Mexico Hear The Voices of the Exterior

(Mark Almond is a history lecturer at Oriel College, Oxford)

Tuesday August 15, 2006The Guardian A couple of years ago television, radio and print media in the westjust couldn't get enough of "people power". In quick succession, fromGeorgia's rose revolution in November 2003, via Ukraine's orange revolution a year later, to the tulip revolution in Kyrgyzstan and thecedar revolution in Lebanon, 24-hour news channels kept us up to datewith democracy on a roll.Triggered by allegations of election fraud, the dominoes toppled. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was happy with the trend:"They're doing it in many different corners of the world, places asvaried as Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan and, on the other hand, Lebanon ...And so this is a hopeful time."But when a million Mexicans try to jump on the people-power bandwagon,crying foul about the July 2 presidential elections, when protestersstage a vigil in the centre of the capital that continues to this day, they meet a deafening silence in the global media. Despite Mexico'slong tradition of electoral fraud and polls suggesting that AndrésManuel López Obrador - a critic of the North American Free TradeAgreement (Nafta) - was ahead, the media accepted the wafer-thin majority gained by the ruling party nominee, Harvard graduate FelipeCalderón.Although Mexico's election authorities rejected López Obrador's demandfor all 42m ballots to be recounted, the partial recount of 9% indicated numerous irregularities. But no echo of indignation haswafted to the streets of Mexico City from western capitals.Maybe Israel's intervention in Lebanon grabbed all the attention andrequired every hack and videophone. Back in 2004 CNN and the BBC were perfectly able to cover the battle for Falluja and the orangerevolution in the same bulletins. Today, however, even a news junkielike me cannot remember a mainstream BBC bulletin live from among themassive crowds in Mexico City. Faced by CNN's indifference to the growing crisis in Mexico, only a retread of an old saying will do:"Pity poor Mexico, so far from Israel, so close to the United States."Castro's failing health gets more airtime than the constitutional crisis gripping America's southern neighbour, which is one of itsmajor oil suppliers. Apparently, crowds of protesters squatting inMexico City for weeks protesting against alleged vote-rigging don'tmake a good news story. Occasionally commentators who celebrated Ukrainians blocking the main thoroughfares of Kiev condescend to jeerat Mexico's sore losers and complain that businessmen are missingdeadlines because dead-enders with nothing better to do are holding upthe traffic. Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko was decisive when he declared himself president, but isn't López Obrador a demagogue for doing thesame?The colour-coded revolutionaries of the former Soviet Union had apro-western agenda - such as bringing Georgia and Ukraine into Nato and the EU - but in Latin America radicals question the wisdom ofmembership of US-led bodies such as Nafta and the WTO. The crude truthis that Washington cannot afford to let Mexico's vast oil reservesfall into hands of a president even half as radical as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.But didn't the western observers certify the Mexican polls as "fair",while they condemned the Ukrainian elections? True, but electionobservers are not objective scientists. The EU relies on politicians, not automatons, to evaluate polls. Take the head of its observermission, the MEP José Ignacio Salafranca: as a Spanish speaker inMexico, Salafranca had a huge advantage over many of the MEPs inUkraine who draped themselves in orange even while en mission - but he is hardly neutral. His rightwing Popular party is an ally ofCalderón's Pan party, which is in power in Mexico. Calderón wasimmediately congratulated by Salafranca's colleague AntonioLópez-Istúriz on the "great news". The days of leftwing fraternalism may be over, but the globalist righthas its own network, linking the Spanish conservatives, AmericanRepublicans and Calderón's Pan party - and they provided the keyobserver. To paraphrase Stalin: "It doesn't matter who votes, it matters who observes the vote."Salafranca has a track record as an election observer. In Lebanon'sgeneral elections in 2005 he had no problem with the pro-westernfaction sweeping the board around Beirut with fewer than a quarter of voters taking part and nine of its seats gained without even a tokenalternative candidate. "It is a feast of democracy," he declared. Hismood changed when the democratic banquet moved to areas dominated by Hizbullah or the Christian maverick General Aoun. Suddenly,"vote-buying" and the need for "fundamental reform" popped up in theEU observation reports.Unanimity on the scale seen across Lebanon suggests that the cedar revolution - despite the hype - did nothing to promote real democraticpluralism. Hizbullah's hold on the south is the most controversialaspect of the sectarian segmentation of Lebanese society, buteverywhere local bosses dominate their fiefdoms as before. Similarly, more scepticism about Ukraine's revolution would have left peoplebetter informed than the orange boosterism that passed for commentary18 months ago.But Mexico is different because it is so under-reported. The cruel reality is that "people power" has become a global brand. But like somany global brands it is owned by Americans. Mexicans and any other"populists" who try to copy it should beware that they're infringing a copyright. No matter how many protesters swarm through Mexico City orhow long they protest, it is George Bush and co who decide whichpeople truly represent The People. People power turns out to be aboutpolitics, not arithmetic. · Mark Almond is a history lecturer at Oriel College, Oxfordmpalmond@aol.comhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1844573,00.html __._,_.___