinojosa of the right-wing PAN (the party of current president Vicente Fox) and Roberto Madrazo Pintado of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), ran a barrage of negative ads that lasted for a month. The mudslinging was so bad the Federal Electoral Institute had to step in to censure a series of ads that declared AMLO “a danger to Mexico” and that likened AMLO to Chávez.
Outside of Mexico other newspapers have jumped to run similar type pieces leading up to the July 2 election. Sample of some articles:
London’s Independent – “Firebrand on Bush’s Doorstep”;
The Atlantic Online – “The Talented Mr. Chávez”;
New York Times – Bringing Mexico Closer to God
The Economist – Will the real Andrés Manuel López Obrador please stand up?
Now that the election is over in Mexico, the election results are now hanging in the balance.
In Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) fight to demand a recount of Mexico’s July 2 presidential election, Prensa Latina is reporting that Mexico’s “Por el Bien de Todos” coalition is presenting additional proof electoral violations took place. Among the proof to be shown will be broken seals that were illegally opened at the ballot boxes and proof that a “US daily published propaganda favoring ruling candidate Felipe Calderon three days before the election, an incident that violates the Institutional Federal Code and Electoral Procedures in Mexico.”
But is the propaganda campaign over? Not be a long shot. The current oped pieces are beginning to sound a lot like the anti-Chávez meme, the only difference, Chávez is replaced by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Since early January 2005, major US publications and television stations have published or broadcast well over 60 articles and programs regurgitating State Department accusations that President Chávez presents a “negative force in the region,” is a “threat to democracy,” a “semi-dictator,”…
Latest Articles Critical Of AMLO:
July 29, 2006 – Washington Post – An Anti-Democracy Campaign: Mexico’s presidential loser takes a lesson from Joseph Stalin.
Now Mr. López Obrador has launched a second populist campaign — this time in an attempt to overturn Mexico’s fragile democracy
July 28, 2006 – Los Angeles Times – López Obrador should protest with dignity
But Lopez Obrador has said he will never accept the results because now he does not accept the legitimacy of the institutions. Like a spoiled child, he wants the right to play, but not the obligation to accept the final score. He’ll try to hold Mexico hostage with street demonstrations and increasingly radical rhetoric until he gets his way. Calderon will continue to play by the rules, pursuing his own legal counter-demands through the nation’s electoral tribunal and accepting whatever remedies the court orders. The contrast is deafening.
Mexico must be a nation of laws, not of men, if it is to remain a functioning democracy. Any other outcome would be a step on the road to anarchy – a disastrous recipe for Mexico and its northern neighbor – and a blow to the concepts of openness, democracy, tolerance and pluralism in the Americas.
July 26, 2006 – Dallas Morning News (via the Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN) – Mexico’s protests have little to do with democracy
Let’s be precise about what’s going on in Mexico: The protests that second-place presidential finisher Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador plans to rally again Sunday are all about him, his ego and his standing. They are not about the country, not about its standing in the global economy and certainly not about its democratic evolution.
July 23, 2006 – Arizona Republic, AZ – Loser can make it a winner
Mexico’s fragile new democracy needs the confidence of its people, yet Lopez Obrador seems determined to undermine faith in a system that observers inside and outside of Mexico say is working. He wants, among other things, for the tribunal to order a vote-by-vote recount of the ballots….It would be ironic if Lopez Obrador merely used his position to discredit the honest election that just took place in a nation that was once known for the creative corruption of its elections.
July 15, 2006 – Chicago Tribune – Como se dice, sore loser?
It is his right to challenge the election, and voters are entitled to assurances that the results are fair and accurate. But that’s why the elections tribunal was created, and there’s every reason to believe it will do the right thing. Unfortunately Lopez Obrador seems unwilling to accept that. And that is an ominous sign for Mexico.
July 30, 2006 – Miami Herald – Challenge tests Mexican democracy
This denigration of the respected Mexican electoral system, which had just announced the triumph of hundreds of PRD candidates, and the incendiary speeches that have followed seriously threaten the peace in Mexico.
This is a film the world has seen many times. The seed of dictatorship has been planted. Impermeable to objective truth, a messiah who has proclaimed himself “indestructible” and publicly (and seriously) compared himself to Jesus, seeks to kidnap Mexican democracy. If the ransom he demands (strict obedience by the Federal Electoral Tribunal to his will) is not paid, he is prepared to set the country aflame.
Awww….American propaganda, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
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Tags: Elections, Felipe Calderón, Hugo Chávez, López Obrador, Mexico | 
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This is the blog of Edmundo "XicanoPwr" Rocha, a social worker, an activist, freelance writer and founder and editor of The Sanctuary. My interests include: immigration reform, critical race theory and it's interaction with equality/inequality and freedom/oppression as they relate to the experiences of people of color in the Americas.
