Free Republic

SALTILLO, Mexico – Gabby and Ana are in love. So are Marco Antonio and Juan Carlos. Under a sweeping new law allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions, they are planning to turn their love into a legal commitment. Legislators in the dusty northern border state of Coahuila have stunned Mexico by giving same-sex couples property and inheritance rights long reserved for married heterosexuals. It is a first for this predominantly Roman Catholic country, a measure so swift and so bold that it surprised even the gay community. All of a sudden, gay rights are on the national agenda. Since...

AMLO is heavily favored to win election next Sunday. He may be a left-wing nut, but he is an honest one. He is promising to fight to open the U.S. border for everybody, no bones about it. And he has pretty much made no secret of the fact that he's in the hip pocket of the drug cartels. He has a long history of friendship with the drug cartels and is making a drug amnesty provision the centerpiece of his campaign. Mexico is already on the verge of being overwhelmed by drug cartel violence, and AMLO seems ready to make...

Another election, another surprise. Actually, two elections, in two countries last weekend, with surprisingly pleasant surprises. And in two very large countries: Turkey (population 82 million) and Mexico (119 million), both very important to the United States. In the runup to the Turkish election, speculation in English-speaking publications centered on whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party would get a large enough majority in the parliament to amend the constitution without a popular referendum. The AKP, usually described as mildly Islamist, has been in power since 2002. In some respects it has compiled a record that compares favorably with those...

A dramatic rupture in Mexico’s main opposition political party has aired the group’s dirty laundry and also could trip up President Enrique Peña Nieto’s ambitious agenda of reform. The political fireworks riveted Mexicans on Monday, dominating airwaves and social media as leaders of the National Action Party, or PAN, bickered openly. On one level, citizens were viewing another chapter in the agony of a party that ruled for the last 12 years but has been corroded by infighting and a bitter power struggle. Also at stake, potentially, was the ease with which Peña Nieto has been getting legislation through a...

With Mexico's presidential election one month away, the leftist candidate is making modest gains while the incumbent party's contender has slipped, polls show. The polls thus far, however, do not alter the front-runner status of Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI, which is attempting to return to presidential power after a loss in 2000 ended its seven-decade rule. Opinion surveys released this week showed Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, heading a coalition of leftist parties, inching into second place, dislodging Josefina Vazquez Mota of the National Action Party, or PAN, of President Felipe Calderon. The margin between...

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the 2006 Mexican Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) presidential candidate, who inaugurated himself the legitimate president of Mexico with a following of more than 2 million people, said that on Saturday he wrote a letter to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to find a solution for the immigration issue. In 2006, López Obrador contested the Mexican presidential election claiming it was fraudulent. The leader of the leftist party, PRD, organized a meeting yesterday at City Hall in San Luis Río Colorado where close to 300 PRD militants attended including members of the Labour Party - Partido del Trabajo...

MONTERREY, Mexico – Gunmen burst into the home of a Mexican political leader in the northern state of Durango, fatally shooting him, two family members and an employee, authorities said Monday. Jaime Meraz Martinez, 63, of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, was shot three times Sunday night and died a couple of hours later at a local hospital, said Ruben Lopez, a spokesman for Durango state investigators. Meraz's wife, Maria Meraz, 61, his 34-year-old son, Jaime Meraz, and Jorge Marquez, a 22-year-old taxi driver, also were killed, Lopez said. Lopez said Meraz's daughter-in-law was wounded in the attack...

Marines settle in at San Lazaro1 Andrea Merlos & Ricardo Gomez El Universal Mexico City Thursday 30 November 2006 1:40 a.m.   At least ten trucks of the Marines of Mexico2 arrived in the early morning this Thursday at the Chamber of Deputies with 40 soldiers, each one of whom put himself in place on Congreso de la Unión Avenue. One day before the Toma de Protesta3 of Felipe Calderon as incoming President of the Republic, security was reinforced to the maximum in those squads who are covering the area up to the corner of Viaducto and Congreso de la...

Deputies act out new confrontation at the rostrum After the quarrel, the PRD Deputy for the State of Mexico, Alberto Lopez, had to be evacuated from the sessions room in a wheelchair Ricardo Gómez & Andrea Merlos El Universal Mexico City Tuesday 28 November 2006 4:56 p.m.   A new confrontation among federal deputies of the National Action Party (PAN) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) was provoked at the foot of the rostrum of the Chamber of Deputies, which continues to be occupied by legislators of both factions. At 4:13 p.m., the legislators of both groups were...

MEXICO CITY — "¡Presidente! ¡Presidente!" The murmur grew to a roar as Andrés Manuel López Obrador made his way through the throngs of working-class supporters gathered under a darkening sky. "You're not alone!" screamed one woman, nearly fainting after the former Mexico City mayor rewarded her with a kiss on the cheek. Others thrust out photos of López Obrador wearing the presidential sash, hoping for an autograph. The recent rally in a Mexico City slum might have been a stop on the leftist's campaign trail. Except that the presidential elections were over nearly five months ago. And the courts named...

