Mexico and its two governments, two different projects for the country.
We will organize the people of Mexico
as has never been seen in
the history of the country".
Andrés Manuel López Obrador[1].
Bulletin # 1/ 2006-12-04
writen by Manuel Pérez Rocha L. and Andrés Peñaloza Méndez
1. Taking the oath of office in two very contrasting ways.
Mexico has just lived through some of the most unprecedented days in its modern history. Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) was sworn in as Mexico's president not in the National Congress, but from the hands of a member of the military in Los Pinos, the presidential residency. In a normal transition, Fox would have handed the presidential sash to the leader of Congress and her or she would have handed it over to Calderon. Instead, the mediator was a member of the military in a closed ceremony at midnight. This is a very significant event which demonstrates the strong political rejection of the opposition and the social rejection of millions of people; hundreds of thousands of them protesting in the streets of Mexico City against the imposition of Calderon taking office when an electoral fraud was committed on July 2nd. It is also significant that the now ex-president Fox and Calderon could finally enter the Congress, but only through simulated movements, going through back corridors and the back door, like spies in a thriller, dodging the people in the streets, the members of Congress themselves and the press.
On the November 20th , before Calderon's swearing in, and in sharp contrast with his hurried, improvised and closed doors ceremony, and against the odds of the political right in the sense that the strong social movement in favor of democracy and the fight against the electoral fraud in Mexico would eventually wear out, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the candidate of the left for the Por el Bien de Todos Coalition[2], called hundreds of thousands of followers to the Zocalo (main plaza) of Mexico City to a ceremony where he took the oath of office as the legitimate president of Mexico and presented his legitimate government. At the same time that the federal government repressed the people's movement in Oaxaca, and while exiting president Fox avoided the traditional commemoration of the Mexican Revolution anniversary, AMLO (as he is well known from the acronym of his name) presented in a festive Zocalo the cabinet of his government, making a transcendental leap forward in the struggle that millions of Mexicans keep against the electoral fraud.
2. It was the fraud that took us all down this road.
It must always be remembered that after the thin razor results of the presidential elections of July 2nd, a period of challenging the results of the vote tallying carried out by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) began. The Por el Bien de Todos Coalition listed a series of objections that made carrying out a full recount of the votes urgent and extremely necessary; "vote by vote" was the demand (see Annex 1). However, the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) agreed to carry out a very partial recount (only 9% of the total votes). In the end, the Tribunal declared Felipe Calderon the winner of the elections not withstanding its own conclusions in the sense that a series of irregularities had taken place during the presidential campaigns, such as the illegal involvement of president Fox and entrepreneurial groups, and in the elections themselves such as irregularities in the counting of the ballots and the results that consistently subtracted votes from Lopez Obrador. The unbelievable final verdict of the TEPJF in favor of Calderon responded to the pressure of the Mexican oligarchy and international accomplices, exemplified by prior interventions of Spanish ex president Aznar in favor of Calderon, something prohibited by the Mexican Constitution, as well as pressures from the current Spanish government against Lopez Obrador, which can be summed up as considering that it is better to accept these irregularities, erase them in a stroke and not carry out the needed "vote for vote", under the pretext of not putting at risk "social peace" in Mexico, which amounts to forcing the continuation of the neoliberal regime.
Since the TEPJF declared Calderon the president-elect, the powerful interests well represented by the television duopoly of Televisa and TV Azteca moved their
tactic from dirty campaigning to an information vacuum. At this moment, AMLO would have disappeared from the television screens if it wasn't for the massive
and long lasting encampment organized along Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main streets in Mexico City, where the vast inconformity of millions was expressed
in a peaceful and many times artistic manner. The great encampment culminated in the National Democratic Convention, held on September 16, where more than
a million people from throughout the country participated, and where the will of having Lopez Obrador as president of Mexico, not withstanding the results of the
TEPJF, was confirmed. The encampment lasted 45 days, covering an extension of more than 10 kilometers and where more than 10 thousand people per day
demonstrated the decision of maintaining a stern movement against the fraud. However, once the encampment was removed, the people's movement, and AMLO
himself, disappeared from the TV screens.
