Mexico: Obrador supporters take over toll booths on major highways, let drivers pass free of charge

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Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's currency and bonds fell as supporters of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador escalated protests by taking over toll booths on three Mexican highways.

Protesters demanding a full recount of the July 2 election today occupied the toll booths and let drivers pass by free of charge on roads linking Mexico City to three other cities.

[...]

Lopez Obrador on Aug. 6 called on supporters to step up protests after a Mexican federal court rejected his request for a full recount of last month's presidential vote. Tallies show he lost to Felipe Calderon by a 0.6 percentage point margin.

[...]

The court ordered on Aug. 5 a review of ballots from 9 percent of polling places set up July 2, saying there was no evidence of irregularities or errors that would merit a full recount. The ruling was the first of several decisions the court must make before settling all challenges to the election by Aug. 31 and declaring a winner by Sept. 6.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...r=latin_america

[Mirorgate 0]

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's currency and bonds fell as supporters of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador escalated protests by taking over toll booths on three Mexican highways.

Protesters demanding a full recount of the July 2 election today occupied the toll booths and let drivers pass by free of charge on roads linking Mexico City to three other cities.

[...]

Lopez Obrador on Aug. 6 called on supporters to step up protests after a Mexican federal court rejected his request for a full recount of last month's presidential vote. Tallies show he lost to Felipe Calderon by a 0.6 percentage point margin.

[...]

The court ordered on Aug. 5 a review of ballots from 9 percent of polling places set up July 2, saying there was no evidence of irregularities or errors that would merit a full recount. The ruling was the first of several decisions the court must make before settling all challenges to the election by Aug. 31 and declaring a winner by Sept. 6.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...r=latin_america

Is he related to Al Gore?

[Traviesa 0]

Does peso drops mean I can get more pesos for a dollar??

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This dated report is worth noting (before the election):

STEALING MEXICO

BUSH TEAM HELPS RULING PARTY “FLORIDIZE” MEXICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

by Greg Palast

Friday, June 30 — GEORGE Bush’s operatives have plans to jigger with the upcoming elections. I’m not talking about the November ‘06 vote in the USA (though they have plans for that, too). I’m talking about the election this Sunday in Mexico for their Presidency.

It begins with an FBI document marked, “Counterterrorism” and “Foreign Intelligence Collection” and “Secret.” Date: “9/17/2001,” six days after the attack on the World Trade towers. It’s nice to know the feds got right on the ball, if a little late.

What does this have to do with jiggering Mexico’s election? Hold that thought.

This document is what’s called a “guidance” memo for using a private contractor to provide databases on dangerous foreigners. Good idea. We know the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf Emirates. So you’d think the “Intelligence Collection” would be aimed at getting info on the guys in the Gulf.

No so. When we received the document, we obtained as well its classified appendix. The target nations for “foreign counterterrorism investigation” were nowhere near the Persian Gulf. Every one was in Latin America — Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and a handful of others.

Latin America?! Was there a terror cell about to cross into San Diego with exploding enchiladas?

All the target nations had one thing in common besides a lack of terrorists: each had a left-leaning presidential candidate or a left-leaning president in office. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez, bete noir of the Bush Administration, was facing a recall vote. In Mexico, the anti-Bush Mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was (and is) leading the race for the Presidency.

Most provocative is the contractor to whom this no-bid contract was handed: ChoicePoint Inc. of Alpharetta, Georgia. ChoicePoint is the database company that created a list for Governor Jeb Bush of Florida of voters to scrub from voter rolls before the 2000 election. ChoicePoint’s list (94,000 names in all) contained few felons. Most of those on the list were guilty of no crime except Voting While Black. The disenfranchisement of these voters cost Al Gore the presidency.

Having chosen our President for us, our President’s men chose ChoicePoint for this sweet War on Terror database gathering. The use of the Venezuela’s and Mexico’s voter registry files to fight terror is not visible — but the use of the lists to manipulate elections is as obvious as the make-up on Katherine Harris’ cheeks.

