News & Analysis

1 - MEXICAN ELECTIONS MARRED BY FRAUD
2 - US SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS KEY ANTI-IMMIGRANT LAW
3 - WTO RULING FAVORS MEXICO

Exit polls released late Sunday night show PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto winning Mexico’s presidency, with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the PRD finishing a surprisingly close second, and PANista Josefina Vazquez Mota a distant third.  CNN, Parametria, and Mitofsky exit polls all showed Pena Nieto with about 41% and Lopez Obrador with about 32%, though a “quick-count” based on a sampling of returns from across the country showed a closer race, and the actual returns gave Pena Neta 38% with Lopez Obrador close behind at 33%.  Vazquez Mota was quick to concede Sunday evening, while Lopez Obrador will wait for the official vote announcement on Wednesday and may contest the election after reports of widespread fraud. The PRI reportedly offered pre-paid supermarket cards worth up to 1,000 pesos and millions of boxes filled with food or cheap electro-domestics in exchange for votes.  Vote-buying was particularly widespread in Mexico State, where Pena Nieto served as Governor, and Veracruz, with some reports of as many as a million votes purchased in Mexico State alone.  Pena Nieto reportedly spent up to five times his legally allotted campaign fund, with massive private donations from businesses looking for influence in his administration.  And he enjoyed a virtual lock on news coverage by Televisa, the largest of two national television networks.  His wife, Angelica Rivera, is a popular soap opera star on the network.  

1 - NEWS FROM THE OTHER CAMPAIGN
2 - STUDENT MOVEMENT QUESTIONS RULING CLASS LEGITIMACY
3 - WALMART INVESTIGATION WIDENS
4 - FOUR ARMY OFFICERS IN CUSTODY  
5 - AMBASSADOR CRITICIZES GUN RIGHTS ADVOCATES 
6 - TWO JUDGES UNDER INVESTIGATION 
7 - MSN PROGRAMS: Contact msn at mexicosolidarity dot org or (773) 583 7728   

1 - NEWS FROM THE OTHER CAMPAIGN

* Thursday afternoon, fifteen armed agents from the Tlaxcala Attorney General arrested Hector Perales Malacara, a leader of the Consejo Nacional Urbano y Campesino (CNUC), and five street merchants from Huamantla. Malacara was charged with blocking a roadway, a federal offense that can result in long jail terms and is often used by authorities to prosecute leaders of popular organizations. CNUC quickly mobilized supporters in both Mexico and the US, and Malacara was released on US$1,000 bail that same evening. The charges stem from an incident in Huamantla, one of the main market centers in Tlaxcala, in which the mayor tried to dislocate dozens of street merchants from a traditional market. In reality, Malacara's only "offense" was taking photos of the police action.

* Teodulo Santos Giron, one of the leaders of the land recuperation movement in Ostula, Michoacan, was assassinated this week. Inspired by the Zapatistas, the Nahua leader spent the last 18 years struggling for land rights and autonomy against drug cartels, mining companies and speculators. He was kidnapped in the community of La Ticla on Tuesday and his body was discovered on Wednesday.

1 - NEWS FROM THE OTHER CAMPAIGN
2 - TENS OF THOUSANDS PROTEST PRI CANDIDATE
3 - WALMART INVESTIGATION WIDENS
4 - FOUR ARMY OFFICERS IN CUSTODY
5 - MSN PROGRAMS: Contact msn at mexicosolidarity dot org or (773) 583 7728   

• Thursday afternoon, fifteen armed agents from the Tlaxcala Attorney General arrested Hector Perales Malacara, a leader of the Consejo Nacional Urbano y Campesino (CNUC), and five street merchants from Huamantla. Malacara was charged with blocking a roadway, a federal offense that can result in long jail terms and is often used by authorities to prosecute leaders of popular organizations. CNUC quickly mobilized supporters in both Mexico and the US, and Malacara was released on US$1,000 bail that same evening. The charges stem from an incident in Huamantla, one of the main market centers in Tlaxcala, in which the mayor tried to dislocate dozens of street merchants from a traditional market. In reality, Malacara's only "offense" was taking photos of the police action.

MSN denounces the detention of compañero Hector Malacara of CNUC.
• Translation of CNUC's reports and denouncements
• See below for solidarity actions you can do to help!
• [Update] Malacara has been released on bail. Great news, but we're not in the clear quite yet.

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Brothers and Sisters,

We are writing to request your solidarity and support because today, Wednesday May 16 at 2pm, around 15 individuals (some of them armed) presenting themselves as agents of the Mexican Attorney General (without showing any identification) arrived at CNUC offices and at gun point (and issuing blows to the head) took our brother HECTOR MANUEL PERALES MALACARA, an adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and the Other Campaign as well as a staff organizer with CNUC. In this detention said subjects also threatened sister LUZ RIVERA MARTINEZ, who witnessed the above mentioned acts and who by questioning them was accused of interfering with an act of justice, by telling her they could “really fuck her over (cargar la verga)” and that they could do whatever they wanted.