As the days continue to pass after the Mexican presidential election, members of the Coalición por el Bien de Todos (Coalition for the Good of All) continue to present what is called "prueba superveniente", or emerging evidence, of the electoral fraud and how it was carried out.
On election night I was a proud Mexican citizen, convinced that finally my country had reached a point in which actual democracy was viable; I was certain the elections had been clean and there had been no fraud. I even jumped on a few people on this site who derided our democracy and I strongly defended our electoral system.
That was then. This is now. Back then, I thought (as many others did), that every political party (or at least the major ones) had representatives in EVERY voting station across the country. As the post-electoral debacle began and continued, it was revealed that this was clearly NOT the case.
Today's most recent developments (story en español) brings us a much clearer picture of how this fraud was carried out. A key player in this operation is Elba Esther Gordillo, Teachers' Union longtime leader, longtime PRI official and general snake in the grass. Gordillo had a very public and nasty split with Roberto Madrazo within the PRI, which led her to "found" her own Party (Nueva Alianza) while still in the PRI. Shortly after the election she was caught on tape talking to a priista governor about negotiating with the PAN.
Anyway, here's what the PRD and its allied parties are presenting as evidence of Gordillo and her party's collusion with the PAN:
- In over 4,000 voting stations nation wide, where ONLY representatives of PAN or Nueva Alianza (or both) were present, Calderón's votes shot up dramatically, up to 80.77% (statistically impossible). In these voting stations ALONE, Calderón allegedly obtained 320,000 votes (remember the "official" margin between Calderón and AMLO was around 250,000).
- In 485 voting stations nationwide, where there were ONLY representatives of Panal, Calderón beat AMLO by a 63.91 to 29.69% margin (!!!)
- In 2,366 stations nationwide, where ONLY PAN reps were present, the percentages were 71.47 Calderón, 21.47 AMLO.
- Even more scandalous are the results from stations in which only reps from PAN AND Panal were present: 80.77% for Calderón, 13.02% for López Obrador.
This was revealed in a press conference held by Leonel Cota, national PRD president, and Senator Joel Ortega (PRD), who is also AMLO's campaign manager. Ortega also declared that Gordillo's involvement in this goes very deep and that it couldn't have been carried out without her input. The voting stations in which to carry out this fraud were carefully selected and had the protection and cover of local PRI or PAN governments.
This revelation should be a bombshell for the TEPJF (federal electoral court), and should be a major step forward towards achieving a vote by vote recount.
In the meantime, at least two million of us will be chanting and marching for our democracy tomorrow.
Stay tuned.