http://news.linktv.org Link TV News Videos (Filtered by topics: Yo Soy 132) en-us Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:21:00 -0700 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://news.linktv.org/videos/yo-soy-132-protesters-blockade-mexicos-biggest-tv-station?start=0 Thousands of protesters shouting "Tell the truth" blocked the entrance to the studios of Mexico's most popular TV network on Thursday, accusing it of bias during the recent presidential election. Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:21:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/yo-soy-132-protesters-blockade-mexicos-biggest-tv-station Televisa, Yo Soy 132, Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican general election, 2012, Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Politics of Mexico, Electoral fraud, Mexico City, Mexican media Thousands of protestors blocked the entrance to the studios of Mexico's most popular TV network on Thursday, accusing it of bias during the recent presidential election. Shouting "Tell the truth," the Yo Soy 132 demonstrators stopped employees entering the offices of the Televisa studios in Mexico City. The protestors allege Televisa supported Enrique Peña Nieto, who won the election by almost seven percentage points over leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The protestors promised to continue the blockade for 24 hours. López Obrador has claimed Peña Nieto paid Televisa for favorable coverage and bought votes, and has filed a legal challenge to the election result. Footage courtesy of Reuters. http://news.linktv.org/videos/mexico-leftist-candidate-refuses-to-concede-presidential-election?start=0 Presidential runner-up Lopez Obrador refuses to concede defeat in Mexico's elections, and accuses his rival Enrique Peña Nieto of buying votes. Obrador is calling for the results of the election to be thrown out, claiming they were not free or fair. Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:51:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/mexico-leftist-candidate-refuses-to-concede-presidential-election Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexican general election, 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico, Yo Soy 132, Electoral fraud, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Party of the Democratic Revolution, Politics of Mexico, Federal Electoral Institute Presidential runner-up Lopez Obrador refuses to concede defeat in Mexico's elections, and accuses his rival Enrique Peña Nieto of buying votes. Obrador is calling for the results of the election to be thrown out, claiming they were not free or fair. Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports http://news.linktv.org/videos/democracy-now-july-2-2012?start=780 Mexico's old ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is set to return to power after early results indicate Enrique Pe&ntilde;a Nieto has won the country's election. A $21 million civil rights lawsuit is being filed today against the city of White Plains, New York, and its police department over the death of 68-year-old African-American veteran, Kenneth Chamberlain. Plus headlines, and more. Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:59:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/democracy-now-july-2-2012 Mexican general election, 2012, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Party of the Democratic Revolution, Politics of Mexico, Kenneth Chamberlain, White Plains, New York, Yo Soy 132 Mexico's old ruling party, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is set to return to power after early election results indicate the PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto has won the presidential election. Peña Nieto's chief rival, the leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has not conceded, but the PRI has already claimed victory. López Obrador had received a surge in popularity in the weeks before the vote, thanks in part to a growing national student movement against the PRI's return. We go to Mexico City to speak with John Ackerman, editor of the Mexican Law Review and a professor at the National Autonomous University, UNAM, in Mexico. "Peña Nieto is pretty clearly the candidate who will give continuity [to] [outgoing Mexican President Felipe] Calderón's drug war strategies and total subservience to the dictates from the U.S. government, in terms of continuing on with this violent drug war, and particularly having Mexico do [its] dirty work," Ackerman says. "I don't know how much longer [the Mexican people] are going to be able to really deal with and have patience for this humanitarian crisis that we're going through. And so, the good news is that the students are still in the streets. ... López Obrador has received basically the same amount of votes as he did six years ago. Fourteen, 15 million people voted for him. And so, this means that there's going to be a strong opposition." We begin today's show in Mexico, where Mexico's old ruling party, the PRI, is set to return to power. Early election results indicate the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, has won the presidential election, but his chief rival, the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has not conceded. Peña Nieto belongs to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the party that ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000, for more than 70 years. Peña Nieto claimed victory in a speech to supporters last night. ENRIQUE PEÑA NIETO: [translated] I assume with emotion, I assume with great commitment and full responsibility, the mandate that the Mexicans have given me today. In the past three months, the politicians, the candidates have spoken every day. Today, July 1st, it's been the citizens who spoke, and they did it with absolute clarity, when they voted for a change with direction. Thank you to all Mexicans. The PRD's candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, came in second. He's a former Mexico City mayor who lost narrowly in 2006 to President Felipe Calderón. He received a surge in popularity, thanks in part to a growing national student movement against the return of the PRI to power. The movement, known as Yo Soy 132, has been inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the protests in Spain. On Sunday night, López Obrador said it's too early to concede. ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR: [translated] The information that we have indicates something else to what is being officially said. I do not disqualify what they are making known officially, but, simply, we do not have all the facts. What is lacking is legal scrutiny. We are lacking the legality of electoral process. Placing third in the election was Josefina Vázquez Mota of President Calderón's PAN party. Support for Calderón's policies have plummeted due to his role in expanding the drug war. Since taking office six years ago, more than 50,000 people have died. To talk more about the elections, we go to Mexico City via Democracy Now! video stream to John Ackerman, the editor of the Mexican Law Review, a professor at the National Autonomous University, UNAM, in Mexico, also columnist for Proceso magazine as well as La Jornada newspaper. John Ackerman, welcome to Democracy Now! Start off by talking about the results of the election. Not all the votes have been counted at this point. Right, Amy. And a pleasure and honor to be with you again. The election results are not officially in yet. All we have now is a preliminary count, which began last evening and is now around 80 percent done. It will actually be finished today in the afternoon. There was sort of a statistical survey done of some of the ballot boxes and the results, and that's what led the IFE to announce initial results last night, but that's just sort of a statistical survey of the results. The preliminary count is not going to be over 'til tonight. And actually, the formal results will not be until end of this week. And those results will then have to go to the electoral tribunal. We have a special supreme court for electoral matters in Mexico, and they are the only ones who can actually—those judges are the only ones who can actually pronounce president-elect. And that will be probably in a few weeks, if not into August. And so, López Obrador's attitude here, I think, is extremely cautious. Six years ago, we'll remember that he suffered what many people thought was open fraud. The elections this time around were not necessarily cleaner than six years ago. There were lots of accusations, hundreds of hundreds of accusations of irregularities, of ballot boxes being stolen, of counts being done wrong, of ballots being filled out outside of the ballot boxes by political operators, in addition to the normal sort of machine politics and pressures on the voters. So, López Obrador is waiting to recognize his defeat. I think this makes sense, given the precedent of the 2006 elections. The most likely scenario is that the PRI will end up coming back. And this is a powerful message—not necessarily a good one, Amy—but it looks like the PRI may come back to power. Now, Peña Nieto, as we talked about last week, is not exactly a moderate and a reformer. He is from the more old-guard wing of the Party of Institutional Revolution. Hundreds of international election observers monitored Sunday's voting process. Paulo Ferreira said the lack of faith in Mexico's electoral institutions may be rooted in Mexico's past. PAULO FERREIRA: [translated] Mexico has surprised me, that for an evolved and advanced country with a common electoral process, the voting mechanics are still tainted following decades of an insecure process from the point of view of confidence and transparency, because there was a manipulation of the vote by the people that took the votes and transported the ballots. This lack of trust in the electoral process has occurred in every country that has favored illegitimate processes and processes that were manipulated. That's a Brazilian election observer, Paulo Ferreira. Your response, John Ackerman? Yes, well, we have to—we have to wait for a few days to see how all the complaints come in, in terms of what happened yesterday. Yesterday was a very chaotic day, as you can imagine. For instance, this small example there was a citizen-run website which was set up to receive complaints about voting irregularities. That website was under constant attack by hackers from 6:00 in the morning until midnight. Even though that was the case, it still received over 500 different sorts of complaints, many of them actually quite extreme in terms of ballot fraud. Now, no one is talking about open fraud. Not even López Obrador is saying that the election has been stolen from him. But I think it does make sense that the electoral authorities and citizens to, you know, go carefully over what exactly happened yesterday and see what the final results are. There's also lots of accusations in terms of Peña Nieto going over the spending limits. Mexico has very serious controls on spending, and most of the evidence indicates that he has gone over at least two or three times the spending limits. This would not mean that his victory would be taken away from him. Mexican law does not allow that to happen. But this would speak to serious questions in terms of equal competition, in terms of the legality of the process. One of the key concerns for many in Mexico is drug-related violence. Journalist José Reveles noted in an interview that none of the main presidential candidates had addressed the issue in their campaigns. JOSÉ REVELES: [translated] Curiously, in the comments of the candidates, the topic has been almost absent. Everybody speaks a little bit about insecurity, what they will do with the army in the streets, gradually returning them to their barracks, as well as establishing a national police force. But they haven't proposed