In the ceremony to declare AMLO the legitimate president of Mexico on the November 20, "in order to know (in Mexico) what was going on in the Zocalo, it was
necessary to see a gringa TV station; CNN" [3]. Despite the information black out, AMLO and his movement, together with the members of his new cabinet,
managed to be again in the epicenter of national politics and make Calderon so nervous that he had to reassure international capitals the next day naming hurriedly
his own economic cabinet.
3. The very different cabinets of Lopez Obrador and Calderon,
The Cabinet of Calderon's government.
To many analysts in Mexico, the government cabinet of Felipe Calderon is the clearest sign of the continuation of the neoliberal economic prescriptions in Mexico on the one hand, and the strengthening of repressive faculties on the other. In general terms, the conformation of the cabinet is determined and dictated by the political commitments made by Calderon, and the economic and political agenda he must respond to; that is "the natural dependency to the forces that took him by the hand" to the presidency. His cabinet includes managers of the Mexican oligarchy, technocrats seen with good eyes by the World Bank and the IMF and members of the far right of the PAN.
Calderon's inaugural speech in the National Auditorium on the December 1st is in general terms an intent to show that he is willing to reconcile with the enormous social discontent in Mexico, even making of his own some of the claims and demands of the left, responding to what he said before, that "he would overtake (Lopez Obrador) by the left side". Despite some promises that copy some proposals of AMLO, like giving universal health care to children, or reducing the salaries of high government officials (which amounts to a mere 10%), in Calderon' s cabinet there was no room for anyone that could make us think that his government will be conducted any different than prior Mexican governments, economically or politically.
Two of the most important designations are those corresponding to two ministries that are central to the country, the Ministry of Finance (Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público), as part of the "economic cabinet" and the Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación), as part of the "political cabinet"[4]. Indeed, the designation of Agustin Carstens, who was educated in Harvard and the ITAM, and has worked for the Bank of Mexico and the IMF, signals perfectly the continuation of neoliberal orthodoxy and the intention to conclude the so called "structural reforms" of the Mexican economy. From the regime's perspective, the lack of growth of Mexico's economy and the dire social problems of millions of Mexicans are not because the structural adjustment policies that Mexico has under gone since the early eighties have not worked, but due to the fact that the reforms have not been completed. As Nadal points out[5], the "main dogma (that Carstens) has in his head, is that without structural reforms Mexico cannot grow...and this worn out idea of the neoliberal project connects well with the starting point: to make the markets function, everything has to be privatized; the energetic sector in the first place". Moreover, besides the "pending" privatizations, Calderon's project would include a regressive fiscal reform which would apply the VAT to food and medicines, in detriment to the already diminished purchasing power of the great majority of the population[6], instead of augmenting taxes to the exorbitant profits made by the foreign banks in Mexico, for instance.
A third component of the neoliberal agenda in Mexico is reforming the labor work force and the modification of the legislation that establishes the rights of the workers. Calderon was emphatic in his inaugural speech in the sense that it is necessary to remove the obstacles for companies' investment and to increase competitivity. Calderon will continue fostering the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (a.k.a NAFTA Plus), agreed by the "three amigos" Bush, Fox and Martin in Waco, Texas in 2005. This agreement escapes from all democratic checks and responds to the dictates of the North American Competitiveness Council which groups together the most elitist business councils of the three countries[7]. It consists of a deeper economic and security integration, accelerating economic deregulation in energy and other resources, dismantling obstacles to competitivity and strengthening border security.