In Venezuela, leading up to the August 2004 vote on whether to re-call President Chavez, I saw his opposition pouring over the voter rolls in laptops, claiming the right to challenge voters as Jeb’s crew did to voters in Florida. It turns out this operation was partly funded by the International Republican Institute of Washington, an arm of the GOP. Where did they get the voter info from?

In that case, access to Venezuela’s voter rolls didn’t help the Republican-assisted drive against Chavez, who won by a crushing plurality.

In Mexico this Sunday, we can expect to see the same: challenges of Obrador voters in a race, the polls say, is too close to call. Not that Mexico’s rulers need lessons from the Bush Administration on how to mess with elections.

In 1988, the candidate for Obrador’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PDR), who opinion polls showed as a certain winner, somehow came up short against the incumbent party of the ruling elite. Some of the electoral tricks were far from subtle. In the state of Guerrero, the PDR was leading on official tally sheets by 359,369. Oddly, the official final count was 309,202 for the ruling party, only 182,874 for the PDR. Challenging the vote would have been dangerous. Two top officials of Obrador’s party were assassinated during the campaign.

Crucial to the surprise victory of the ruling party was the introduction of computer voting machines and the centralization of voter databases. Observer Andrew Reding of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs reported that ruling party operatives had special access codes denied the opposition.

Whether the US “War on Terror” lists will find a use in Sunday’s election, we cannot know. But the use of American government resources to interfere in south-of-the-border campaigns is an open secret. The GOP’s International Republican Institute has run training sessions for the PAN youth wing, funded by US taxpayers through the “National Endowment for Democracy.”

Foreign — that is, American — interference in political campaigns is a crime. That didn’t stop Team Bush. However, when the theft of its citizen files was discovered, Argentina threatened to arrest ChoicePoint contractors until the company returned the tapes — and Mexico’s attorney general did in fact arrest the ChoicePoint data thieves to avoid his party from looking too much the stooge of its Washington patron. Whether George Bush gave back his copy, no one will say.

Wholesale theft is expected on Sunday in forms both subtle and brutal. How the US’ purloined “counterterrorism” lists will be used, we don’t know. We are certain however, that the Administration did not siphon off these Latin voter files to fight a War on Terror. It appears, rather, part of the Bush Administration’s and GOP’s hemispheric War on Democracy — along a battle line which runs from Florida to Ohio to Juarez.

http://www.gregpalast.com/stealing-mexico

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Melissa, use this... http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/b?s=USDMXN=X

In general, yes - if the peso drops relative to the dollar, you get more pesos for the dollar. However, the peso can drop relative to the Euro (for example) and not drop relative to the dollar.

[Traviesa 0]

Melissa, use this... http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/b?s=USDMXN=X

In general, yes - if the peso drops relative to the dollar, you get more pesos for the dollar. However, the peso can drop relative to the Euro (for example) and not drop relative to the dollar.

That very nearly went above and beyond my level of comprehension but I actually think I get it! Thanks for explaining...so why does the chart go all over the place in one day?

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...so why does the chart go all over the place in one day?

I am willing to buy a commodity for $1.00. That is its price at this point in time. For some reason the guy next to me thinks it's worth $1.10. I sell it to him for that much, now it is worth $1.10. Now someone else thinks it is worth only 80 cents so the price plunges to 80 cents. Put all these points together on a graph, and instead of only 3 trades a day factor in tens of thousands or more... and you have a squiggly-wiggly graph.

[Traviesa 0]

...so why does the chart go all over the place in one day?

I am willing to buy a commodity for $1.00. That is its price at this point in time. For some reason the guy next to me thinks it's worth $1.10. I sell it to him for that much, now it is worth $1.10. Now someone else thinks it is worth only 80 cents so the price plunges to 80 cents. Put all these points together on a graph, and instead of only 3 trades a day factor in tens of thousands or more... and you have a squiggly-wiggly graph.

Ahhh ok I get it now...and thanks for using terms that are right on my level (squiggly-wiggly works for me!)

