Re: Mexico: election aftermath

[Leigh Meyers <leighcmeyers@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Perelman wrote:
> Very sad.  What do you & the other experts make of John Ross's piece?
>
> http://counterpunch.com/ross07072006.html
.
From Counterpunch:
> One of the IFE's more notorious accomplishments in this year's
> presidential elections was to engineer the non-vote of Mexicans in the
> United States, an effort that resulted in the disenfranchisement of
> millions of "paisanos" living north of the Rio Bravo. Undocumented
> workers were denied absentee ballot applications at consulates and
> embassies and more than a million eligible voters were barred from
> casting a ballot because their voter registration cards were not up to
> date and the IFE refused to update them outside of Mexico. Untold
> numbers of undocumented workers who could not risk returning to Mexico
> for a minimum 25 days to renew their credential were denied the
> franchise the IFE was sworn to defend. The PRD insists that the
> majority of undocumented Mexicans in the U.S. would have cast a ballot
> for Lopez Obrador.
.
The media buzz was all about the thousands of polling stations set up
close to the U.S./Mexico border. In retrospect, I wonder if they were
'Illegal' migrant INS traps, unintentionally, or with the cooperation of
the Mexican government?

Leigh
http://leighm.net/