Leaders of Mexico’s PRI feud as presidential election season nears
A year before the presidential election, this nation’s oldest, most powerful party headed toward a destructive split, resulting from the bitter enmity between its top leaders – probable presidential nominee Roberto Madrazo and teachers union leader Elba Esther Gordillo.
Madrazo was to have resigned Tuesday as the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s chief to campaign full time in next year’s Mexican presidential election, but he delayed his move after the party’s leadership council voted unanimously Tuesday to ask him to stay on until early August.
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MEXICO CITY – Leaders of a movement fighting to win compensation for former "bracero" migrant workers on Friday asked the U.S. Embassy to help in winning the release of those jailed in a protest this week.
In a handwritten note presented to the Embassy here, Braceroproa group leader Ventura Gutierrez said he was being held "for political reasons" and said that if transferred to prison, "I fear for my physical security."
Gutierrez was among 10 people arrested on Wednesday when windows were broken during a protest at the federal Interior Department, which is overseeing a newly created fund to compensate
Leader of largest Mexican labor union coalition dies
Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, the leader of Mexico's largest and most politically influential labor organization, died today at a hospital in Mexico City from a heart illness, union officials said. He was 86.
Rodriguez Alcaine served as secretary-general of the Mexican Workers' Confederation since the death in 1997 of Fidel Vazquez, the iron-fisted boss who dominated Mexico's union movement since the late 1930s.
Under Rodriguez Alcaine, the confederation maintained close ties to Mexico's former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which held the presidency from 1929 until President Vicente Fox's election in 2000.
When Fox addressed
In an Open Letter to all Mexican political parties, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan challenged the leaders to make human rights the cornerstone of Mexican life and a fundamental central pillar of their electoral manifesto.
“Mexico is at a cross roads. The democratic transition is about to move to a new phase in the 2006 elections, but respect for human rights – which is central to the democratic aspirations of all Mexicans - is largely absent from the political agenda, or only present in empty words. Political leaders must move from rhetoric to concrete action if Mexico is to
Campaigning in Mexico's presidential race already under way
More than a year before Mexico's presidential election, the three apparent front-runners already are campaigning hard, stumping the nation and filling airwaves with ads, promises and tirades - even though none of them has been officially nominated.
The early start to the election season - parties won't pick their candidates until fall and the Federal Electoral Commission won't register them until Jan. 1 - underscores how eager Mexico's largest political parties are to secure the presidency as the six-year rule of President Vicente Fox winds down.
Fox was a novelty in Mexican history -
Mexico's Roberto Madrazo Wins PRI Presidential Primary Election
Mexico's Roberto Madrazo, the former governor of the state of Tabasco, won the primary election for the presidential nomination of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the country's largest political party.
Madrazo had 91 percent of the votes with the ballots from 74 percent of polling stations counted, according to the party's Web site. Everardo Moreno, Madrazo's only rival after former state of Mexico Governor Arturo Montiel dropped out of the contest, had 9 percent of the vote.
Mariano Palacios, president of the party, declared Madrazo the winner as of 11:30 p.m. New York time
RPT-Mexico economy seen strong despite election result
Mexican business leaders say the economy will continue to be strong despite a possible election win by leftist frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, but shrug off his claims that their greed has ruined the country.
The former Mexico City mayor is leading in polls ahead of the July 2 presidential election on a pledge to improve the lot of the poor who make up more than half of Mexico's population, although a recent survey showed his lead shrinking.
As polling day looms, his attacks on the business community -- above all, Mexico's bankers -- have grown
Mexico presidential candidate alleges additional voting fraud
Mexican leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador [Wikipedia profile], who officially lost the July 2 presidential election [JURIST report] by .6 percent of the vote, on Thursday presented new evidence for his claims of extensive fraud, showing reporters television ads by several consumer product companies allegedly containing subliminal messages supporting the campaign of election winner Felipe Calderon [Wikipedia profile], and accusing election officials - even some of his own poll workers - of manipulating vote counts. AP has more.
On Monday, Obrador filed 225 charges of election fraud [JURIST report] with Mexicos Federal
Mexicos sore loser
If the turmoil following Mexicos July 2 presidential election has shown anything, it is that Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftist candidate who narrowly lost, cares little about his nations fragile democracy.
What other explanation is there for his claims of widespread voter fraud, refuted by Tuesdays unanimous ruling from Mexicos respected election court? How else should one interpret his current status as commander of a ragtag army of protesters intent on blocking streets and disrupting commerce, government and daily life?
López Obradors protests have cost him dearly. A poll in late August by the Reforma newspaper showed that his
The Federal Electoral Institute has ruled that the same law granting Mexicans living abroad the right to vote in the 2006 presidential election also forbids contenders from traveling to the United States to campaign.
The Electoral Institute was given the responsibility to set guidelines for the law, passed by Mexico's Congress in June. Its decision means that none of the estimated 10 million Mexicans in the United States will get a chance to see candidates in person.
"We believe the law is clear: You cannot ask for the vote on foreign soil," said Patricio Ballados, the institute's general coordinator for the vote
Mexico's governing party chooses presidential candidate
A surprisingly bitter primary election for Mexico's governing party on Sunday could set the major-party lineup for next July's historic presidential election, with former Energy Secretary Felipe Calderon most likely to make the ballot.
Calderon was the unexpected winner of the first two rounds of primary voting for President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, topping favored Santiago Creel, the former interior secretary, and Alberto Cardenas, former governor of Mexico's Jalisco state.
If Calderon can win a bit more than 50 percent of the vote on Sunday, he would avoid a possible Nov. 6 runoff. Fox is