Venezuela's presence in Mexican presidential investiture unconfirmed Mexico City. - The government of Venezuela still has not confirmed whether it will send a representative to Mexico to the presidential investiture of Felipe Calderon, the 1st of December, according to the official list circulated today by the Mexican presidency. The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, who is seeking reelection in the elections which will be carried out in his country the 3rd of December, up to now has avoided recognizing Calderon's victory, among other reasons since he considers there were "strange things" in the Mexican elections. According to information released...

The defeat projected by most opinion polls signals that many voters may have been alienated by the increasingly radical stance of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and its fiery former presidential hopeful Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Many see the Tabasco race as a referendum on López Obrador´s decision to mount hardline challenges of the presidential results. Most polls show López Obrador trailing Andrés Rafael Granier, the candidate of Madrazo´s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). A Granier victory would be a major boost for the PRI, which ruled for 71 years until losing to the conservative Vicente Fox in 2000 and which...

There are salient issues that the Mexican news media have failed to either recognize or cover concerning the effects of the ongoing debacle of the Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador movement. I have lived in South America (Bolivia and Brazil) for the better part of 10 years. During that time I saw this exact scenario unfold all too many times. Ten points to note: 1. The travesty that the Mexican citizen “majority” has been forced to endure at the hands of “minority” PRD factions clearly illustrates how much a general population can be held at siege in the modern era. This...

Movement of Naval Troops Reported in Salina Cruz [Oaxaca] Alberto Lopez El Universal (Mexico City) Sunday 1 October 2006 Juchitan, Oaxaca -- Neighbors of the port city of Salina Cruz and Huatulco [Oaxaca] reported "an unusual movement" of naval troops from the end of last week. "We have seen the arrival of planes, armored cars, and helicopters," said a source who asked to remain anonymous. Military sources confirmed the versions of witnesses, even though they clarified that the movement of troops corresponds with a program of combat practice which is regularly carried out in a joint form between Marines...

Helicopters Flying Over Oaxacan Encampments Due to the presence of Navy forces in the airspace of the zone where protestors of the teacher's union and APPO are located, a maximum alert is decreed; warning that a dislocating operation may be carried out tonight Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondent El Universal Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Saturday 30 September 2006 5:00 p.m. At 4:30 p.m., two Navy helicopters flew through the airspace over the center of Oaxaca City; at 4:50 and 5:00 p.m. new overflights appeared, apparently in reconnaisance. From La Ley radio, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) called for...

The Oaxacanization of the Country: From the Myth of Fraud to that of Ingovernability It was left clear this week, the connection between the insurrectional strategy of Oaxaca and that of AMLO, which already seems to be weakening between desertions and the universal loss of prestige. The difference is one of perspective: For AMLO and his landscaped spaces it was considered vital to exhibit as a survival certificate the oxygen tank which he offered to the Popular Assembly of the People (sic) of Oaxaca (APPO) to identify its goal with that of the defeated presidential candidate: that of preventing...

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s president-elect says murder and mayhem fueled by drug smuggling have overwhelmed the governments of the nation’s capital and key states across the country. Felipe Calderón said the wave of bloodshed knows no politics; it is ravaging state governments controlled by each of Mexico’s three major parties. He singled out Mexico City, the northern states of Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, the southern state of Guerrero and his home state of Michoacan, as being especially hard-hit. “It seems to me that drug violence has overwhelmed the governments of the PAN, the PRI and the PRD,” Calderón said in a...

Cardenas: Naming of AMLO a "Grave Error" The Moral Leader of the PRD indicates that the actions of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador "are pummeling and damaging all the Mexican Left." EFE News Service El Universal Madrid, Spain Monday, 18 September 2006 The actions of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador "are pummeling and damaging all the Mexican Left" and his naming as "legitimate President" in a voting of raised hands in the Zocalo capital plaza is a "grave error," according to the founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. In an interview with the Spanish daily newspaper La...

Convention Names AMLO "Legitimate President" After voting on this convention's proposals, the delegates agreed that they will not recognize Felipe Calderon as President-Elect nor the government which he heads 6:27 p.m. The resolutions of the Democratic National Convention designated Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as "Legitimate President." After voting on this convention's proposals, the delegates agreed that they will not recognize Felipe Calderon as President Elect nor the government which he heads. In the midst of shouts of acceptance, the sympathizers await the arrival of Lopez Obrador, as reported [on the radio program] Formato 21. More information shortly

MEXICO CITY, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Leftist protests forced Mexican President Vicente Fox to abandon plans to lead a traditional ceremony in the capital on Friday, the eve of independence day, the Interior Minister said. Fox, targeted by leftists angry at what they say was fraud at July's presidential election, will instead hold the highly-symbolic cry of independence in the central town of Dolores Hidalgo, minister Carlos Abascal told reporters on Thursday. The ceremony, known as "el grito", takes place every Sept. 15 in the central Zocalo square but leftists have vowed to demonstrate against conservative Fox in the plaza.