Para Justicia y Libertad is a Latino-centered political blog focusing on the humanistic perspective of politics, history, and society as they relate to the Latina/o community throughout Texas and the United States.
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Our main-stream media doesn’t report fairly on U.S. politics, but instead lean far to the right. Why would they be different when reporting on Mexico’s politics? After all, they must justify themselves to their corporate masters.
If you are not fully involved in the political turmoil that is affecting Mexico these days it is very difficult to express a reasonable comment. All those of us who have suffered the populist rethoric “informative meetings” from AMLO will feel strongly against this point of view.
We are REALLY tired of this sad character that knows how to exploit his political capital but lacks the minimum intelligence to understand that 1 + 1 = 2 and that 14,700,000 is bigger than 14,500,000.
Enough said.
If Calderon believes he won fair and sqaure, he would support a recount. I don’t know how you can deny the voiced of the 2.4 million who showed or is your idea of democracy is censor those who do not agree with PAN?
Do you think all these people are turned out at all those rallies just because they want AMLO to be the president?
No, era Basta Ya! No mas to the defrauding by los ricos.
AMLO and the Yellow Revolution is a full social movement y javier, you better get used to it.
Enough said.
Remember, 2/3 of Mexicans did not vote for AMLO. AMLO is just a candidate, and Mexico doesn’t want or need a revolution. Mexico is on the verge of becoming a true multi-party democracy, on the verge of becoming a modern, succesful state. Mexico does not need a demagogue. Mexico needs a competent, honest leader.
I had no strong preference going into the election…I thought both candidates seemed capable. But now AMLO says that he KNOWS that he won by 500,000 votes (how does he know?) and that he will refuse to accept a Calderon victory (what does that mean). The decision is in the hands of the IFE. They will rule and everyone will accept the decision. That is what Mexico needs…the rule of law! That is what is important about this election, that the electoral process and the electoral authorities be respected.
AMLO’s threats to paralyze the capitol with strikes if the IFE doesn’t order a full recount are either childish or Mussolini style politics. AMLO’s evidence is too flimsy for those kind of threats. Cuahtemoc Cardenas had people ready to wage war on his behalf in 1988, but he made the wise decision – peace and continued reform – and that was in the face of overwhelming evidence of fraud. I sincerely hope AMLO respects the IFE’s decision.
See that is the problem here in the US, people are always jumping the gun on any Latin American leaders. There is always a double standard.
What makes a leader “dangerous” and “radical” in Latin America is their refusal to put the interests of the US first over their people. In the case with AMLO, he is refusing to put the US interest first over his people.
And because AMLO can’t be a good little “Mexkin”, he is now considered a dangerous authoritarian radical because he is interested in doing things in Mexico like they in other industrialized countries. Come on.
Before the election, he was called Mexico’s FDR. From the Washinton Post – Using FDR as Model, Presidential Hopeful Out to Build New Deal for Mexico
As for the 500,000 votes, yes he did claim because the polling organization the PRD had comissioned said he was two points ahead in the exit poll. You know the same type of exit polls that said Gore and Kerry won and then said they were wrong.
As for refusing to accept a Calderon’s victory, come on now, aren’t we nitpicking now. Let’s see, ummm… lets tell Al Gore to stop saying he won the Presidency. Please, every time Gore say’s that it is an acknowledgment that he too is refusing to accept a Bush victory. Why is it OK for Gore to go around the country saying He won the election. But when AMLO says he will refuse to accept it, he is seen as some lunatic. Double standard, always double standards.
Fact is AMLO wrote a letter to Calderón saying he will accept the results.
Calderón’s reply: – He refuses to agree to AMLO’s request for him to ask for a recount that actually counts every vote. What does he have to lie.
Just because it was on a rare occasion that our Supreme Court was involved in the election, does not make it out of the norm in Mexico. Since the 10 years the current tribunal was created to police an electoral system, the tribunal has already nullified 17 local, state and congressional elections. And to expect that AMLO take a conditional acceptance of a Calderon victory, just like Al Gore or John Kerry just so we can feel good about ourselves because we couldn’t do it ourselves, is unfair. And we should not demand it on them for our shortcomings.
Why is a vote by vote recount not accepted by the Electoral Tribunal? According to the Federal Electoral Law onle vote packages that show signs of having been tampered can be reopened and recounted. A vote by vote recount is not applicable according to law.