The most criticized selection of Calderon so far is in his "political cabinet", where he selected the ex governor of the state of Jalisco Javier Ramírez Acuña, as the head of the Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación). Ramirez Acuña "uncovered" Calderon as a candidate for the presidency in 2004 against the wishes of ex president Fox. Ramírez Acuña is an infamous repressor and enemy of human rights. He is responsible for the illegal detentions and torture of dozens of young people that protested during the III Summit of Heads of State of the EU, Latin America and the Caribbean held in Guadalajara in 2004. He disobeyed and mocked the recommendations and demands of national and international human rights bodies and organizations. As the Mexican Network of Human Rights Organizations "All Rights for All" has stated "the appointment of Ramírez Acuña as Secretario de Gobernación demonstrates the contempt Felipe Calderon has for human rights, and that his human rights policy will be illegality, repression, impunity and the regression of fundamental rights in our country. This appointment forces society, the institutions themselves and democracy, which now more than ever is on pins and needles" [8]. The emphasis put by Calderon in exercising a "stern hand" in Mexico is a premonitory signal of the continuation of the escalation of repression to social movements and political dissidence currently experienced in Mexico.
The Cabinet of AMLO´s Legitimate Government
Since November 3rd, many days before Calderon could announce his cabinet, AMLO announced the appointment of his legitimate government, surprising those who thought his resistance movement had once again reached a dead end. AMLO presented his collaborators (notably 6 women and 6 men) that will lead 12 ministries whose two main objectives are to protect the people and defend the patrimony of the nation, which responds to the two criticisms expressed above regarding Calderon's cabinet and the future way of governing the country. The legitimate government will operate funded by the voluntary contributions of its followers in Mexico. The following are the names of each of the ministers and their position.
José Agustín Ortiz Pinchetti, Political Relations; Gustavo Iruegas, Internacional Relations; Bernardo Bátiz, Security and Justice; Octavio Romero Oropeza, Republican Austerity and Honesty; Mario Alberto di Costanzo, Public Finance; Luis Linares Zapata, Economic Development and Ecology; Claudia Sheinbaum, National Patrimony; Bertha Elena Luján, Labor; Martha Elvia Pérez, Welfare State; Raquel Sosa, Education, Science and Culture; Ana Cristina Laurell, Health; y Laura Itzel Castillo, Human settlements and Housing.
In interviews that we carried out with some of the ministers of the legitimate government, we have been able to foresee some of its general directions and functions:
Octavio Romero Oropeza, heading the Ministry of Republican Austerity and Honesty and who served as Chief Administrative Officer in AMLO´s Mexico City government, received us in his office in the modest three story building in Mexico City that will house all of the ministries of the legitimate government. The functions of his Ministry will be to "combat and denounce corruption, privileges, trafficking of influences and abuse of authority". These respond markedly to the experience during Fox´s six year term, which was permeated by "favors" to his wife's family members, as well as politicians and entrepreneurs. Romero Oropeza says that many policies will be established among which a few stand out: "the elaboration of a law on honesty, public austerity and the eradication of corruption across the national sphere, and to know of and investigate complaints and denouncements of corrupt acts committed by public servants".
Gustavo Iruegas who heads the Foreign Relations Ministry commented that this government is a necessity given the fact that electoral "institutions like the IFE and the TEPJF did not work for the construction of democracy and all the attempts to eliminate AMLO, like the attempt to impeach him in 2005, escalated during the presidential campaign until the electoral fraud was committed". Therefore, says Iruegas "this mobilization will be difficult and long, but the Mexican oligarchy will have to realize the difficulties they have gotten into with AMLO". His ministry will "seek organizations of migrants in the US, and other organizations internationally, by means of trustful representatives, as well as naming diplomatic representatives of the legitimate government". According to Iruegas, these representatives will promote forums, debates and work with legislators of other countries.
