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Caracas, Venezuela, September 14, 2006 -Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Tuesday night that “Venezuela has not recognized the new Mexican government” and stated that they are “evaluating” the situation. Chavez made the statements at a Caracas event for the fifth anniversary of the Venezuelan Women’s Bank. “I don’t want to interfere out of respect for the internal matters of the country, but of course we are worried about the situation in which the Mexican people are living and the circumstances under which the electoral process came about,” said Chavez. Chavez announced his fears for “the strong accusations and evidence...

Displaying signs that said, ARCHBISHOP NORBERTO, HELL IS WAITING ON YOU, and a sign that said, GOD IS NOT PANISTA, dozens of protesters tried to push their way into the Cathedral in downtown Mexico City

Mexican judges face tough test in disputed presidential race By JULIE WATSONTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS MEXICO CITY  -  The future of Mexico’s young democracy lies in the hands of seven judges who have the final word on a disputed presidential election that has strained class divisions and threatened the nation’s stability, with one candidate calling for millions to protest.The magistrates  -  including Mexico’s first female district judge and a respected author on ethics and democracy  -  have shown toughness and independence in thousands of electoral disputes, ruling against all three major parties.But they have never faced a challenge like this. Mexicans...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's leftist presidential candidate said Thursday he has lost faith in Mexico's main electoral agency, and doesn't want them overseeing the national recount he is demanding. In an interview with The Associated Press, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico's widely respected Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, had abandoned its autonomous role and taken become a tool of the ruling party. "You can't take IFE people seriously," he said. "They don't act according to the law." An official IFE count gave conservative Felipe Calderon a less than 1 percent advantage in the July 2 elections. Lopez Obrador is...

MEXICO CITY -- By the narrowest of margins, conservative Felipe Calderón won the official recount in Mexico's bitterly contested presidential election Thursday. But it may be a little early to break out the champagne. A court challenge by the fiery leftist who lost the count ensures a nasty battle ahead, and an angry, divided electorate underscores the unprecedented challenge the next president will face in governing this sprawling country. Volatile street protests, jittery financial markets and political class warfare seem all but certain to test Mexico's young democracy in coming days. And whoever wins the legal fight will walk into...

While the U.S. Congress dithers over how best to stop illegal immigration, the Mexican people may have already decided the issue this past weekend. Mexicans went to the polls Sunday to pick a new president, only the second presidential election in the last 75 years that could be characterized as a truly free and democratic contest. The more conservative, free-trade-oriented candidate, Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN), appears to have eked out a slim victory with a few hundred thousand more votes than the leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Although Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City...

Jul 06 11:10 AM US/Eastern By LISA J. ADAMS Associated Press Writer MEXICO CITY Ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon built an insurmountable lead in Mexico's presidential vote count Thursday, but his leftist rival vowed to challenge the results in court. With 99.56 percent of the vote counted, Felipe Calderon would win even if all the remaining votes went to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party. He had 35.82 percent of the vote, compared with 35.37 percent for Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador supporters wept in the streets, saying they wouldn't let him be robbed of victory.

...Canada is, along with the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, part of the Anglosphere. The Anglosphere comprises the best nations, with the best records for goodness of any major powers in recorded history. Though imperfect, we've collectively been on the right side of more issues, created better societies, and liberated more people from tyranny than anyone else ever. (Example: Nearly every former British colony today has a democratic government. No other European power can say that---not even close.) Not to put too fine a point on it---we're just better. Not genetically, for goodness sake---but culturally. Who knows,...

MEXICO CITY — With more than 90% of an official recount concluded late Wednesday, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held a slim lead over conservative Felipe Calderon in Mexico's fractious and unpredictable presidential election. The partial result was a surprising turnabout after two days of preliminary counts showed Calderon slightly ahead. The initial tally at the 131,000 polling places that began Sunday night was deemed too close to call. On Wednesday, officials undertook the final count based on a review of polling station reports. With 94% of the polling stations tallied, Lopez Obrador led Calderon by 0.73 percentage point, or...

LOS ANGELES - A potentially powerful expatriate voting bloc likely will have little effect on Mexico's presidential race because of the illegal status of many who live in the United States. Thousands of Mexican expatriates streamed into border towns Sunday to vote in their homeland's elections and others were allowed to cast absentee ballots for the first time. Still, many more were disenfranchised by their fear of crossing the border as undocumented residents. "I really wanted to vote, but I don't have papers so I couldn't go to Mexico" to get a voter card, said Adriana Lopez, 27, a housewife...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (Reuters) - Thousands of expatriate Mexicans streamed south of the U.S. border on Sunday to vote in their homeland in a tight race with high stakes for crime-weary border residents. A large stream of U.S.-based Mexicans trekked on foot and piled into cars to vote in a string of gritty border towns from Tijuana in the west to Nuevo Laredo below Texas. Electoral authorities were taken by surprise at the number of expatriates who showed up. "It's a very close-fought race ... and if we don't vote, we can't hope to decide the outcome," said Luis Tovar,...

