Brace yourselves, Mexican presidential elections on Sunday

[The Johnny]

Ive briefly discussed the presidential candidates in another thread, but anyway, the moment of truth (or rather say, the moment of fraud) is soon to come.

Shall the Old Regime come back into power through dubious methods such as the 3,000,000 votes that were found to be marked weeks before the election?

Or maybe the very ironic female candidate of the ultra-conservative party that started the War on Drugs?

Maybe the people will vote for the doppelganger of Obama that promises change and a thousand cornucopias?

Possibly vote for the hand puppet of Elba Esther Gordillo (commandress in chief of the Teacher's Syndicate) that stresses a hipster image, and basicly takes ridiculous postures appealing to the youth so its party can maintain 4% votes and still remain existing as a party?

Im just utterly ashamed and disgusted of the whole situation, and no matter how many "RADICAL" movements such as the supposedly non-partisan #yosoy132 or the IFE's tv spots tell me "YOUR VOTE IS YOUR POWER, YOU HAZ TO EXERSICES IT" id rather fuckoff at my house.

It is very sad how on one of the IFE's tv spots, the actress playing the role of "enthusiast voter" said a key phrase "Votar es mi ilusión" which roughly translates to either "Voting is my dream", "Voting is my hope" or the last, but not least, of the possible meanings "Voting is my illusion"...

And, oh boy, indeed it is, its the illusion of power over an event that has already been manipulated by fraudulent measures; voting is just an illusion, so we dont have to feel like victims or drones.

But that's basicly what we really amount to in this system.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Welcome to America^TM. 

As the great Japanese political philosopher Toyama Koichi once said, "Everywhere is America".

[The Johnny]

We're all living in America,
AMERICA IS WUNDERBAR.
And we lived beneath the waves,
In our yellow submarine,

When I'm dancing, I want to lead,
even if you all are spinning alone,
LET'S EXERCISE A LITTLE CONTROL.
I'll show you how it's done right.
We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine.


We're all living in America...

I know steps that are very useful,
and I'll protect you from missteps,
and anyone who doesn't want to dance in the end,
JUST DOESN'T KNOW THAT HE HAS TO DANCE!
And our friends are all aboard,
Many more of them live next door,
And the band begins to play.

We're all living in America,
America is wunderbar.
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.
We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine.

(Full speed ahead, Mr. Barkley, full speed ahead!
Full speed over here, sir!
All together! All together!
Aye, aye, sir, fire!
Captain! Captain!)

We're all living in America,
Coca-Cola, SOMETIMES WAR,
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

As we live a life of ease(life of ease)
Every one of us(every one of us) has all we need,(has all we need)
Sky of blue,(sky of blue) and sea green,(sea of green)
In our yellow(In our yellow) submarine.(submarine) ( Haha! )

We're all living in America,
AMERICA IS WUNDERBAR.

[Disco Pickle]

when i was down there this year last month it was painfully obvious that PRI was extremely well funded.  you couldn't drive 2 blocks without passing 5 billboards with one of their candidates faces smiling back at you. that and every bus skinned the same way.  that should scare the shit out of anyone with any sense, because there's only one reason to have that sort of coverage and funding.  what didn't surprise me but was disturbing none the less was the number of young people i talked to who were pulling for pri.  they didn't really experience the full force of the70 years they held power, and seemed to have rose colored glasses on about them being dominant again.  sure, many top, prominent members of the party were actually caught being corrupt and disgraced or jailed, but the bulk of the hands that were given free reign to grab what they could at the expense of everyone else, with impunity, are still there, just waitingto return to their old profession. 

I have it on good authority that the reason Veracruz has remained relatively violence free its that the local pols are allowing Sinaloa to traffic north without too much heat with the understanding that the drugs keep moving north, and the body count stays low. 

after that truck full of bodies was dumped in the middle of the busiest and most touristy intersection, and the city fired every cop and brought in the navy, it has been fairly quiet. 

[The Johnny]

PRI is the Old Regime; for a long time Mexico was a one-party country, for exactly 71 years. (Sure, there were other dissident parties, shockingly, none ever won, no corruption or fraud here. Nope.)