any sorts of measures to take down the levels of violence that we are living. It is a human tragedy. It is something that's already gone too far—an increase of violence, extortion, death, kidnapping and displaced people. We're talking about 70,000 people dead. That's jounralist José Reveles. Your response, John Ackerman in Mexico City? Yes, I think José Reveles is right about this. This is really the sad part about this election, if the PRI comes back into power. Peña Nieto is pretty clearly the candidate who will give continuity and continuation with Calderón's drug war strategies and total subservience to the dictates from the U.S. government, in terms of continuing on with this violent drug war, and particularly having Mexico do the dirty work for this drug war. Peña Nieto has been very clear. I mean, he's talked about changing strategies, as all the candidates have done so, but it looks pretty clear, especially because of his new appointment of Oscar Naranjo, the ex-police chief with Uribe in Colombia, that he is basically going to continue on the same line. And this would be very dangerous. The Mexican people—I don't know how much longer they're going to be able to really deal with and have patience for this humanitarian crisis that we're going through. And so, the good news is that the students are still in the streets. They're still a very important social movement. López Obrador has received basically the same amount of votes as he did six years ago. Fourteen, 15 million people have voted for him. And so, this means that there's going to be a strong opposition against Peña Nieto, who in the end will probably come in as president with less than 40 percent of the popular vote. This is because there's three candidates. And so, we're going to have sort of a real pluralistic politics, which hopefully will be able to keep Peña Nieto in control and be able to bring Mexico back onto the path of institutional development and strengthen its democracy. Over the weekend, thousands of students marched against Mexico's old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI, and its popular Enrique Peña Nieto. Students called for, among other things, democratization of the media. CARLA LEYVA: [translated] This movement represents many things. As students—that is, as members of an association—we make many demands. They are not just student issues, but social issues, such as a democratic media. What about this, John Ackerman of Proceso and La Jornada? Talk about the role of the media in the election of, what looks like, Peña Nieto. Very important, Amy. The students, first of all, continue to protest. Today, Monday, the day after the elections, they have planned a march through downtown Mexico City calling for more democracy and calling for these demands for democratizing the media. This is particularly important today, because Peña Nieto is the candidate of the corporate media. And as we talked about last week, corporate media in Mexico is over the top. Two companies control over 95 percent of the audience, of the channels—one company, almost 80 percent, Televisa. And they are the ones who really fabricated Enrique Peña Nieto's image and have—are the principal group responsible for his victory, if that turns out to be the case. And so, Peña Nieto, once he becomes president, if that happens, will most likely want to pay back these television companies by giving them even more power once he arrives. And at that moment, it will be absolutely crucial for these students and for Mexican society, in general, to be very vigilant, very participative, to assure that this does not happen and that in fact we actually go in a more progressive, democratic direction in terms of media, because that's one of the crucial reforms that we need today in Mexico to open up public dialogue and assure more broad-based popular participation in politics. Finally, John, on Sunday, Mexico's ruling party presidential candidate—this is the PAN party candidate, Calderón's party—Josefina Vázquez Mota, said her party must not view the election as a defeat, but a time to reorganize. JOSEFINA VÁZQUEZ MOTA: [translated] This is not a defeat. This is the beginning of a harder road of greater unity, of reflection and reorganization of the party, for government officials close to the people to recover their convictions of liberty and indisputable service. Have no doubt: despite the difficulties, we are the only and best option—democratic, of the people, and for liberty in our homeland. Josefina Mota in her concession speech, again, of the PAN party, of Calderón, the current president's party. John Ackerman? Yes, well, this was an interesting concession speech, and it also was immediately followed a few minutes later by President Calderón himself coming out and recognizing the victory of Peña Nieto and the PRI. This was a little bit strange because they moved really quickly, both Calderón and Vázquez Mota, to recognize Peña Nieto's victory, and this sort of confirms the idea that perhaps all along Calderón has been wanting Peña Nieto to win and that there has been kind of a coalition between the PRI, the old-guard party which may come back now, and the PAN, which is the ruling party, joining together in order to avoid a leftist victory by López Obrador. That was certainly the impression that many of us had yesterday watching these speeches, that in fact, technically, Vázquez Mota is right: the PAN has not really lost. They have just sort of handed over power back to the PRI, and many of their own privileges and their own interests will remain intact. And so, the division within Mexican society continues between a large group of people supporting López Obrador—the students and social movements—and this de facto coalition between PAN and PRI, who have now passed the power in 2000 to the PAN and now back to the PRI. And so, things kind of seem—are going to stay the same as the status quo for the next few years, as they have been in the past years. And we'll