Violence Mars Mexican State Election
By SANDRA NOTARIO, Associated Press Writer
SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico - Protesters wearing ski masks and waving
machetes demolished voting booths and fought with authorities Sunday
during municipal elections in Mexico's largest state.
More than 8 million voters were choosing 124 mayors and 45 lawmakers in
the state that borders Mexico City. Partial results showed the former
ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party � forging an unprecedented
alliance with the small Green Party � outpacing President Vicente Fox
(news - web sites)'s National Action Party.
With 50 percent of the vote counted late Sunday, the PRI led National
Action 33.2 to 31.4 in legislative races. In municipal races, the PRI led
34.6 to 30 percent with 44 percent of the vote counted. Several small
parties accounted for the rest.
The independent polling company Consulta Mitofsky said its exit poll
showed the PRI with an overall 39-29 percent advantage over PAN, while
the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party trailed with 26.5 percent.
The poll claimed a 3 percent margin of error.
The vote comes four months before congressional elections that could
determine the success of Fox's administration, which has struggled during
its first three years against hostile lawmakers.
Violence broke out Sunday in San Salvador Atenco, the scene of a major
clash with Fox's government last year over building a new international
airport in this town 15 miles northeast of Mexico City.
Protesters prevented officials from holding municipal elections there
Sunday, claiming Atenco had seceded from the rest of Mexico state since
that dispute. State officials say Atenco still is part of the state.
A group of 300 farmers, anarchists and students ripped apart all three
voting booths. Fights broke out when election officials tried to keep
protesters from stealing and burning ballots.
There were no reports of serious injuries. Polls opened without incident
in the rest of Mexico state.
"We are right and we have the force of the people behind us,"
said farming leader Ignacio Del Valle, who addressed a group of
protesters who fired a cannon to celebrate the destruction of the voting
booths.
Officials planned to expropriate farmland in Atenco for the new airport,
but Fox scrapped the idea in July after hundreds of farmers took several
police officials hostage for four days.
There has been no government presence in Atenco since the hostage
standoff, and authorities only circled the area in police helicopters
Sunday.
The protests left the town deeply divided and saw many residents head to
other areas to vote. In neighboring San Francisco Acuixcomic, locals
formed a human chain to protect voting booths, but protesters eventually
stormed the village and destroyed all voting materials.
"People here want to vote but these radicals won't let them,"
said Atenco resident Maria Janez, who said she was shoved when she tried
to enter a voting booth. "Atenco is peaceful. Most of its people
don't agree with what's happening."
Mexico state has an unusually varied urban-rural balance � its 13 million
people live in areas ranging from walled mansions to garbage dump
shanties.
"I have hope that my vote will help get rid of corruption and that,
little by little, poverty will begin disappearing," said Luisa
Zarate, a 25-year-old nun who voted in the state capital of Toluca.
"There are many desperate families in Mexico state."
For the PRI, the election is a chance to regain its momentum after losing
the presidency to Fox in July 2000 following a 71-year span of PRI
presidents.
National Action party members want to build on Fox's victory and move
toward becoming Mexico's dominant party. And Democratic Revolution seeks
to branch out from a solid beachhead of support in Mexico City.
The PRI won Mexico state's governorship in 1999 but lost control of the
state legislature a year later as National Action rode Fox's coattails.
Most of the state's big cities are governed by National Action and
Democratic Revolution.
The PRI has campaigned furiously in the state, forging an unprecedented
alliance with the small Green Party that was allied with Fox in 2000.
Photos:
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Link: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030310/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_election_8
