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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 05:38 PM
Original message
"Scoop" - The Mexican People-Heroes of Democracy *Please* get this out
Edited on Wed Aug-23-06 05:43 PM by autorank

Spanish Link for “Scoop”
EnglishEnglish Link for “Scoop”
Copyright. Permission to reproduce in whole or part with attribution
to the author and a link to “Scoop.”

Please help get the word out. Too little is known.



“We won’t back down!”

The Mexican People:
Heroes of Democracy



“The only hope of Democracy, that fragile thing never granted
but always promised, is gone by virtue of election fraud... and with it
the social contract that holds our society together.” Anaxarchos


Michael Collins
“Scoop” Independent Media
Washington, DC


The Mexican peoples’ democracy movement and their leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador are modern heroes of democracy and to all who demand clean elections. They recall the heroics of the Ukrainians with one important difference. There are no “great powers” supporting them. In fact, the American regime is hostile to a victory by Obrador and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). The increasingly unpopular and isolated White House cadre may have done its best to obstruct such an eventuality in ways which by now are predictably familiar. The Mexican people are alone, on the street, fighting the brave fight for people everywhere who believe in the inherently inalienable and natural right of men and women to determine their own destiny through free, fair, and transparent elections.

Supporters of democracy in Mexico are making a stand in the nation’s capitol. They just had their third major demonstration with more than a million participants. The American press tried a theme of demonstrators growing weary recently, just before the latest seven figure gathering. The demonstrations tell Mexicans and the world that the election was so questionable, an investigation is mandated through a thorough review of the most direct evidence: the ballots. The PRD’s demand for a “ballot by ballot, precinct by precinct” recount is fully warranted.

The short history of this election offers a wealth of evidence pointing to fraud. The PAN party of Vincente Fox engaged in a number of questionable activities. $270 million was reportedly diverted from education programs in order to sweeten the pot in some northern Mexican states via the governors. Calderon defeated Obrador by margins of 50% in some sections of the north and there were charges of massive election fraud.

During the campaign, the ruling PAN party engaged in distorted negative advertising attacks on Obrador which are clearly outlawed in Mexican campaigns. The electoral authorities cited the party of President Fox as being the primary culprit for this, but the damage was done and the lies were spread.

The “independent” election institute tipped its hand by reporting Calderon the probable winner only to face shame when citizens pointed out there were 2.5 million uncounted ballots. The election institute totaled these and by a remarkable “coincidence,” Calderon’s victory margin remained in tact.

http://tinyurl.com/p3u8h ">The Los Angeles Times reported that Calderon gained 20% of his victory margin in just one of 300 election Districts:

“In Guanajuato's District 13, one of 300 electoral districts across Mexico, Calderón piled up a 44,000 vote margin, equivalent to almost one-fifth of his nationwide edge over López Obrador, candidate of the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD.”

Narco News reports that the vote tabulation software for the “independent” election institute was written in part by the brother in law of Calderon, the winner by the current count. Calderon’s brother in law denied this at first but admitted his role when confronted with evidence in the form of contracts.

Opening the seals on ballot boxes was reported frequently on election day, with accusations almost exclusively leveled at PAN activists.

Obrador supporters found ballots discarded, unreported, and uncounted in dumps and other hideaways.

Preliminary results from the 9% recount ordered by the election tribunal validate the suspicions raised and charges made by the Mexican Press, Narco News, and Obrador. On August 14, Narco News reported:

• “In 3,074 precincts (29 percent of those recounted), 45,890 illegal votes, above the number of voters who cast ballots in each polling place, were found stuffed inside the ballot boxes (an average of 15 for each of these precincts, primarily in strongholds of the National Action Party, known as the PAN, of President Vicente Fox and his candidate, Felipe Calderón).
• In 4,368 precincts (41 percent of those recounted), 80,392 ballots of citizens who did vote are missing (an average of 18 votes in each of these precincts).
Together, these 7,442 precincts contain about 70 percent of the ballots recounted. The total amount of ballots either stolen or forged adds up to 126,282 votes altered.” The Narco News Bulletin - Al Giordano 08/14/2006

Mexican citizens advocating for clean elections armed themselves with video cameras and other recording devices. We have yet to see any this evidence. Why? Because the corporate media north and south of the border are either intentionally or reflexively complicit, by taking part in the blatant http://tinyurl.com/create.php ">shilling that goes into those razor thin victories that the right wing pulls off with increased regularity, efficiency, and repeated success..