Lopez has broken the law several times, and is now not complying with band 13, put into effect by him when he was governor of the Federal District. This band 13 says that public demonstrations that affect circulation are not to be tolerated and are punished with 48 hours of jail. He is instigating the kidnapping of Mexico City, so he should be put in jail according to the law he enacted as governor. This is just one example of what Mr. Lopez thinks about Laws. If they are not what he wants to do or what he likes, then he can break them and if punished says that it is not legal. Laws are made for some people, or for everyone that lives in a place?
Personal laws lead to anarchy, and the rights of another person end when the rights of a third person are violated. Lopez is violating the rights of 17 million inhabitants of Mexico City. He should be detained!!! and put in jail.
Poor Mexico with such a President!
Oh really, were in the Federal Electoral Law does it say that? What are article?
Ley Electoral – Código Federal de Instituciones y Procedimientos Electorales (COFIPE), el proceso de elección presidencial termina cuando de conformidad con el Articulo 174 (6)”…La etapa de dictamen y declaraciones de validez de la elección y de Presidente electo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos,.. concluye al aprobar la Sala Superior del Tribunal Electoral, el dictamen que contenga el cómputo final y las declaraciones de validez de la elección y de Presidente electo”
Just in case you pull a switch on me and point out it was some other law in some other code, here is this web site so you still have a chance to point it out?
What laws did AMLO violate? You are correct when you say “Personal laws lead to anarchy” and making accusation because you have some type of angst against AMLO by making some thrump up charge and it is those personal laws you are talking that will lead to anarchy.
Playing the victim doesn’t help you case any further. I gave you the link of the electoral law, now point out where it mentions that it is not legally valid to unpack the votes and do a recount.
This election is not about US interests versus Mexican interests, it is about different ideas of what is in Mexico’s best interest.
AMLO proposes more government spending on infrastructure and social welfare. Most Mexicans would agree that this is necessary, but voters don’t want AMLO to bankrupt the country, hurt the currency, or raise interest rates. The peso devaluations and wasted government spending of the 1970’s and 80’s are still on people’s minds.
AMLO wants to renegotiate NAFTA, especially to protect corn farmers. But NAFTA is what has driven the Mexican economy over the last decade, and NAFTA has brought cheaper computers, cars and groceries. NAFTA has hurt small farms in Mexico (who can’t compete with US subsidized mega farms) and has hurt some Mexican businesses, but opinion on NAFTA in Mexico is divided – pro in the North, anti in the South.
AMLO wants to keep Mexico’s oil and gas nationalized. But PEMEX is one of the world’s WORST corporations, and has not been investing or maintaining its infrastructure. Most everybody agrees that, without major investment, Mexico’s energy production will go down in 5 years or so. Oil revenues are a major source of revenue for the federal government…where will AMLO get the money for his ambitious domestic spending plans if oil revenues decline? How can he invest in Mexico’s massive domestic infrastructure needs AND find the tens of billions that it will take to continue to develop Mexico’s offshore oil fields (which are in very deep water in the gulf, very difficult to explore and construct rigs, only a few companies in the world are really able to do this type of work).
My point is that this is not about the US backed candidate vs. the “real mexkin” or the man of the people vs. the man of special interests. This is a genuine debate over which direction Mexico should go.
PS As to the street protests and taking over Reforma, I think Mexico has a strong tradition of mass protests and civil disobedience. If people want to camp out in the Zocalo and in the streets to support AMLO, go for it
Ummm….Mexico’s energy production will NOT go down in 5 years. Yes, yes I know there were reports of that happening.
Funny how people forgot that earlier this year, Fox announce that Mexico has found a new deep-water oil discovery that is bigger than Cantarell and today Mexico sees no dent to oil output from Cantarell. Back in March this is what PEMEX had to say:
Pemex sees deep-water crude as one of its best bets for replacing reserves and for increasing production as Cantarell declines.
The fastest way for Pemex to get the oil out would be by forming alliances with companies that have the deep-water technology. However, current laws forbid private companies from exploration and production activities in Mexico except when they are under contract to Pemex.
Energy Secretary Fernando Canales told Dow Jones Newswires the ban on Pemex forming alliances for deep-water drilling would slow down the process of developing the reserves, but won’t keep Pemex from getting at the oil.
I have to disagree with you about it not being a US backed candidate. It sure is, it is all about PEMEX.
Felipe Calderon was fighting accusations that he would privatize PEMEX, yet La Jornada reported that SENER (Mexican Energy Secretariat), Calderon’s former sinecure, was promoting the privatization of PEMEX to foreign investors a full month before his presumed victory in last month’s election. And who do you think they will sell it too Bechtel or Halliburton or both.
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