[Mirorgate 0]

This dated report is worth noting (before the election):

STEALING MEXICO

BUSH TEAM HELPS RULING PARTY “FLORIDIZE” MEXICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

snip

yeah.... you hate bush, mexico, nafta, cafta, coffee, chocolate and puppies... we get it.

we rigged the mexican presidential race. gotcha. cahvez has had proof of US invovlment there for what... 4+ yrs now but hasnt shown it. Gore really won in florida despite the fact that he pissed off military serving overseas cause he thought their vote shouldnt count seeing that they werent on US soil at the time and couldnt possibly know what issues were what.

where is your outrage against Chavez's re-election using names and state given ID #'s to dead ppl?

where is your outrage against Carters denial of "transparent" democracy when it wasnt?

where is your outrage that the article claims to have gotten top secret gov documents with appendages there by stating that we have leaks in office to top secret information?

personally I think Bush is an a$$ in most things political in view... but he is not the mastermind of this global proportion that everyone makes him out to be. so which is it? diabolical mastermind? or bumbling baffoon?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This dated report is worth noting (before the election):

STEALING MEXICO

BUSH TEAM HELPS RULING PARTY “FLORIDIZE” MEXICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

snip

yeah.... you hate bush, mexico, nafta, cafta, coffee, chocolate and puppies... we get it.

we rigged the mexican presidential race. gotcha. cahvez has had proof of US invovlment there for what... 4+ yrs now but hasnt shown it. Gore really won in florida despite the fact that he pissed off military serving overseas cause he thought their vote shouldnt count seeing that they werent on US soil at the time and couldnt possibly know what issues were what.

where is your outrage against Chavez's re-election using names and state given ID #'s to dead ppl?

where is your outrage against Carters denial of "transparent" democracy when it wasnt?

where is your outrage that the article claims to have gotten top secret gov documents with appendages there by stating that we have leaks in office to top secret information?

personally I think Bush is an a$$ in most things political in view... but he is not the mastermind of this global proportion that everyone makes him out to be. so which is it? diabolical mastermind? or bumbling baffoon?

We get it? Are you plural? Nice of you to argue on the merits of the evidence in the article and not make it about me. Try not to draw lines across whatever politically charged posts I make as if I have some kind of agenda. I'm just an American who's interested in knowing the truth and sometimes finding the truth means you question the status quo. I have a healthy sense of skepticism towards conspiracy theories, but I'm not going to plug my ears and cover my eyes when legitimate evidence reveals itself.

[Mirorgate 0]

We get it? Are you plural? Nice of you to argue on the merits of the evidence in the article and not make it about me. Try not to draw lines across whatever politically charged posts I make as if I have some kind of agenda. I'm just an American who's interested in knowing the truth and sometimes finding the truth means you question the status quo. I have a healthy sense of skepticism towards conspiracy theories, but I'm not going to plug my ears and cover my eyes when legitimate evidence reveals itself.

ok then. legitimate evidence:

according to the "news" piece you posted. it claims that they have:

When we received the document, we obtained as well its classified appendix

where is the corroborative documentation? other sources to back up such a claim? it is lacking.

post more and I might give more credence to such a claim. until that time, I will uphold a primary function of our governing and justice system... innocent until proven guilty.

our liberties are being eroded left and right enough as it is. by all means question to your hearts content.. question the possibilities... but if the possibilities don't add up to what is probable... skip it and goto next. keep looking for the "legitimate" evidence.. this news story you posted fails in legitimacy due to lack of evidence to back up his claim mainly on the "evidence" they claim to use.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Tantrum South of the Border

Lopez Obrador's defiance continues, but thankfully even his own allies are getting tired of the act.

August 8, 2006

UNWILLING TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT his own dismal campaign may have cost him the presidency, Mexico's sore loser, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is threatening to bring the country to a standstill. He repeated his call for a civil disobedience campaign in the aftermath of Saturday's preliminary decision by the nation's Federal Electoral Tribunal to review only 9% of ballots cast in the July 2 election.

