Electoral Fraud and the Narco
The Narco News Bulletin
What Washington Wants
from
Mexican Elections
(www.a-roba.punto.com)
July
2, 2000 and the US Effort To Turn Mexico Into a Narco-Colony
Part
Four of Our Special Election Report
June
17, 2000
Alone among the North
American media, we at The Narco News Bulletin have disclosed
our financial sources and our mission in covering the 2000 election
in Mexico.
From our first day of
publication we have explained our motives, as outlined in our
Opening Statement (also published in español).
We have also presented
our honest editorial view on what is happening right
now in our América.
We have told the history
of electoral fraud, drug money, and US manipulation in the Mexican
elections of 1988, of 1994
and of 1999.
We have walked with the
Mexican people in half the nation's 32 states. We have listened,
and we have learned.
Today we serve warning
to Washington, and to Wall Street: We see through your plot to
steal democracy, once again, from the Mexican people. And you
need only look at the front pages of every newspaper in Mexico
yesterday -- Friday, June 16th -- to receive the news.
The
Mexican people know it too:
El
Universal:
"Warning
Over Foreign Polls"
"Cárdenas,
Fox and Camacho Pact to Defend the Vote"
"They
Will Act Together to Avoid an Illigitimate Triumph by the PRI
Candidate"
La
Jornada:
"Cárdenas
and Fox Criticize US Electoral Interference"
"Both
Support Camacho's Initiative in Defense of the Vote"
Por
Esto!
"Civil
Insurgency!
...if
the Federal Government Doesn't Respect the July 2 Elections,
warns Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas"
Reforma
"Opposition
Arms Anti-Fraud Alliance"
and,
related story in Reforma and other papers:
"Fujimori
Shows Appreciation for Zedillo's Backing"
The
above four newspapers represent 25% of daily circulation in Mexico
Others,
still, weighed in:
Imagen
de Zacatecas
"Civil
Insurgency if there is Fraud"
Angel
de Puebla
"Cárdenas
convokes civil insurgency, campaigns in Puebla"
El
Diario de Chihuahua
"Cárdenas:
Civil Insurgency If the Vote is Not Respected"
El
Porvenir de Monterrey
"Fox,
Cárdenas and Camacho will Defend the Vote"
Mural
de Guadalajara
"Opposition
Agrees to Anti-Fraud Alliance"
Correo
de Hoy of Guanajuáto
"Defense
of the Vote Unites Them"
"Pact
to Vigil the Elections"
"Camacho,
Fox and Cárdenas Counter Regime's Strategy to Avert Illegal
Triumph of the PRI"
Crónica
"Opposition
Agreement for Joint Defense of Vote"
"Fox,
Cárdenas and Camacho Converge to Vigil Electoral Process"
"Possible
Intent by President to Distort Results, says Fox"
"Labastida:
The Election Commision should demand to know the methodology
of July 2 Pollsters"
Pública
de Guadalajara
"Opposition
Pact to Watch Elections"
"Camacho,
Fox and Cuauhtémoc Will Defend Together the Legality of
the Elections... They Will Try to Seek the Same Position on July
2nd Results"
Síntesis
of Hidalgo, Puebla and Tlaxcala
"Cárdenas:
No More Illigitimate Governments"
Q.
What
Provoked All This?
A.
A Blessed
Mistake by US Meddlers in México
On Thursday, June 15th,
United States political interests -- under a "bi-partisan"
banner of Republicans and Democrats -- announced its plan to
conduct exit polls in México July 2nd "so that the
Mexican people can sleep soundly on July 2nd."
This attempt to put the
Mexican public asleep backfired. Read the headlines above. Where
the political opposition in México had been divided, now
comes a united front against Electoral Fraud.
Instead of going to sleep,
as US political consultant Rob Allyn urged, came calls of "Civil
Insurgency" if the plot succeeds as planned.
Yesterday, The Narco
News Bulletin sent a letter to the Democratic and Republican
party front-men for this cynical operation in counter-democracy.
Today, we publish it to
the world:
June 15, 2000
To: Rob Allyn, Director,
"Democracy Watch"
Allyn and Company (Republican consultants)
Dallas, Texas
roallyn@aol.com
Doug Schoen
Penn and Schoen
New York, New York
dschoen@ps-b.com
Dear Sirs,
I write to express my
profound concern that in the name of "democracy" you
have undertaken a project regarding the July 2, 2000 Mexican
elections that will serve against democratic interests in what
is already a precarious electoral situation.