Obrador is convinced that he won the election as are many others. It’s a close copy of the 1988 presidential campaign when observers were sure the left had won. Obrador and his supporters are not going to take that dubious outcome again without fighting. Not only have there been three major demonstrations of over a million people each in Mexico City, but Obrador has called for and is supported in acts of civil disobedience at airports and other key areas of Mexico City. This spirit coincides with resistance to tyranny in the Mexican states. In Oaxaca, a group of women recently took over a government seat of power by protesting the outrages of corrupt rule.

The millions of Mexican activists, the leaders, and Obrador are all engaged in a very high risk enterprise. The Fox government broke up a peaceful vigil by teachers in Oaxaca a few months before the election. As part of their protest, the teachers slept in the town square. One morning at dawn, the shameless Fox government dispatched helicopters to tear gas the peaceful demonstrators as they lay unguarded, innocently, and defenselessly sleeping.

Given the ruling elite’s response to protests in the provinces, what more nefarious means of repression can we expect in the capitol city when civil disobedience is inevitably enacted to assure a fair chance at winning the presidency?


Mexican police show up at PRD demonstrations. Photo Credit: NarcoNews.com


The ghost of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre before that year’s Summer Olympics haunts the demonstrations today. In a deliberate act of terror, the Mexican army surrounded Tlatelolco Square in Mexico City where 5000 activists were peacefully assembled. The troops opened fire with deadly effectiveness killing three hundred innocent demonstrators who thought Mexico was a democratic country. Premeditation with the intent to harm was acknowledged much later by the man in charge, then minister of the interior (and later president) Luis Echeverría. In addition, there is direct evidence of keen United States interest in the demonstrations and the student movement. US Government representatives in Mexico City gathered intelligence on the students and their plans, passing that along to the Mexican Government.

This will sound familiar to the many Americans who have lost personal data or who followed the elections closely in 2000. After 911, a detailed list of the names of Mexico’s 65 million voters was purchased by Choicepoint, an American data mining company. Was this detailed information provided to the Fox government and his party to target specific voters for special “benefits” in those areas with cash-rich Governors?

More worrisome, Mexico has not changed its laws since1968 when Echeverria ordered the massacre in Tlatelolco. He was charged but never fully prosecuted for his role in ordering the massacre. Will the Fox government adopt the same shock and awe approach against the Obrador protesters and execute another Tlatelolco massacre?

The millions flooding the public squares supporting Obrador’s cause are fully conscious as they act in civil disobedience. They know of the recent assault on sleeping teachers in Oaxaca and the history of premeditated violence by the previous government against the protesters who threatened far less than the democracy advocates are threatening today. Their goal is an end to decades of corruption which steals the wealth, lives, and soul of a nation of intelligent, hard working, creative people.

It is both prescient and incumbent upon all of us to support the heroic efforts of the Mexican people in any way we can. We should draw inspiration from their real-world battle against those who would hide ballots as though they were personal property instead of the fundamental statement of the public will. We must honor these sentinels of democracy by redoubling our efforts to make voter suppression, voter disenfranchisement, and nonsensical outcomes a thing of the past in the United States.

In a very real sense, Obrador and the PRD are leading the way to a positive shift in the movement toward freedom and against tyranny.

Citizens of the United States owe the Mexican people a great debt. We must respond with acts of comparable commitment in our own struggle for human dignity and freedom. Failure to act allows the nihilistic forces which serve outmoded, corrupt, and world killing philosophies to continue unopposed. These forces proceed despite all indications that the path and process have set us on a course of undeniable and obvious global catastrophe. There is an alternative available and it is coming to life right now in Mexico.

***END***


Copyright. Permission to reproduce in whole or part with attribution to the author and a link to “Scoop.”