see how the political situation starts to work out very soon. Finally, Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet who lost his son, Juan, to a drug cartel—he was killed last year—led a caravan through Mexico, now is in the United States and in August will lead a caravan across the United States from California to Washington, D.C. How significant is his movement, as he stands up against the so-called war on drugs, says he wanted to be not just in Mexico but to where the demand is, where the guns flow from, in the United States? Very important, Javier Sicilia's role over the last year in Mexico. He has really unmasked the drug war, demonstrating that it's just not the case that the people who have been dying are criminals or deserve to die. These are normal Mexican citizens. The drug war has been a war conducted against Mexico's people in general. I think this march through the United States is going to be very important in terms of demonstrating to the U.S. population how directly responsible they are for the violence in Mexico, both through drug use and through the sale of weapons. This is very important for the U.S. population to become more conscious of their role in what's happening south of the border. Once again, I'm not too optimistic about the Mexican side of the equation with Peña Nieto coming in. We'll see what happens in the United States in terms of the elections in November. That's going to be very important in terms of U.S.-Mexico relationships. But it looks like, regardless of what happens in the United States or in Mexico, it's going to be society, civil society on both sides of the border, that we really need to come together to impose a change in politics in the relationship between Mexico and the United States, in particular to bring peace to North America and to reduce the amount of violence and death, which affects Mexico in particular, but I think is really a serious harm on all of North America and affects all of us. John Ackerman, I want to thank you for being with us, editor of the Mexican Law Review, professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, also columnist for Proceso magazine and La Jornada, the newspaper. http://news.linktv.org/videos/legacy-of-drug-violence-and-poverty-dominate-mexican-elections?start=0 The economy and Mexico's "War on Drugs" are expected to dominate the country's election on Sunday. Twenty million Mexican youth are out of work, and more than 50,000 people have been killed in the fight against organized crime since December 2006. Sun, 01 Jul 2012 12:13:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/legacy-of-drug-violence-and-poverty-dominate-mexican-elections Mexico, Mexican general election, 2012, Elections in Mexico, Politics of Mexico, Poverty in Mexico, Yo Soy 132, Mexican Drug War, Ciudad Juárez, Voter turnout, President of Mexico Two of the main issues expected to dominate Mexico's presidential election on Sunday are the economy and the country's "War on Drugs." Mexico's economy is growing at a rate of four per cent, but 20 million youths are out of school and out of work. Meanwhile, more than 50,000 people have been killed since December 2006, in the fight against drug gangs and organised crime. Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports from Ciudad Juárez. http://news.linktv.org/videos/democracy-now-june-28-2012?start=0 As Mexico prepares to vote Sunday, will the PRI return to power or could the Occupy-inspired Yo Soy 132 movement help Andrés Manuel López Obrador pull off an upset? Plus US health care reform, headlines, and more. Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:28:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/democracy-now-june-28-2012 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Health care in the United States, Supreme Court of the United States, US health care reform, Health insurance, US-Mexico relations, Yo Soy 132, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexican general election, 2012, Mexican Drug War As Mexico prepares to vote Sunday, will the PRI return to power or could the Occupy-inspired Yo Soy 132 movement help Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who narrowly lost the 2006 election, pull off an upset? US Attorney General Eric Holder faces a contempt vote by the House of Representatives today in a dispute involving an alleged botched gun-running probe, but a new investigation says federal agents "never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels." And a new film "Escape Fire" takes a look at waste and overspending in the US health care system. Plus headlines, and more. http://news.linktv.org/videos/democracy-now-june-28-2012?start=762 The PRI is favorite to win Sunday's election in Mexico, but could the Occupy-inspired Yo Soy 132 movement help Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who narrowly lost the 2006 election, pull off an upset? Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:28:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/democracy-now-june-28-2012 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Health care in the United States, Supreme Court of the United States, US health care reform, Health insurance, US-Mexico relations, Yo Soy 132, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexican general election, 2012, Mexican Drug War As the drug war rages in Mexico, voters will head to the polls on Sunday to choose a new president. Will the PRI come back to power, or could the Occupy-inspired Yo Soy 132 movement help Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who narrowly lost the 2006 election, pull off an upset? We go to Mexico City to speak with Tania Molina, a journalist at La Jornada, the main progressive national newspaper in Mexico; and John Ackerman, editor of the Mexican Law Review and a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). We begin today's show in Mexico, where voters head to the polls on Sunday in a historic election to pick President Felipe Calderón's replacement, as well as candidates in the national legislature, six governorships and 15 state assemblies. Since Calderón took office six years ago, more than 50,000 Mexicans have been killed in the nation's bloody drug war. