Mexicans have fought long and hard to bring democracy to their country. That’s why the spectacle of the current presidential elections is particularly lamentable.

As the July 2 vote nears, the level of campaigning has descended. Felipe Calderon, candidate for the National Action Party (PAN), has been criticized for a series of nasty television spots, one that compares front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with Hugo Chavez, and another that inexplicably attacks Elena Poniatowska, a Lopez Obrador supporter and one of the nation’s most renowned journalists and authors.

The PAN’s latest campaign states darkly that Lopez Obrador is “a danger to Mexico.” In a political context where the memory of the assassination of the 1994 presidential candidate remains fresh, this message has been viewed as going beyond the accepted practice of attacking an opponent’s political platform and contributing to a climate of potential violence.
upsidedownworld.org

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 4th, 2006 at 8:53 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.