I mean, after so many years of having complete control of the country with no opposition, im sure their war-chest is brimming still.

I was born in 1986, and i still remember the crisis of the 90's... the "december mistake" and all the Gortari things...

Altough im not sure if the youth you talked to were "acarreados" which are not true supporters, but payed people to proselitize in favour of whomever hires them, a kind of political mercenary.

[Cain]

... Members of the political elite, analysts, and laypersons have consistently told Poloff [US Embassy political officers, or representatives] that candidates are paying networks to provide them with television coverage in order to bypass the restriction prohibiting candidates from purchasing airtime. Ortega also told Poloff that candidates provide their non-official spots to sympathetic local press, who run the promotions as "news" on regularly scheduled programs rather than as advertisements.

"It is widely accepted, for example, that television monopoly TELEVISA backs the governor [Peña Nieto) and provides him with an extraordinary amount of airtime and other kinds of coverage."

... Analysts and PRI party leaders alike have repeatedly expressed to Poloff [US Embassy representatives] their belief that he [Peña Nieto] is paying media outlets under the table for favorable news coverage, as well as potentially financing pollsters to sway survey results.

Mexico's dirtiest election campaign in over two decades is currently underway.

[The Johnny]

There's recurring and widespread evidence that if you have proof that you voted for PRI (taking a picture at the booth), you will be given $500 (pesos)

Here's a breakdown of the contents of "promotional packages" in PRIs meetings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz_WwFDZYyI

Note that pesos are about 13:1 per dollar.

[The Johnny]

either the majority want to bring back draconian into style or there was fraud

PRI won at preliminar vote counts by 11%

final results on wendsday

[tyrannosaurus vex]

PRI is corrupt but they tended not to have tens of thousands of drug-related murders in a year and there was a noticeably lower number of decapitated journalists dumped on public highways. Maybe the majority wanted to start with the basics first, like "Can I go to the market without getting kidnapped and/or killed in the crossfire?"

[Cain]

Given the PRI first gave the cartels a foothold in political governance, I don't see that outcome as likely.

It's also worth noting that in the current political context, more than one high ranking PRI official has been accused of taking money from Los Zetas, by far the most violent faction in the drug war.

In fact, the fall of the PRI from power in the early 90s can be pretty easily linked to the Salinas brothers attempt to build a political dynasty - one linked to the Tijuana Cartel and lots of suspicious assassinations.

[hirley0]

? 1 PAN %
& 2 Black out back East
3: I HAVE not been watching the news::

[The Johnny]

Vex, PRI allowed the cartels to bloom, just as long as they got a piece of the pie, the only measure they took was to act as a middleman to negotiate which territories belonged to whom, and thats why there was peace.

PAN, being the goody two shoes paladins of VIRTUE, and letting their ideological conservative values take hold, instead of thinking viable strategies against arguably the most powerful and organized crime in the world is what caused the 65 thousand deaths.

Its origins lie with the PRI; the bad strategy comes from the PAN.

AND JUST A REMINDER TO ALL THE ASSHOLES THAT THINK LEGALIZATION IS BAD AND IT CAUSES MORE HARM THAN GOOD: if they were to actually legalize drugs, there would be no black market, and if there were no black market, cartel's income would take a hit they would not recover from.

Your uninformed opinion is somewhat insulting, in the sense that you are legitimizing 70 years of no democracy, political repression, no transparency, enrichment of friends and family of PRI members and a list that goes on and on and on.

[Cain]

I also did some checking, and the PRI have barely talked about the drug war, certainly not enough to suggest they have a strategy any different from PAN. 

[The Johnny]

88% of total votes counted.

37.7% PRI

32% PRD

So unless theres some magic pulled at the courts and good methods to revise if the votes are correct...

[The Johnny]

I also did some checking, and the PRI have barely talked about the drug war, certainly not enough to suggest they have a strategy any different from PAN.

Well, we peasants dont need to know about such matters that involve only the royal court.

I wonder if its more profitable to keep all the cartels happy and designate territories again, but, maybe its way too late to do that or how they say it? "The door has become unhinged"? Maybe PRI cant really negotiate with all the power accumulated by them, and it maybe forced to ally itself with the weaker cartels in hopes of controlling the Zetas.