Raquel Sosa, Minister of Education, Science and Culture coincides with Iruegas in that governmental institutions were used for fraud, including the Ministry of Education (SEP) and SEDESOL (Ministry of Social Development) who intervened in the operation of the electoral fraud. Sosa says that "we will not accept that institutions in Mexico are used by a perverse political clique of bandits". The challenge, she says, is to transform them. The ministry she will head will put education, science and culture together and will be dedicated to defend public, free and secular education, against the neo conservative, religious and privatizing intentions of Calderon's government. Hence, the logic shall be that every person that wants to study be able to do so, instead of the great exclusion that closes opportunities to access medium and higher education for millions of young people in Mexico. The legitimate government will also work to diminish the gap between the "high culture" and popular cultures through work with communities articulating art and education. Sosa says the government will also struggle against the recently approved Radio and TV Law, also known as Ley Televisa (that favors an increasing monopolization of the media) and against the decentralization of the cultural patrimony of the nation, that would allow for an increasing privatization.
For Mario di Constanzo, who will lead the Ministry of Finance, Fox's six year term was characterized by special regimes that allowed big companies to avoid paying taxes; the continuation of the highly costly rescue of banks (by means of the Bank Fund for the Protection of Savings rescue of the banks -FOBAPROA) which has channeled to the banks, most of them foreign, millions of dollars taken from the public budget; and corrupt and illegal operations like the selling of Banamex to Citicorp group[9]. Di Costanzo says that the legitimate government will not fail to recognize public debts, but they will review them and determine which are legal and which are not, because only in 2007, the staggering amount of 237,000 million pesos (roughly 22 billion USD) has to be paid only in interests. Di Constanzo is also critical of the neoliberal orthodoxy in Mexico that will be continued with Calderon, not withstanding the internal economic paralysis and lack of job creation it has already created. According to Di Constanzo, with Calderon "we will have the same ingredients, the same context and the same blender. The result cannot be but the same: lack of growth and employment". Di Constanzo asserts that Calderon will not overtake AMLO by the left but will even "overtake Fox by the right"[10].
4. Two opposing projects for Mexico
According to AMLO, the legitimate government will be sustained by the organized people and the mockery and disqualifications from the right will be overlooked. He says this mockery is based on racism and class and is as old as the mockery against Mexican liberator Miguel Hidalgo or prominent president Benito Juarez. Once more, he says, the people will have to face the "neofascist regime that privileges only the minorities". AMLO says he has already swallowed the bitter pill of July 2nd and the time has come to pass from protesting the electoral fraud to a new way of acting that will include visiting personally the 2,500 municipalities in the country, organizing millions of Mexicans in favor of progressive policies and reconstructing the institutions that have been degraded by the present regime and by the imposition of Calderon as president.
According to different ministries of the legitimate government, this is to be a space of governance and stability with a peaceful cause that gives a voice to the enormous discontent in Mexico. The legitimate government is not conceived as a shadow government in the parliamentarian way, despite some speculations, because they are not the opposition. It is conceived then as an alternative government to the one imposed as the legal one. The legitimate government will have a team of people that already have worked with AMLO in the Mexico City government or his presidential campaign. The ministers we have talked to are experienced, they are sure that they know how to do things right and how to be effective, and they will work as closely with the people that are eager for initiatives in all realms of public life. The legitimate government plans to work in a very close and coordinated manner, forging strong links among the different ministries. More importantly, it aspires to be a reference for social movements, Congress fractions, legal bodies, as well as the local governments of the country.
The risk exists that the right sues the legitimate government for the "usurpation of functions". Some powerful people are already demanding Calderon to follow this path. However, the right must be at least a little conscious of the upheaval it may cause if it tries to stir things further. There is now a popular power that will serve as a national reference to constantly confront policies dictated by the national and international oligarchy that will only promote a deepening of the raucous inequality in the country. On the contrary, AMLO considers that the objective of the legitimate government does not need to be attacking Calderon directly, since he considers him a mere servant of powerful interests that are the ones that have to be attacked, such as the ex president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, bankers like Roberto Hernandez and other corrupted moguls that have sold the country's assets, richening their personal fortunes. The legitimate government will work to stop this plundering by opposing the privatization of the oil and electricity sectors; it will work to stop the erosion of labor rights and the attack on the poor people's economy through taxes on medicines and food. In sum, this government is to be devoted to confronting the commitments made by the regime to the big powers and governments of the richer countries, in particular the U.S the E.U. countries, to which Calderon will be obliged.
