Mexicans protest electoral fraud

As many as 1.5 million Mexicans gathered in Mexico City’s central Zocalo square on Sunday, July 16 to protest against fraud in the recent presidential election and to demand an official recount.

In a coordinated event to show solidarity with the historic Mexican demonstration, the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to

Photo: Aimee Shrestha

Stop War and End Racism) joined other progressive groups and individuals on Olvera Street in Los Angeles to denounce the fraud and irregularities discovered in over 30,000 precincts during the July 2 vote.

Mexican presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), has said that more than 2.5 million ballots are still missing.

Echoing sentiments heard by the million-strong march in the Mexican capital, local activists chanted, “Vote-by-vote and precinct-by-precinct,” alluding to the demonstration’s key demand to recount every single ballot. Many Los Angeles protestors held up banners of their candidate, López Obrador, while shouting, “Were tired of so much fraud!”

The question of the elections obscures the deeper issue—the capitalist economic crisis facing tens of millions of Mexicans struggling to survive. More than six million Mexican workers have left their country to seek work in the United States since 1994. There they face repressive U.S. legislation, deportations, and fascist anti-immigrant groups.

The PRD tends to be more progressive in its political agenda than the other major parties, but it remains very much within the confines of capitalism and does not advocate a change in the system. The right-wing National Action Party candidate, Felipe Calderón aims to privatize every remaining nationalized industry, especially petroleum. His predecessor, Vicente Fox, reversed Mexico’s traditional stance respecting other countries’ self-determination. Fox openly expressed hostility to Cuba and Venezuela.

Mexicans now await the country’s Federal Electoral Institute decision on the recount. Regardless of the outcome, the massive, record-breaking demonstrations held during the last two weeks indicate a growing frustration with the current political establishment.

As López Obrador pleads for calm and “civil resistance,” a larger sector within the Mexican proletariat is beginning to understand the inevitable confrontation with the country’s small, yet powerful, ruling class.