Fraude Mexico 2006 — part 2 of 10

This section of Fraude Mexico 2006 deals with mostly with the “videoescandelos” that eventually backfired against Lopez Obrador’s opponents as he prepared to run from President.

At the start of the segment, we see the return from Irish exile (self-imposed, Ireland being a great money-laundering country at the time, and extradition to Mexico being unlikely) of Carlos Salinas.  Salinas, according to Lopez Obrador, enjoyed the support of the major companies, the mining firms, the banks, the media … and the Church (as witnessed by Cardinal Norberto Rivera’s benediction).  Again, according to AMLO, Salinas and Fox were in cahoots with each other to prevent a populist party from gaining power.

The video-scandals in some ways confirm many of AMLO’s suspicions.  It was a weird story that began with Federico Dorring (the badly shaven guy in the clip with the clown) releasing on Victor Trujillo’s morning Televisa program el Manañiero (literally, “a little something for your morning” though… figuratively, “the morning fuck”) a tape of the Federal District’s budget director, Rene Benejaro pocketing large amounts of cash.

Dorring was a PAN Senator from the Federal District.  Trujillo — in his foul-mouthed clown disguise — was actually a powerful media figure supportive of the right, roughly comparable to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly when the right-wing was in power in the United States.

Benejaro was the bag-man for another political figure within AMLO’s party, picking up the cash from… as he calmly related to Trujillo… Carlos Ahumada.  Ahumada was not indicted by the federal authorities for bribery, but after being indicted by Federal District authorities, fled to Cuba, where he was staying in a house owned by none other than Carlos Salinas until he was arrested by the Cubans for extradition back to Mexico City.

Weird enough?  Ahumada admitted to Cuban investigators (shown on this segment) that he had paid the bribes at the behest of the Fox Administration and Carlos Salinas… and made the videos given to Doring for the purpose of discrediting AMLO’s administration.  Salinas is shown denying that the charges are simply an attempt to “politicize” the criminal charges.

Soon after the Benajaro tapes surfaced, in January 2004 tapes surfaced (shown on Televisa) of the City Comptroller playing blackjack in Las Vegas.  That was a scandal and he was later jialed (Benajaro was later cleared of bribery charges).  I thought it was very strange at the time, and wondered whether there was U.S. involvement, given that Las Vegas casino security tapes normally don’t surface in Mexican newsrooms.  A Federal Court case questioning the right of the FBI to spy on ordinary citizens — specifically to required Las Vegas casinos to give the FBI access to their security camera tapes — made me wonder if the U.S. government was not looking for evidence of wrong-doing in the AMLO administration also.

AMLO, during the cut in interview, says he was hurt by the scandals, not so much poltically, as “morally”.  Mexico Fraude 2006 glosses over the legal maneuvering behind his attempted “disafuero” (impunity from prosecution as a public official) by Congress — which had to do with a murky issue involving a piece of land taken by eminent domain for a hospital access road) — to focus on AMLO’s speech to the Senate.  The importance of the scene showing his motorcade on the way to the senate is to re-enforce the image of AMLO as “everyman” … his official car being a regular Mexico City government fleet Tsuru and not the limosine you’d expect the elected leader of the Federal District to use as his official vehicle.

In his speech, AMLO accuses Salinas and the powers that be of not so much attacking him as a “populist”, but attacking the democratic rights of Mexicans to chose the leaders they want.