Michael Collins is a writer who focuses on clean elections and voting rights. He is the editor of the election fraud web site, www.ElectionFraudNews.com . He has written articles on a number of topics for “Scoop” Independent News some of which include:: The Disenfranchisement of Katrina's Survivors; The Unanswered Question: Who Really Won In 2004?; Secret Vote Counting, a scathing critique of HAVA; and Kennedy's Challenge, a detailed response to Salon’s attack on the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. article on stolen election 2004. Special thanks to Stella Black for editorial assistance. MichaelCollins@electionfraudnews.com
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knowbody0 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 05:43 PM
Response to Original message
1. Hey autorank!
This movement in Mexico is amazing, and now the "people" have taken control of 10 radio stations.

good stuff at Michael Collins btw

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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 05:45 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Hey knowoby0
That Collins guy is busy;)

:hi:
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knowbody0 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 05:59 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. "snork"
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whistle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 05:43 PM
Response to Original message
2. Done
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 05:44 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Thanks!!!n/t
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Me. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 05:48 PM
Response to Original message
5. Wow! You're Really Kickin' It Today
K & R

*shadow government*
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bleever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 06:43 PM
Response to Original message
7. Holy cow, autorank, when do you sleep?
Another incredible compendium of information!

The snowball of truth keeps growing in size and speed.

:patriot:

:kick:
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 08:26 PM
Response to Reply #7
13. Tonight but not with "the fishes" ...
If corporate media would just do it's job, I would have a fairly relaxed life style:)
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kpete Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 06:52 PM
Response to Original message
8. Beautiful
I honor the Mexican people for their courage - Viva Mexico!!!
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 08:27 PM
Response to Reply #8
14. Gracias...their courage is an inspiration and it's really humbling to see.
When they win, the democracy fever spreads north.
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texpatriot2004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 06:56 PM
Response to Original message
9. K & R for Transparent Democracy nm
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emlev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 07:22 PM
Response to Original message
10. Thank you, Autorank! Do you know...
...of any organizations in the U.S. who are organizing to provide support to the Mexican demonstrators? If so, I'd like to know so we can support them.
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 08:30 PM
Response to Reply #10
15. No but my hunt is not complete. Fitrakis spoke directly to Mexicans
...but not much more. I'm sure Jackson is supportive but the silencia is deafening, and disturbing. When I talk to people, including folks in the Southwest, about Mexico being a model for future resistance, etc. etc., people listen but it's not an idea that has "currency." To me, it just jumps out
and grabs me -- they're doing what we whould have done; their leadership is brilliant, playing chess instead of checkers; the people know what the risks are and they persevere. Amazing...lets hope that I'm ust "a little ahead of my time.
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cal04 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 07:32 PM
Response to Original message
11. Wow! autorank This is great!!
thank you so much
:kick:

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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 08:31 PM
Response to Reply #11
16. Thank you for your great coverage of this and the beautiful pics
Can you link them to this thread. Awesome stuff.

You know what to do with this:)
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niallmac Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 07:35 PM
Response to Original message
12. I don't know about TV but the CNN headlines don't mention this.
A million participants at a rally? I mean, that's, that's almost
more newsworthy than JonBenet!!
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 08:33 PM
Response to Reply #12
17. Three 1.0 million demonstrations in 15-16 days, THREE OF 'EM
As for being more imprant than JonBenet..."do I detect a note of :sarcasm: Mr. niallmac" :evilgrin:

It's nowhere in coverage, no where...well that's not true, it's here. It should be on front page so
maybe I'll nominate myself....
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niallmac Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 08:20 PM
Response to Reply #17
34. Yeah, I am told I should use the sarcasm thingy more but
seems so obtuse. I'll get with the times. Anyway, as you underline, THREE million person gatherings! Uh, MSM, you might
want to maybe send a reporter or something.
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Swamp Rat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 08:35 PM
Response to Original message
18. ¡Órale!
:kick:

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Mr_Jefferson_24 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 08:50 PM
Response to Original message
19. How careful U.S. corporate media...
...has been to ignore the people's rebellion in Mexico---too many much more important new items to cover, such as what John Mark Karr (JonBenet Ramsey's alleged killer) had for breakfast.
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 10:18 PM
Response to Reply #19
21. OMG!
I walked by a car with the radio news on. Here's what I heard: "People are very upset that right now John Mark Karr is eating caviar as he flies back from Thailand." CM throws this trash out there and people end up losing cycles (like right now;) processing ridiculous information. That's OK, the truth is out there, they can't kill that. The Mexican people know their own truth and they're facing it. It's amazing.
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Me. Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 10:09 PM
Response to Original message
20. !
*shadow government*
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Raksha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 10:20 PM
Response to Original message
22. I'm trying to get the word out, autorank.
I posted part of the article with a link on another forum (mixed, libs and freepers) a little while ago, but so far no responses. I posted another note about the takeover of the radio stations in Oaxaca, but no replies yet on that one either.
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cal04 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 11:00 PM
Response to Original message
23. Life in Mexico's political 'tent city'
Edited on Wed Aug-23-06 11:08 PM by cal04

The tents are packed with protesters - many with their children - who want to change the outcome of the election.



The tents stretch out along the city's major avenues


"It is about not letting democracy go to rot here in Mexico"
Alicia



Addressing about a half-million marchers filling the city's historic central plaza and spilling down fashionable Reforma boulevard, Lopez Obrador said, "I propose we stay here permanently until the court resolves this ... That we stay here day and night."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1772761
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Mr_Jefferson_24 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 12:15 AM
Response to Reply #23
25. BushCo is quite literally terrified...
...by the prospect of our trying this. If we were to do this in the U.S., I wonder how long it would take them to roll out the tanks, mobilize Blackwater, and start hauling peaceful demostraters of to the reeducation camps.

This day is coming.

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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 01:11 AM
Response to Reply #23
26. Wow, thank you so much...the truth in action...
We don't get paid and we're already doing a better job than CM...just the people here at DU who sout the news, put together great picture essays (better than any TV reports I've seen), and mouth off (me).

The tent lined street is just stunning...these folks are my inspiration...
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Ghost in the Machine Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-23-06 11:33 PM
Response to Original message
24. WOW! ... just.... WOW!
Edited on Wed Aug-23-06 11:35 PM by Ghost in the Machine
Thanks for a TERRIFIC report and update. When I find myself wondering what's going on in Mexico right now, I know I don't have to look further than here at DU. In fact, you could say I rely on DU for my news source. I just don't trust anywhere else, and the members here at DU have a certain knack for separating the Bushit from the facts.

Excellent work, autorank... and thanks again for keeping us informed. I hope people are really watching the Mexican people and taking notes. These people cherish their democracy and are more than obviously willing to fight for it.

My fellow Americans, please watch and take notes.. there's gonna be a test on this in November. Don't forget to sharpen your pitchforks... er.. umm.. I mean... pencils.... yeah, pencils...


Ghost

edited for bad HTML :sigh:
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 11:23 AM
Response to Reply #24
29. Thank you Ghost!!! When "NarcoNews.com" can run rings around CM on
this story, you know that the corporate media has an agenda, neglect. The NTT editorial linked in the article called it a "normal" election, USA Today ran a July 7 headline on Calderon winning (it was not even official then and 100,000,000 Mexicans knew that was a lie). They just don't care, the think that they don't have to. Well it's a new ball game and the CM folks are quickly dropping in influence.

We'll prevail!

Elcellent source on Mexico, Latin America (great journalism):

www.NarcoNews.com
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freedomfries Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 07:09 AM
Response to Original message
27. K & R thanks auto
for this tremendous report!
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DemReadingDU Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 07:32 AM
Response to Original message
28. Amazing! Thank you, K&R!
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dogday Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 12:05 PM
Response to Original message
30. Absolutely wonderful
I praise the efforts of those who want the truth.....
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grizmaster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 12:53 PM
Response to Original message
31. Great job of bring the facts together
Must be nice to live in a country where people are willing to fight for their democracy. Here's to the day Americans stand up in similar numbers demanding that their votes count.

(actually with that 92% support of transprency of elections that day may not be as far away as we think)
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mhatrw Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 06:26 PM
Response to Original message
32. Kick.
Thanks for this very informative post.
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JimDandy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-24-06 08:19 PM
Response to Original message
33. Superbly tied together and rich in facts.
Thanks Autorank!
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Kurovski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-25-06 01:58 PM
Response to Original message
35. Kick!(n/t)
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blindpig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-25-06 03:26 PM
Response to Original message
36. Kick for truth and shame on us. n/t
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