Mexican citizens who live abroad seek voting rights

MEXICO CITY - Dr. César Castro Marín of Phoenix has spent 13 years trying to earn the right to vote.

Though he lives in the United States, having gained legal residency years ago, Marín has retained his Mexican citizenship and ties to the country of his birth.

Now, he is closer than ever to his dream: being able to vote in Mexican elections.

Marín and 39 of his colleagues at the U.S.-based Delegation for Political Rights of Mexicans Abroad last week lobbied Mexican Congress and Cabinet members to pass laws that will allow an estimated 7 million Mexicans abroad to vote in their country's presidential elections. Eventually, they want to elect their own representatives.

"If we're so important for (Mexico) because we send remittances that have become the country's second source of revenue, we should be important to contribute to the electoral process," Marín said. "We are practically a nation apart."

Marín and others, who have traveled here before to try to convince lawmakers, say they found a much more welcoming attitude than in previous trips, particularly from Congress members and political party leaders who jostled to get on the group's meeting agenda.

And during a meeting with Juan Hernandez, who heads President Vicente Fox's Office for Mexicans Abroad, Fox himself stepped into the room to greet coalition members.

"We are all agreed that this right should be set down in black and white," Fox said. "It's time."

The reception is encouraging, said Gaspar Salgado, a member of the delegation. Marín said he could remember when their efforts went ignored and their pleas to meet with lawmakers got little response. But Fox has changed all that. During his election campaign, he called migrants "heroes" for the work they do and the money they send back to their families in Mexico.

"Now, we are negotiating from a perspective of power." Salgado said. "This is a negotiation at the highest levels of Mexican politics."

But after so many years of waiting for action from the Mexican government, Salgado, Marín and their colleagues are impatient.

They presented to lawmakers and Cabinet members a document outlining their vision for integration of Mexicans abroad into the country's political life.

"There are serious legal and institutional voids in recognizing and exercising basic rights of Mexicans who live abroad," said the document, called the Zacatecas declaration. "We migrants who live in the United States constitute, within the community of democratic nations, the largest population of people without political rights. We don't have them in the United States when we are non-naturalized migrants, nor do we have them in Mexico, even though we maintain our rights of nationality and citizenship."

Few in Congress or in Fox's administration disagree that Mexicans abroad should have the right to vote in presidential elections. But the possibility of them electing their own representatives to Congress is a hotly debated topic.

The Mexican Congress has two types of representatives: those elected directly by the people, and those apportioned by federal district according to party domination of both chambers. Mexico is divided into five federal districts.

Delegation members want creation of a sixth district that would take in Mexicans living in other countries. They would elect Congress members that might even live abroad. But because the number of congressional representatives is static, a sixth district would rob members from all the other five districts, Work Party Congressman Jose Narro Cespedes said. Many in Congress don't want that dilution.

Another way to grant congressional representation might be through allowing Mexicans abroad to vote on representatives according to their original residence in Mexico, Narro Cespedes said.

The delegation wants the Mexican Congress to draft laws and vote on them by April 30 so citizens living abroad can satisfy requirements to vote in 2003 midterm elections. But Tarcisio Navarrete Montes de Oca, a congressman from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), said a more realistic goal is to allow Mexicans abroad to vote in the 2006 presidential elections, then see how they might vote in congressional elections.

This is the first time I've seen the idea that Mexicans abroad (in the United States, really) might have their own separate representation. Not sure if the United States or Mexico should be more concerned about this. Does anyone know of a precedent for this anywhere?

The good doctor could vote in his country's corrupt, rigged elections if he would just take his ass home. The INS should see to it that he does so. Why should anyone be allowed to stay here who has demonstrated that they only want access to the economy, not to become a citizen?

The creation of a new district in the Mexican congress is a very revealing idea. These people intend to come here in their millions and use our socialist government policies to benefit themselves while their allegiance remains to the corrupt government which makes it necessary for them to leave their country in order to feed their families.

Israelis have dual citizenship. The problem is that it is hard to represent either country, especially when they have opposing policies. It also gives the dual citizen twice the leverage in his voting authority over the average citizen.

In the case of Mexico, it enables the legal Mexican in the US to vote for a candidate of his choice regarding NAFTA matters and vote in Mexico for a candidate supporting the same position, thereby doubling his effect on a certain issue. The same principle applies to Israel and is one reason Israeli policy has such a strong effect in our country.

Why should anyone be allowed to stay here who has demonstrated that they only want access to the economy, not to become a citizen?

At least the doctor is here legally, according to the story. So suppose he is not a U.S. citizen, but here legally. It seems to me that whether or not he votes in Mexico's elections is up to Mexico.

Whether or not he should be required to given Mexican voting rights up in order to become a U.S. citizen is the question in my mind. We don't enforce that for other countries, though. But I'm not sure I like the idea of the United States, in effect, becoming a voting district in Mexican elections.

...it enables the legal Mexican in the US to vote for a candidate of his choice regarding NAFTA matters and vote in Mexico for a candidate supporting the same position, thereby doubling his effect on a certain issue.

Does it make any difference to you that the voting in Mexico might be done as part of a "Mexicans abroad" district (really, a United States district)? This somehow seems wrong to me. Although a lot of people in Mexico might have even more reason to object to it.

The man has been trying to get his voter status established as a Mexican absentee for 13 years. The article doesn't state how long he's been here, but we can assume it's at least 13 years. Nobody should be allowed to establish permanent residency without applying for citizenship. There seems to be too many types of long term residency available to foreign nationals who want to stay here.

The fact that Mexico doesn't allow absentee voting for people who have moved out of their country permanently shows that they at least have a grasp on the concept of sovereignty. Americans living abroad for more than say, seven years should not be allowed absentee voting privileges either.

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