Calderon, on the other hand, represents the continuation of Mexico's subordination to the US, World Bank and the IMF dictates. He also represents the interests of the foreign financial groups that dominate the banking system in the country, which has paralyzed its vital function of providing credit for productive activities. When Calderon was his party leader in Congress he promoted the PAN's support for the FOBAPROA after the financial crisis of December 1994. It was only much later that he admitted this, saying that "to save the country's economy and save it from an unprecedented banking crisis, we acted on conviction and chose the lesser of two evils". The lesser of two evils meant converting 500,000 million pesos (roughly 45 billion USD) into public debt. Given interest payments, this debt has increased to some 1,200,000,million pesos (roughly 1,090 billion USD).
It is difficult to envision Calderon's foreign policy departing from the Washington consensus and to think that the alliance between the international capitalist governing classes with the Mexican oligarchy may be disrupted. On the contrary, their interests through an expanded NAFTA (embodied in the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America) will deepen the military and energy dependency of Mexico to the US. Another commitment made by Calderon is with Spain. European countries have deeply vested interests in Mexico (and Latin America) and they sent a clear signal of unconditional support to Calderon when the electoral observation mission lead by Spanish European Parliamentarian José Ignacio Salafranca certified the transparency and cleanliness of the electoral processes in July, even before the elections had been concluded. The electoral mission faltered in the "principle of neutrality and promoted directly or indirectly the texts of congratulations to Felipe Calderón Hinojosa when he was not yes the elected President ... (this is) being questioned in the communitarian institutions"[11]. Calderon is a fervent proponent of continuing structural adjustment reforms in Mexico in the name of a more "competitive" economy. These reforms have already produced massive profits for transnational corporations while causing a sharp decline in the living standards of Mexicans. Further reforms, such as labor flexibility and the privatization of key Mexican industries will continue eroding the capacity of the Mexican government to foster sovereign development schemes and the capacity of workers and their families to aspire to enjoy minimum standards of decent living. NAFTA has already shown its tremendous failure to provide employment to millions of Mexicans, who have been forced to emigrate to the U.S., while it has succeeded in making the rich much richer.
The legitimate government of AMLO is expected, on its part, to help supersede the grave lack of governance with which Vicente Fox finished his six year term. Today Mexico is submerged in the violence perpetrated by drug trafficking. Apart from the economic and political crisis in Mexico and the repression and human rights violations of labor and social movements like those in Michoacan, Atenco and Oaxaca, among other cases, the new born democracy in Mexico has been put at risk and institutions have been corrupted. Mexico today occupies an embarrassing first place in the world in the number of journalists killed[12]. The legitimate government will have to respond to the challenge of saving Mexico from stepping backwards in the construction of a State capable of assuring people's well being. Its work will be evaluated on its capacity to generate the measures it has announced (see Annex) in an effective, transparent, inclusive and participatory manner. This legitimate government should also be evaluated based on the participation of society, the working classes, the indigenous peoples and all of the sectors that have been systematically excluded by the PRI and PAN governments. As AMLO says "it would be of little good to have a government, president, cabinet and program without the support of the people. A government divorced from society is nothing but a façade, an egg shell, a bureaucratic apparatus. Hence I propose that the people become the legitimate government".
Anex. The first 20 measures of the legitimate government
El 20 de Noviembre de 2006, AMLO presentó 20 medidas del gobierno legítimo, las que serán operadas por las 12 secretarías, formulando diagnósticos de los problemas principales del país y proponiendo soluciones y recomendaciones. A continuación reproducimos la parte del discurso de AMLO en el que explica estas 20 medidas:
The first 20 measures of the legitimate government of Mexico, announced by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Zócalo, México D.F. November 20th, 2006
We have constituted a cabinet with honest men and women who are committed to the majority of the population as well as the legal and legitimate minorities. They are six men and six women that will accompany me in the management of the government. This team will formulate a series of diagnoses on the main problems of the country and will propose solutions and recommendations.
