What a year it was…

Of all the unusual and unlikely sources for a good, clear, SIMPLE review of the screwed up political situation over the last year, I found Michael Werbowski (whom I don’t know) writing on a South Korean news site (When I sent Werbowski a note congratulating him on a good piece, the polite Korean email form politely replied “Success to email your message”. 

Success to read: Mexico: Quo Vadis?

2006 has been without doubt a tumultuous year for Mexicans. The crisis in Oaxaca which began with a peaceful teachers’ strike and in city’s Zocalo or main square finally boiled over into a violent confrontation this fall.

Nationally, an election mired in virtually slanderous exchanges between the leading candidates descended to mudslinging in the media. Manuel Andre Lopez Obrador ( AMLO) was portrayed as a dangerous radical left-winger by his leading contender. Yet the former mayor of Mexico City who masterminded the “secundo piso” or second level which was opened just weeks before election day is hardly seen by many as a Trotskyite as the neo-conservative and neoliberal Partido de Accion Nationale spinmeisters portrayed him to be during the presidential campaign.

This distorted image fooled few of the AMLO’s supporters it seems. In fact, this less than edifying scare-mongering tactic may have backfired as the election was so close in the end. On my post electoral visit, the atmosphere in Mexico City reminded me of the deep and pervasive sense of disappointment– almost grief–many felt after Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was deprived of a victory in 1988 during my first visit to the country.

A stolen election?
Many Mexicans remain convinced that the 2006 race was riddled with vote counting “irregularities” and that official tallies were simply rigged and manipulated to favor “Uncle Sam’s man”: Felipe Calderon. In that sense this year’s campaign after a relatively clean 2000 race was a regression back to the good old days when the rule of “Herod’s law” reigned on the policial scene. This was so brilliantly depicted and satirized in a Mexican film by that same title.

(Success to read total article)