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Calderón's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, is polling poorly ahead of Sunday's vote. The two leading candidates have both proposed rethinking how Mexico deals with drug trafficking. The front-runner in Sunday's race is Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, the party that ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000. In second is leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador who narrowly lost the 2006 race to Calderón. This is Enrique Peña Nieto speaking at a rally Wednesday. We are only four days away from winning the presidency of the republic. We are ahead in the polls, but, in a way, this could allow us to be complacent. On the contrary, this is the moment in which we must keep going and assure, with your free participation, your reasoned, informed vote, this July 1st, that we can really accomplish a conclusive victory that can't be objected to. That's what we want to accomplish on July 1st. Meanwhile, Andrés Manuel López Obrador received a surge in popularity, thanks in part to a growing national student movement against the return of the PRI to power. The movement, known as Yo Soy 132, has been inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the protests in Spain. López Obrador is the former mayor of Mexico City. He addressed his followers on the final day of campaigning. I come to tell you that we are doing well. We ended the campaign strongly. The strategy of Peña Nieto's patrons has failed. Tell the people that there will be justice, because we are going to end corruption. What is it that we're voting for on 1st of July? We are choosing if we want corruption or if we want honesty. Things are that clear. Voting for the PRI, voting for Peña Nieto is voting for corruption. Well, to talk more about the elections, we go directly to Mexico City to speak with two guests. Tania Molina is with us, a journalist at La Jornada, the main progressive national newspaper in Mexico. She's producing a pamphlet for Zuccotti Park Press by and about the Yo Soy 132 student movement in Mexico. And we're joined by Democracy Now! video stream by John Ackerman, editor of the Mexican Law Review and a professor at the National Autonomous University, UNAM, in Mexico. He is also a columnist for Proceso magazine as well as La Jornada newspaper. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Tania, let's begin with you. Can you explain the significance? What is at stake in this election on Sunday? Talk about the significance of it. And, well, at stake is, as López Obrador was saying in the speech that you ran, it's between the comeback of the old regime and the continuation of a regime that has only brought us 60,000 deaths in a war against narcotraffic that has not worked at all. And in terms of the resurgence of López Obrador in the polls in recent weeks, could you talk more about the movement, the student movement, that has helped to propel him forward and how it started, and what the name signifies of the movement? Yeah. Well, it all began in a Mexican University, private university, called Ibero. It was a big surprise for everybody. It was—the students were at an event that was with the PRI candidate, with Peña Nieto, Enrique Peña Nieto, and they confronted him. And it was a big surprise because it was a private university with, we could say, privileged students. So, suddenly, there he was with a roomful of—well, with many students telling him about his authoritarian past and about the corruption that he's linked with. So, the thing was that, after the movement, after that day, the event, which was on the 11th of May, the media—some of the media, the main media and the mainstream media, and the big political people were saying that this is something that was created by López Obrador, and we don't have—it's manipulated, these are not students. So, the next day, the students were on a video on YouTube saying—holding up their credentials and saying, "This is us. We're students. This is an authentic movement." And that was what triggered the movement. It was the media saying these are not authentic students and the PRI trying to minimize the movement, which was not a movement at that moment. So, we could even say that the PRI— And so, this was how they came to Yo Soy 132— Yeah. —because they are 132 students that confronted him, "I Am 132"? Exactly. And the student, 131. So the 132 is now that the Mexican population has—is in solidarity with them. We're also— So, I am 132. We're also joined by John Ackerman, editor of Mexican Law Review, also in Mexico City. John, Calderón beat López Obrador last time. Some say he stole the election. So talk about the significance of who López Obrador is and his connection to these students and—inspired also by the Occupy movement here in the United States. Right, Amy. That's a very, very important question. Six years ago, in 2006, there was a very close election between Calderón and López Obrador. Calderón officially came ahead half a percentage point—I mean, this was similar to 2000, Gore versus Bush—although many people thought that actually López Obrador had won and that fraud was committed, which would not have been something new in Mexican politics, Mexican elections. And López Obrador, basically, over the last six years has been on a grassroots campaign. He has visited every single little municipality or large municipality in the entire country, including all of the indigenous municipalities, thousands of them in the state of Oaxaca. He has basically conducted a ground campaign for the last six years, with very little money, not much financing or funding. And in contrast, Peña Nieto, his campaign has been run by the television