Therefore, as of today we announce the first 20 measures of this people's government:
1. We will initiate a process for the renovation of public institutions. Together with the commission created to this end by the National Democratic Convention, we will call for a national debate and will promote a referendum for the elaboration of a new constitutional framework.
2. We will defend the right to information and will demand that the communications media is open to all expressions of society.
Particularly, we will be watchful of the decision made by the Supreme Court on the recourse of anti-constitutionality presented by a group of Senators against the so called Televisa law.
3. We will address the grave migration problem insisting on the need to change the economic policies in order to generate employment in our country. We will oppose the construction of the border wall and will protect Mexicans who have been obliged to go to the US to work from maltreatment, discrimination and human rights violations.
4. We will permanently denounce any injustice and will watch the performance of public prosecutors, judges, magistrates and ministers that are dedicated to "legalizing" the robberies carried out by the strong against the weak and to guarantee that white collar delinquents are treated with impunity.
We reaffirm that without justice is not possible to guarantee public security, nor tranquility or social peace. We also say that it is not possible to confront organized crime if the law is not equally applied and only one band is punished and another one protected.
We reiterate that we will not allow the ARMY or paramilitary police forces being used to repress the inconformity of the people that struggle for justice and liberty.
From here we will express again our solidarity with the humble and dignified people of Oaxaca that are victims of repression, and demand the resignation of Ulises Ruiz, that sinister and despot governor, as well as the withdrawal of the Federal Preventive Police and the punishment of those found responsible of murder.
5. We will send to the legislators of the Frente Amplio Progresista a bill to elevate to constitutional rank the combat of corruption and make republican austerity effective. It is indispensable to consider the traffic of influence, the conflict of interests, nepotism and to carry out business deals under the protection of public powers as grave offenses. Also, a limit to the wages and benefits of high ranking officials of the three powers of the Union must be defined and at all governmental levels. As an example, it is unacceptable that a Court minister is receiving at present around 500,000 pesos a month (roughly 45,000 USD). Also, it will be proposed that the pensions of the ex presidents are cancelled. Never again shall we have a rich government and a poor people.
6. We will not allow more taxes on the poor and the middle classes while tax privileges to the powerful and influential are kept. Consequently, we reject VAT charges on medicines and food, and any other form of regressive tax reform. On the contrary, we will promote in the Union Congress the performance of an audit of the Ministry of the Treasury (Secretaría de Hacienda), in particular the SAT, since the privileged in Mexico simply do not pay taxes, or when they pay them they have them refunded.
7. In the next days, a project on the expenditure budget for 2007 will be sent to the legislators of the Frente Amplio Progresista, which proposes the reorientation of public spending to education, health, employment creation and the well being of the population. It must be remembered that the deputies chamber have the exclusive power to approve the public budget and that our legislators can do a lot to reduce the waste, government spending (gasto corriente), the payment of Fobaproa (Savings Protection Banking Fund) interests and to guarantee increased resources for the countryside, public universities and to states and municipalities.
8. The day after tomorrow (22 November, 2006), due to the importance of confronting the economic monopolies linked to the (political) power that with impunity hurt the popular and middle classes' economy, we will present to the senators of the Frente Amplio Progresista an initiative for a law on competitive prices, establishing a ruling for the Article 28 of the Constitution and to put an end to the exaggerated charges on goods and services in our country. It is unacceptable that Mexicans have to pay 223% more than US people for grey cement; 260% more for wide band internet; 312% more for cell phones; 65% more for fixed line telephone; 230% more for long distance calls nationally; 116% more high consumption residential electricity; 131% more for commercial electricity; 36% more high tension electricity; 5% more for magna gas; 18% more for premium gas; 178% more for a Banamex classic credit card; 115 more for the Bancomer visa card; 116% more for basic cable TV; 150% more for home credit; and 26,000% more for bank commissions to shopping in department stores with cards. All this not withstanding that the minimum wage in Mexico is 90% lower that in the US. We can not allow this going on. If this law on competitive prices is approved, millions of Mexican consumers will be able to save more than 10% of their earnings.