Lopez Obrador, who lost by less than 1% of the vote to conservative Felipe Calderon, has demanded a full recount of all ballots, but the tribunal for now will be looking at polling places where affidavits suggest a possible error. Already, Lopez Obrador's cries that he was robbed have left Mexico City with a sizable headache. The leftist former mayor's supporters have pitched tents on the city's central square and along busy Reforma Avenue.

As much as Lopez Obrador would like to believe otherwise, this isn't the Mexico of a quarter of a century ago. The nation's electoral system is now independent. Lopez Obrador hasn't been victimized by an authoritarian government, as he and Calderon's party were in the heyday of the long-ruling Institutional Revolution Party, or PRI. Instead, Lopez Obrador is now trying to intimidate and undermine the democratic process.

In the weeks since the election, Lopez Obrador has been trying to have it both ways — exercising his right to challenge the results before the specialized court created for that purpose while arguing that the vote was rigged and that he will never concede defeat. Thus far, his attempts to find irregularities have failed miserably. A video purported by Lopez Obrador in mid-July to show ballot stuffing in the state of Guanajuato was discounted by a representative from his own party. He replied, in typical fashion, by questioning the integrity of his party's representative.

Widespread fraud in this election would have been quite a logistical undertaking, involving hundreds of thousands of citizens chosen at random — much like Americans are chosen for jury duty — to operate polling stations.

Given Lopez Obrador's incessant complaining about the unfairness of the election, it is important to remember that the independent bodies that oversee elections in Mexico were largely created and designed in response to the urgings of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD. The tribunal could still call for a broader review, but Mexican law is wary of full recounts lest the election-day work of those conscripted ballot-counting citizens be undermined.

Even some within his party, including influential Michoacan Gov. Lazaro Cardenas (grandson of the nation's iconic populist president and son of the PRD's founder), are suggesting that Lopez Obrador's tantrums are going too far. And 15 of 17 PRI governors, who saw their presidential candidate come in third place, have echoed the assessment of international monitors who called the election exceptionally clean.

For their part, the two-thirds of Mexicans who did not vote for Lopez Obrador in July must be feeling a lot better about their decision with each passing day. Trouble is, even if Lopez Obrador only convinces a fraction of those who voted for him that he is the victim of a rapacious fraud, he can still do the country a great deal of harm.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Widespread fraud in this election would have been quite a logistical undertaking, involving hundreds of thousands of citizens chosen at random — much like Americans are chosen for jury duty — to operate polling stations.

Given Lopez Obrador's incessant complaining about the unfairness of the election, it is important to remember that the independent bodies that oversee elections in Mexico were largely created and designed in response to the urgings of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD. The tribunal could still call for a broader review, but Mexican law is wary of full recounts lest the election-day work of those conscripted ballot-counting citizens be undermined.

Valid arguments, however, it's all speculative and ultimately, it will be up to the tribunal...

...there are no "official" results and probably won't be until after Sept. 1. Under Mexican law, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) is charged with running the elections and counting the vote. But only the country's Election Tribunal, known by its Mexican nickname as the "TRIFE," has the power to declare a victor. They have until Sept. 6 to rule on the election.

It appears that the U.S. media has become so enamored with the construct of the "anti-democratic" left in Latin America -- the ubiquitous "fiery populists" (a term that has described everyone from the centrist Lula da Silva to Hugo Chávez) -- that they are incapable of fulfilling their basic mandate to inform their readers when it comes to the political landscape south of the border. It's nothing short of journalistic malpractice.

http://www.alternet.org/story/39763/

Edited August 8, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Ban Hammer 13,676]

Lopez Obrador - is that spanish for al gore?

[pedroh 21]

Lopez Obrador - is that spanish for al gore?

no, actually Obrador has a point.. I don't see anything wrong with him.. except all the media (US and Mexican) that made him look like Chavez.. the thing is.. he is not a convenient president for either Mexico or US.. 'neoliberales' and Americans fear his socialist policies..