The central concern is
that your "Democracy Watch" project on the Mexican
elections has chosen to hide your funding sources.
Your project, as portrayed,
plans to publish polling results on the Mexican elections beginning
this week and you will also take an "exit poll" on
July 2nd. If, as Mr. Allyn expressed in today's Mexican press,
your goal is that "the Mexican people will be able to sleep
soundly on July 2nd," you owe the Mexican public, the international
community and the press an explanation of who is behind your
project.
This is especially true
because of the understanding by the Mexican public that so many
"public opinion polls" have already been manipulated
to serve the political interests who sponsored them; both in
this year's general election process and in the November 7, 1999
primary.
Obviously, if your project
wishes to be part of a transparent and open process, you must
fully disclose who is paying for it.
Our online newspaper,
The Narco News Bulletin, fully discloses our financial
sources and we call upon you to do the same.
Full disclosure is especially
important given the long history of meddling in Mexican political
affairs by the US government, political consultants, corporations
and others.
Yesterday, for example,
the US State Department officially certified the election before
it has even happened, sending a clear signal that it will accept
even a fraudulent result. And the US Ambassador to Mexico, in
1999, participated in the public relations cover-up of electoral fraud in the
state of Guerrero.
To have credibility, your effort must draw a very sharp line
from these interventionist practices of the United States government
in Mexico's elections.
As El Universal
editorialized today: "In recent hours it has been announced
that foreign organizations will conduct their own polls, something
that could spread to other latitudes in a conflict that would
bring nothing beneficial to the Mexican electoral process."
The Narco News Bulletin is an online newspaper dedicated
to reporting on US drug policy and its consequences in Latin
America. We are strictly non-partisan: Narco News endorses
no political party or candidate in any country. We are journalists.
Our publication has received 158,905 visits since we first published
on April 18, 2000: the majority from the US and from Mexico.
Because of the long history
of the relation between drug money laundering and electoral fraud
in the elections of Mexico and in other countries, we are dedicating
a significant amount of coverage to those aspects of the Mexican
elections. We have also reported on the role of drug money in
the United States electoral process, as well as in the Dominican
Republic and other countries.
As political consultants,
I need not explain to you that strict adherence to ethics of
independence and impartiality are central to the credibility
of informational organizations. As the Mexican journalist Ernesto
Villanueva recently reported, the Declaration of Principles of
the Canadian Association of Daily Newspapers declares that, "conflicts
of interest, real or apparent, must be revealed."
The Statement of Principles
of the American Society of Daily Newspaper Editors says in its
Article I that: "Journalists who abuse the power of their
functions for motives of personal interest or hidden goals are
unworthy of the public trust. The American press won its liberty
not only by informing or serving as a forum of debate, but also
by realizing an independent examination of itself in what is
referred to as the forces of power in society, including the
conduct of offical power at all levels of government."
As North American pollsters
who are involving yourselves in the Mexican electoral process,
you are serving primarily in an informational capacity; that
is, you are conducting a form of journalism. We argue that you
must hold yourself to these universally accepted journalistic
standards to avoid both "hidden interests (that) are unworthy
of public trust," and to reveal any "conflicts of interest,
real or apparent."
The fact remains that
very few of Mexico's 96 million citizens can afford to finance
an operation like yours. The names and personalities of those
who few who can do that are well known to the Mexican people.
We have every faith that the Mexican public will be able to,
upon your full disclosure, discern whether your effort is truly
a non-partisan informational effort.
If you fail to disclose
your sources of funding - something that would not be permitted
in the United States electoral process - you will only create
more uncertainty among the Mexican electorate, where there is
already widespread distrust in the process, especially where
North American interests are involved.
Finally, we strongly recommend
that your full disclosure be certified by internationally respected
auditing organizations, not affiliated with any government, who
will have access to all contracts, bank statements and other
relevant information related to your Democracy Watch project.
Anything less, and "Democracy
Watch" will contribute to a situation in which there is
little democracy to watch.
Fraternally,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/
narconews@hotmail.com
cc: National Democratic
Institute
International Republican Institute
The Carter Center
Global Exchange
Civil Insurgency
of Authentic Journalism