duopoly. We have corporate media anywhere in the world, but in Mexico this is sort of over and over the top, because we have two television stations, Televisa and TV Azteca, who control 95 percent of all the channels. You know, they have four national channels, each one of them, and many local channels. So they really control what is and what is not news. Most Mexicans get their information through the television. And these television stations have cut a deal with Peña Nieto over the last also four or five years, and they have been promoting his image incessantly, constantly over these years. And so, we have a really radical contrast in terms of not only proposals and political ideology, but of real styles of campaigning and who each of these candidates represent. And, John Ackerman, could you talk about this Guardian series, articles that revealed that Peña Nieto had actually been paying the networks to get some favorable—to get favorable coverage? Yes, this is—this is very important coverage done by The Guardian and Jo Tuckman, who's a reporter down here. This information, some of it, had already come out in some of the local media, but the international attention and the extensive documents that Tuckman has been providing has been very important to demonstrate what most Mexicans actually kind of already knew, which is that these television stations are behind the candidate, but it's particularly scandalous that there's been actually millions of dollars funneled both from the state of—the state of Mexico, which is where Peña Nieto was governor, and from other sources that we don't know about, to literally purchase coverage to assure that the television stations give him—you know, it would be news unrelated to the state of Mexico very frequently, where he was governor, and all of a sudden they would go to the state of Mexico to interview him or interview his advisers about some sort of national issue. It was a classic case of manipulation and of direct support by a television station. Now, it wasn't sort of a public endorsement, where they weren't honest about it, and that's what is also an important part about the scandal, is that it was really designing their news programs and their coverage so as to support this candidate. They even had a little war room within Televisa, apparently, which was specifically designed to taking care of Peña Nieto's image. And this is why the youth uprising in Ibero and throughout the country over the last weeks is so important, because it has really sort of burst that bubble and has made people think that perhaps Peña Nieto is not the sort of pretty boy, perfect pretty boy that he's been made out to be. And, John, what about the third candidate, the PAN candidate, in the race? The PAN has now ruled Mexico for—under two presidents now, Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón. And many—from the outside, we're told that Mexico is actually economically in better shape now, although there's more polarization in wealth, but that it's in better shape economically than ever. So why has the PAN fallen so dramatically? Well, those economic numbers are debatable. Poverty has gone up over the last six years, and that's the most important number for me. We have had some basic economic stability, but, for instance, 2009 the Mexican economy went down 6.3 percent. It was the country that most suffered from the international crisis in Latin America. The thing here is that I think the population has decided that they want to kick the PAN out of power. That's one of the obvious things that's going to happen this Sunday: the PAN is not going to win. Calderón's candidate, Josefina Vázquez Mota, it's an important candidacy because it's the first time a woman has been running on a major party ticket, but she is way down in the polls, and people are really upset, as your other guest mentioned, about all of the deaths and the economic stagnation. And so, this is really about what kind of change the Mexican population wants: a change back toward the PRI or a change toward sort of the more progressive, corruption-fighting agenda that López Obrador is putting forth. The drug war, the—John Ackerman, the significance of the backdrop of this raging drug war in Mexico? Yes, very important. Once again, this is the central reason why the PAN, Calderón's PAN, is most likely not going to be re-elected in power. The interesting point is that actually this has not been a central policy issue that has been debated between the candidates. Basically, all of them are saying they need to—we need to change the strategy, something else has to happen, particularly—and this, I think, a good point that all of them, even the PRI candidate, is talking about—is that Mexico should be focusing principally on peace, reducing violence on Mexican soil, and not so worried about doing the dirty work for Washington in the drug war. This is something that the United States government has started to get worried about, actually, and has started to put pressure on Peña Nieto. And Peña Nieto, in response to that pressure, last week appointed Oscar Naranjo, who was the police chief for Uribe in Colombia as his top organized crime adviser. So, Peña Nieto is sending a very clear signal that he, at least, does want to continue on the same path as Calderón, following the dictates of the North American drug war. And, Tania Molina, as in most elections, turnout will be a big issue, how many people actually come out to vote. What are the historic turnout levels in Mexico for presidential elections, and are you getting the sense or are polls showing that more or fewer people will be voting this time? It seems that more people will be voting. And again, the Yo Soy 132 movement has a lot to do with it, because before the movement there was quite a big campaign among people saying that, "Oh, we shouldn't vote, because none of the three candidates really—we don't really agree with any of the three, so let's just not turn up." And