Kieran Murray and Alistair Bell MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's presidential election is too close to call between a leftist anti-poverty campaigner and the conservative ruling party candidate locked in a tie, a respected exit poll said on Sunday. The extremely close vote raised fears of a political crisis if any of the main candidates challenge the results and call street protests. Pre-election polls had showed Felipe Calderon of the ruling party and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-wing former mayor of Mexico City, in a virtual tie. Exit polls from Mexico's two main television station and the El Universal...

MEXICO CITY - Mexicans voted Sunday in a tight presidential race to decide whether their country becomes the latest Latin American nation to move to the left, choosing between a shopkeeper's son promising to save the poor and a conservative calling his rival's free-spending populism dangerous. The campaign, which exposed Mexico's painful class divisions, was the first since Vicente Fox's stunning victory six years ago ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Polls predicted a close race between conservative Felipe Calderon, 43, of Fox's National Action Party, and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 52, a...

MEXICO CITY — After a presidential campaign that exposed Mexico's deep class divisions, voters chose Sunday between a free-spending leftist pledging to put the poor first or a conservative pushing private investment and free markets as the keys to prosperity. The presidential election is the first since Vicente Fox's stunning victory in 2000 ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The vote will determine whether Mexico becomes the latest Latin American country to move to the left. ... Polls predict a close race between conservative Felipe Calderon of Fox's party and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez...

Mexican conservative could buck trend By Alistair Scrutton 1 hour, 17 minutes ago MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - For all the talk of the rise of Latin America's left, Mexican presidential hopeful Felipe Calderon could show on Sunday that, while unfashionable, U.S.-style conservatives can still win hearts and minds. Years of stuttering market reforms under outgoing President Vicente Fox from free trade to a credit card bonanza have taken root among many voters who fear leftists so popular in countries like Venezuela and Bolivia could bring ruin. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a slight favorite in Sunday's elections but polls...

Mexican leftist presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's lead slipped slightly in a poll released on Monday, after widening in other recent polls ahead of July elections. The new poll by Consulta Mitofsky gave Lopez Obrador 38 percent of the expected vote -- seven points more than his nearest rival, conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. The survey showed Calderon and Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Roberto Madrazo gaining one point each to 31 and 29 percent respectively. Mexico's election race has turned dirty in recent weeks as Calderon and Madrazo have tried to tarnish Lopez Obrador's image with personal attacks...

Mexico leftist holds 6-point presidential poll lead Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:01 AM ET (Recasts; adds details, background) By Greg Brosnan MEXICO CITY, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Mexican leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's lead over his nearest rival has been halved to six points since November, according to poll results released on Thursday. The survey by daily newspaper El Universal gave Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, 33 percent support, with Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party in second place with 27 percent. In its last poll in November, El Universal had Lopez Obrador...

Mexican Candidates Begin 5-Month Campaign By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Thu Jan 19, 3:27 PM ET METLATONOC, Mexico - Mexico's top three presidential candidates kicked off the nation's five-month presidential campaign Thursday, with leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador traveling by dirt path to one of the country's poorest towns and promising to govern for the forgotten. ADVERTISEMENT With poverty shaping up as a key issue in the July 2 election, Lopez Obrador was greeted enthusiastically by Metlatonoc residents who fought to shake his hand and hang wreaths of flowers around his neck. "I'm going to listen to everyone,"...

SAN ANTONIO- The deadline for Mexico's first-ever absentee voting program for expatriates arrived Sunday with very few turning out to register, officials said. Of an estimated 4 million eligible voters worldwide, only about 18,600 participated in the program, passed by Mexico's Congress in June to allow citizens abroad to vote in the July 2 presidential election. While many called it a failure due for fundamental changes to get more participation, Mexican election officials insisted it was a good first step toward greater democracy. "If this very same information had been out there for nine months, the turnout would have been...

Monday, Jan-23-2006 MANUEL CAMACHO SOLIS (PRD), Representing the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica. Member of the 49th Congress; former Mayor of Mexico City; and former Secretary of Foreign Relations. AMBASSADOR ROBERTA LAJOUS (PRI), Representing the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Former Mexican Ambassador to Austria and Cuba and Permanent Representative from Mexico at the United Nations in Vienna and New York; former Director General for North America and for Europe in the Mexican Foreign Ministry. JUAN MOLINAR HORCASITAS (PAN), Representing the Partido Acción Nacional. Member of the 49th Congress; Chairman for the Council on Economic Affairs, PAN; former professor of political science...