[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> From: "Chuck Leake" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Sat May 6, 2006 6:11pm(PDT)
> Subject: Mexican Election Violence
>
> Hi GalloPintoers,
>
> (Costa Rica finished up its routinely peaceful election process not too long
> ago and the new president is going to walk with and through his people to
> the newly
> repainted National Stadium for what will undoubtedly be a boring and
> routinely peaceful inauguration. This will be about three long rock tosses from my
> casa. I walk on the sidewalk past the casa of the incoming Jefe --- and
> heavy traffic flows freely less than a short rock throw from his front door ---
> with no problems. There are a few more Security Guys around these days, but
> nothing to write home about and they do not look twice at an Old Gringo
> checking out the landscaping.)
>
> Meanwhile --- Up in Mexico ---
>
> Violence Unsettles Mexican Election Campaign ---
>
> By Catherine Bremer --- Reuters News Service
>
> Mexico City --- Street riots, decapitations of police officers by drug gangs
> and the worst union conflict in years have raised tension in Mexico's
> presidential race with the government under fire for its handling of the violence.
>
> Thousands of police swarmed a town near Mexico City this week to free fellow
> officers taken hostage in riots that left a 14-year-old boy dead and led to
> scores of arrests. The violence, triggered by a dispute with police over
> unlicensed flower sellers, came two weeks after two steel workers were killed
> during running battles withpolice sent in to break a long strike.
> The same day, the heads of two policemen decapitated by presumed drug gang
> hitmen were found outside government offices in Acapulco, a symbol of the
> spiraling drug violence that has spread from the U.S. border to Pacific coast
> resorts.
>
> The events are unrelated and localized, and foreign analysts see little risk
> of wider instability. But they have raised the temperature of the election
> campaign, with one candidate warning of worse to come.
>
> "Things are going to be violent," said Roberto Madrazo, who is running in
> third place as candidate of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party,
> which
> ruled Mexico for 71 years before it was ousted in the last election in 2000.
>
> "We are going to have a very heated climate for the election." He charged
> the government with being heavy-handed in trying to break the steel plant
> strike and said at a campaign rally that Mexican President Vicente Fox "shook at
> the knees" when fighting erupted this week in San Salvador Atenco, near the
> capital.
>
> The state governor then accused leftist presidential hopeful Andres Manuel
> Lopez Obrador's party of fanning the riot. Lopez Obrador, who is in a tight
> race with
> ruling conservative party candidate Felipe Calderon, denied the allegation,
> saying he was a pacifist.
>
> MACHETES
>
> San Salvador Atenco is a combative farming town that has been under a form
> of self-rule since machete-wielding peasants scuttled plans to build a new
> airport early in Fox's term. Both Madrazo and Calderon responded to the latest
> violence by insisting they would never be scared off by machetes.Protesters
> took several police hostage, dozens of people were arrested and many others
> hauled away bleeding.
>
> Fox's office has played down the riot, saying it involved a small group of
> people and was not a sign of shaky governance. But Subcomandante Marcos, who
> led a brief Zapatista uprising of Maya Indians in the southern state of
> Chiapas in 1994 and has links with the protesters in San Salvador Atenco, put his
> rebel army on alert and warned the government to release all of those jailed
> "if it doesn't want problems."
>
> "We are not looking at a policing problem, but a serious social and
> political conflict," said Joaquin Lopez Doriga, a well-known TV news presenter, in a
> newspaper column on Friday. "The problem is far from being resolved ... and
> there are only 59 days until July 2," he wrote.
>
> The ongoing strike by thousands of miners and metal workers has also caused
> concern. Workers walked off the job to defend a union boss the government
> accuses of graft and insist they will not negotiate an end to the strike without
> him.
> The government says the strikes are illegal but it was widely criticized
> after the violent clashes, which erupted when it sent troops and police to try
> and seize
> the Sicartsa steel plant in western Mexico.
>
> Still, most Mexicans may be more worried about their pocketbooks than the
> violent episodes. Polls show conservative Calderon overtaking long-time
> front-runner
> Lopez Obrador in the past two weeks, and the race is now too close to call.
> "It's very clear from the polls that people are voting more based on economic
> concerns than anything else," said Pamela Starr, Latin America analyst at
> Eurasia Group in Washington.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian
SPONSORED LINKS
| Libertarian | English language | Political parties |
| Online dictionary | American politics |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "Libertarian" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