after the Yo Soy 132, what they say is, "Yes, you should vote. This is very important." And they are trying to get people to inform themselves about the vote, and they say it's very important that you vote. So, this week they have a campaign, right before the election, which is called "Six Days to Save Mexico." And they're on the public transport telling people to vote. They're not with any political party, so they just say you should inform yourself and vote and go to the polls. And, Tania, the significance— And they're also doing rallies. Tania, the significance of the solidarity movement—Chile's student movement, the United States' Occupy movement, a Chilean student leader coming to Mexico? Have you seen this before? And what did she say? Yes, we had the visit of Camila Vallejo, the leader of the students' movement—well, one of the—the visible leader of the students' movement. She was here about two weeks ago. And this was a visit that was a coincidence, but it was a great coincidence for the movement. She was with the movement. She had several—a couple of mass reunions with them and with students and general population. And she said, "Thank you for putting the mainstream media on the—as a target, because," she said, "a student movement, our student movement in Chile, we always target government. We aim for a public education. But we had never targeted the other power, which is the media." So she was saying that it's a wonderful thing, and she was—she was very excited to be here. And the movement, of course, was very excited to have her here. And it was a great exchange of experiences. So that was one of them. The other is with the Occupy and with the indignados, there has been exchanges, as well. And there are people in Spain that have gone with the indignados, Mexican people that are with the Yo Soy 132. And all over the world, as well, there are several groups of Yo Soy 132 of Mexicans that are outside. We have them in London, in France, in several countries in Europe, and in the United States, as well. Let us, finally, go to John Ackerman to ask you about the role of the United States in these elections, if there is one. Oh, that's a big question. The United States has been—at least the U.S. government has been very attentive. Joe Biden had a surprise visit in February—I think it was end of February, beginning of March—and he met with all three candidates. This was kind of unprecedented that a vice president would come down right in the middle of the campaign or just before the campaigns were starting. All three of the principal candidates met with him. It seems to me that the U.S. government is particularly concerned about oil and drugs. You know, those are the—and by immigration, of course. Those are the three big topics. I don't think any of the candidates offer radical changes here, although obviously López Obrador is going to have a more sort of focus on Mexican sovereignty on all of these top issues. And Peña Nieto has been really doing a massive PR relationship within the United States to make the U.S. sort of establishment think that he is the safest candidate. But that's risky because Peña Nieto also has a very dark past. He is—he and his party have been coming out—people have been coming out showing all different sorts of scandals in terms of linkages to corruption, even to narcotraffickers. And the states, the local states which are governed by the PRI in Mexico, are among the most violent and the most corrupt in the country. And so, a return of the PRI, although some people in the U.S. government might see this as a positive thing because he's sort of more pro-American, in the end, from my point of view, this would actually be bad for U.S.-Mexican relationships because of the increase in violence and the lack of economic development that this could bring about. And, John Ackerman, on López Obrador's campaigning, after the 2006 election he led massive protests and sit-ins in town squares, challenging the results, but the reports are that this time around he's moderated his language, he's sought to win over more middle-class Mexicans to his party and his candidacy. Do you have a sense that this is—is this accurate, and has it had any impact in terms of boosting his support? Yeah, well, there are two sides to this. On one hand, yes, López Obrador six years ago led, you know, million-person marches downtown demanding a full recount. I think this was really an inspiration to many of us. You know, Al Gore in 2000 went home, didn't say anything. And López Obrador actually took to the streets and demanded a full recount, and this really galvanized society and has led to very important electoral reforms, for instance, after that election. But, yes, it hurt him in terms of, you know, estranging him from some more moderate voters, and he has radically changed his message this year. And he has actually garnered some really important support from business interests. For instance, the city of Monterrey, which is one of the industrial business capitals in Mexico, has been governed by—the local government by the PAN, the state government by the PRI. And a large group of very powerful businessmen has said that both the PAN and the PRI are equally as corrupt, and we are willing to try something new, and López Obrador is our candidate. And he has come back saying, yes, that he's not a radical leftist. What he's interested is in transparency and combating corruption and bringing peace to Mexico. And so, there's been a very interesting new relationship between López Obrador and, you know, middle-class, moderate business interests in Mexico, which has definitely strengthened his campaign in the last few months. John Ackerman, we want to thank you for being with us, editor of the Mexican Law Review, professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, also columnist for Proceso magazine. And we want to thank Tania Molina, who is a journalist at La Jornada, the main progressive national newspaper of Mexico, producing a pamphlet for Zuccotti Park Press by and about the Yo Soy 132 student movement in Mexico. http://news.linktv.org/videos/tired-of-biased-tv-coverage-mexican-students-organize-presidential-debate?start=0 With less than two weeks before the elections in Mexico, young voters are making their voices heard. The student-led "Yo Soy 132" protest movement, tired of biased TV coverage, organized its own debate between the presidential candidates. Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:21:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/tired-of-biased-tv-coverage-mexican-students-organize-presidential-debate Yo Soy 132, Mexican general election, 2012, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Josefina Vázquez Mota, Gabriel Quadri de la Torre, Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, National Action Party (Mexico), Party of the Democratic Revolution, New Alliance Party (PANAL) It is less than two weeks before the elections in Mexico, and young voters are making their voices heard. The student-led "Yo Soy 132" movement organized a third presidential debate, which they also moderated and led. The event, streamed live on the web, came after tens of thousands of university students took to the streets last month, demanding that ordinary people be more involved in the elections and fairer coverage of the campaigns. Three out of the four candidates took part - noticeably absent was front runner candidate Enrique Pena Nieto who refused to participate saying that he felt that the students were biased against his campaign. The fact that three presidential candidates chose to take part in the debate shows politicians are beginning to recognize the importance of Mexico's future generation. Al-Jazeera's Rachel Levin reports. ---- Presidential candidates (from left) Josefina Vazquez Mota, from the ruling National Action Party (PAN), Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), and Gabriel Quadri, of the New Alliance Party (PANAL), arrive for a debate organized by university students from "YoSoy132" (I am 132) in Mexico City June 19, 2012: moderator Rodrigo Munguia, http://news.linktv.org/videos/turn-on-your-brain-mexican-youth-protest-tv-election-coverage?start=0 Mexican university students of the Yo Soy 132 movement have held a protest outside the headquarters of the Televisa television channel, accusing it of bias in favor of PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto in the upcoming election. Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:56:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/turn-on-your-brain-mexican-youth-protest-tv-election-coverage Yo Soy 132, Mexican general election, 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto, Televisa, Mexico, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Mexican media, Protest, Politics of Mexico, Mexico City Mexican university students of the Yo Soy 132 movement have held a protest outside the headquarters of Televisa channel with slogans such as "Turn of the television, turn on your brain." The young people are accusing this TV channel of imposing PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto on the electorate in the upcoming election. http://news.linktv.org/videos/election-protests-spark-mexicos-youth-awakening?start=0 Mexican youth had been written off, accused of being apathetic and apolitical. But a growing protest movement -- dubbed Yo Soy 132 -- has galvanized opinion, with thousands taking to the streets ahead of Mexico's presidential election. Wed, 30 May 2012 07:59:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/election-protests-spark-mexicos-youth-awakening Yo Soy 132, Mexican general election, 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Mexico, Protest, Politics of Mexico, Mexican media, President of Mexico, Censorship Mexican youth had been written off, accused of being apathetic and apolitical. Most in Mexico believed young people would sit out the upcoming presidential election, but a growing protest movement -- dubbed Yo Soy 132 -- has galvanized opinion, with thousands taking to the streets in the capital and around the country,changing the perception of the country's youth. Mexico will head to the polls on July 1 for national and local elections, and more than 3.5 million people will be casting their ballots for the first time. The so-called youth vote for those aged 18 to 29 makes up more than 20% of the electorate. If voter turnout is high, it could have a big impact on the election. Al Jazeera's Rachel Levin reports. ---- A university student holds the Mexican flag during a protest against Enrique Pena Nieto, presidential candidate of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and to demand balance in the media coverage of the presidential race in Mexico City May 28, 2012. The "YoSoy132" movement was organized by students to create awareness of Mexico's current political situation and media censorship, local media reported. http://news.linktv.org/videos/what-do-student-protesters-want-in-mexico?start=0 For the third time in less than a week, Mexican students took to the streets to protest the PRI's possible return to power, as well as what they perceive to be biased coverage of the elections by Television giant, Televisa. Is the Yo Soy 132 movement Mexico's version of the Arab Spring? <br /> Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:53:00 -0700 http://news.linktv.org/videos/what-do-student-protesters-want-in-mexico Yo Soy 132, Mexican general election, 2012, Mexico, Protest, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Politics of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, Student activism, Televisa, Student For the third time in less than a week, Mexican students took to the streets to protest the PRI's possible return to power, as well as what they perceive to be biased coverage of the elections by Television giant, Televisa. Is the Yo Soy 132 movement Mexico's version of the Arab Spring?