9. We will create the truth commission to investigate the Fobaproa fraud, the governmental rescue of road building enterprises, development banks and sugar mills; we will also review all the credit contracts and the construction of public works in Pemex and the Electricity Federal Commission (CFE) carried out under the so called Pidiregas.
10. We will protect national producers from the non discriminatory and limitless opening up of external trade. Particularly, an action plan will be created in order to prevent the application in the year 2008 of a clause of NAFTA that allows free imports of maize and beans, since it means a definitive blow to 4 million peasant families.
11. We will defend the constitutional right to a fair wage. Today, 16 million Mexicans, out of 42 million working age Mexicans, receive less than 30 pesos per day (less than $2.75 approximately). Presently, diverse social, labor, and academic organizations have initiated a campaign to defend the minimum constitutional wage, originally conceived as an instrument to guarantee the basic needs of workers' families.
We announce our support to this campaign in favor of a fair and dignified remuneration to all the workers in the countryside and cities.
12. We will struggle so that the workers in the informal sector of the economy, the day laborers in agriculture, domestic workers and street vendors, among others, enjoy legal protection and have the right to social security.
13. We will defend the autonomy of trade unions and will promote their democratization. In particular, we will struggle for the respect of the right to free and secret voting in the elections of trade union leaders.
14. We will not allow the privatization of the electric industry to take place, nor the oil in any of its modalities. Oil does not belong to the State and much less to the government, it belongs to the nation. And our country is not for sale, but to be defended.
15. We will defend the national patrimony. This means the national resources, archeological zones, the ecosystems, the woods, water resources and culture.
In this moment an initiative for a law on the incorporation of municipalities and states to the management of Mexico's historical patrimony is being discussed in the Deputies Chamber. This initiative pretends to eliminate the federal responsibility of the archeological zones and natural reserves and enable their privatization.
The legitimate government will not accept this counter reform and will join the citizens and civil organizations in their actions to protect the nation's patrimony.
16. We will promote in the Union Congress the establishment of a welfare state in the Constitution, consisting in providing protection for a dignified life to all Mexicans, from the cradle to the grave.
We will insist, as in the Federal District, for a universal pension for food to be given to all elderly people of the country; support to all persons with a disability and grants to single women so that their children do not abandon school.
17. The compliance with the San Andrés Larráiznar accords that guarantee the economic, social, political and cultural rights of the indigenous peoples will be given emphasis.
18. We will work to avoid the rejection of young people that wish to study in public universities. We will never accept the privatization of education, desired by the political right, as if it was some merchandise that can only be bought by those who have economic resources. Education can not become a privilege. Education and culture are fundamental for the country's development. The State is obliged to guarantee access to culture and to free and quality education at all school levels.
19. We will make effective the right of Mexicans to health. Today, more than half of the population does not have access to social security. The right to health is not guaranteed, either because lack of money to pay for medical attention and medicines, or because the lack of available services where people live.
The so called Popular Insurance is pure demagoguery, because it is not insurance nor is popular. In the health centers there aren't any medicines. All they do is hand out prescriptions and charge a 6% of the family income to be affiliated.
The legitimate government will work to guarantee medical services and free medicines for all Mexicans that lack social security.
We will advocate for increasing investment in hospitals and health centers; to dedicate increased resources to the supply of medicines and medical supplies, and to hire the doctors and nurses needed to provide health services. Likewise, we will seek that the IMSS and ISSSTE count with enough resources to revert their state of deterioration.
20. We will help millions of Mexicans that live in popular neighborhoods, villages, towns and rural communities without public services and precarious households with all we can. We will seek for alternatives for the installment of water, electricity, drainage services and paving, and will insist on the right of humble people to receive credit for housing with interest rates that are equivalent to the annual increase of the minimum wage.
