What Went Wrong in Mexico? What the U.S. Media Didn't Tell You (Presidential Elections‪)‬

WHEN IT COMES to recognizing and reporting on instances of election fraud in the world, the U.S. corporate media appears to take its cue from White House foreign policy. Consider the Bush administration and the national media's condemnation of the Ukraine elections in 2004: exit polls were amiss; clearly there was a problem. U.S. diplomats, led by Colin Powell, bewailed the vile practice of election fraud when it was the Russian-friendly incumbent Prime Minister Yanukovich who had been doing the vote rigging. U.S. diplomatic remonstration was severe and led to another election, which resulted in the victory of the much more palatable Victor Yushchenko. Unlike its involvement in the Ukraine election, the White House barely twitched while Egypt's Hosni Mubarak conducted a murderous reign of terror against voters who would likely support the election. Muslim Brotherhood in that country's most recent parliamentary elections. Major U.S. media outlets barely noticed it either, and we would see this pattern repeat regarding extensive irregularities in the 2006 Mexican presidential elections. Both the White House and the U.S. media would ignore and dismiss the evidence of election fraud and quickly pronounce the preferred candidate the "winner" of a "free and fair election." This year's July 2 presidential election in Mexico promised to be a hotly contested race essentially between the candidates of rival parties: the popular former mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), versus former Energy Secretary Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN), the controlling party of President Vincente Fox. Calderon's election platform would maintain the status quo favored by the business elite while Lopez Obrador promised a number of progressive measures, including a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has decimated Mexican farmers since it went into effect in 1994. As might be expected, the Bush administration fully supported Calderon's candidacy.