"The legitimate government shall be the organized people"
Translation from Spanish by Manuel Pérez Rocha L.
Following the Election Day, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) declared Felipe Calderón the winner, in an unruly manner. Immediately the Por el Bien de Todos Coalition demanded the following:
1. Opening up all the electoral ballots as well as the acts in order to count vote for vote,
2. The tribunal to analyze each of the following points of inconformity,
3. Not to declare the validity of the elections in the case the points made below are valid,
The following were the basic points of the Claim of Inconformity presented by the Por el Bien de Todos Coalition to the Electoral Federal Tribunal. These points synthesize the fraud committed against AMLO and the millions that voted for him.
1. The results of the election for the Mexican president contained in the district computed acts, since there are mathematical errors and manipulations, and that the results do not reflect the will of the majority of Mexicans
2. The incorrect campaign carried out by the government and its dependencies (local governments, state and private companies etc.)
3. The partiality and illegality of the Federal Electoral Institute that did not put a halt to dirty tactics of the Right, and during the election night, through the Preliminary Electoral Results Program (PREP) did not inform the citizens that at least 2.5 million votes were not to be counted for diverse reasons. Therefore the results of the so called PREP showed a 1% difference among AMLO and Calderon, and later on this difference narrowed to .58%; The IFE proclaimed Calderon the winner when only the TEPJF has the faculty to do this.
4. A great number of annulled votes (904,604).
5. Manipulation of counting records in voting centers where representatives of the Coalition were not present.
6. The information systems installed by IFE's General Council were technically vulnerable; oriented to manipulate the data and information to favor one party and candidate. (See the "Hildebrando" case).
7. The adverse political propaganda from the PAN and other actors with the purpose of generating fear, without the proper intervention of the General Council of the IFE (e.g. manipulating inexistent connections between AMLO and president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez).
8. Manipulation of the PREP.
9. Improper use of the electoral voter registry, as in the case of the Hildebrando Company (owned by Calderon's brother in law).
10. A series of irregularities during Elections Day. E.g. people under the leadership of ex PRI member Elba Ester Gordillo, who allied with Calderon, working as representatives of polling stations when they had not been designated, and in others the presence of representatives of the Por el Bien de Todos Coalition was omitted)
11. Intervention of the Church and companies in favor of Calderón, pressuring followers and employees to vote for him.
12. The PAN going over the top of campaign expenditure limits by 244,034,450 pesos.
13. Interference of diverse foreign personalities in the process such as the Spanish ex president Jose María Aznar, in favor of the PAN in its own headquarters, in violation to the Mexican Constitution's Article 33 that prohibits foreign people meddling with domestic political affairs.
[1] La Jornada, November 20th, 2006.
[2] The Por el Bien de Todos Coalition grouped three center - left wing parties in the 2006 elections: The Democratic Revolution Part (PRD), the Labor Party (PT) and the Democratic Convergence party.
[3] Rayuela, La Jornada, 21 de noviembre.
[4] The other two are the social and security cabinets of which we will write in another bulletin.
[5] Alejandro Nadal, La Jornada, November 29th, 2006.
[6] "El Salario y la necesidad de un proceso de recuperación de su proceso adquisitivo", Centro de Análisis Multidisciplinario, Facultad de Economía, UNAM. According to the study the minimum wage in Mexico is capable of acquiring only a fifth part of the Canasta Básica, which is food and some services that one person requires (excluding housing, health, education, clothing, recreation and culture).
[7] Paul Bigioni, The Toronto Sunday Star, October 29th, 2006.
[8] "La Red Todos los Derechos para Todos repudia el nombramiento de Francisco Ramírez Acuña como Secretario de Gobernación" November 28th 2006. www.rdt.org.mx
[9] La Jornada, November 19th, 2006.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Marcos Appel, Revista Proceso,September 25th, 2006.
[12] Federación Latinoamericana de Periodistas