#YoSoy132 Pronouncement

Mexico City, December 7, 2012!

Pronouncement!

The events of Dec. 1 confirm the trepidations that during the last few months have sealed a wave of indignation opening the way for the mass mobilization of the countries multiple sectors. We recognize an orchestrated overwhelming onslaught against social movements and particularly against youth and the 132 Movement. With these facts we are forced to endure the imposition of Peña.

We denounce the aggressive operation mounted by the military and police in the center of Mexico City whose responsibility falls on federal and state government security commissions. A similar operation was repeated in other cities, and especially Guadalajara.

The violence came from state security forces and began with the erection of a fence spanning San Lázaro and the neighboring colonies. The testimonies and video speak for themselves of how the government introduced confrontation and provocation, with arbitrary detentions and also by dealing blows, sexual harassment and point blank shots of rubber bullets aimed at protesters.

We call for a well organized, united, and wide campaign for the preservation of democratic liberties beginning with the immediate release of all men and women political prisoners.

For all of the above:

1. We demand that the penal actions exercised against the 58 men and 11 women remanded under the criminal statues of 287/2012 of the 47 court of the Mexico City jail all of them men and women victims of a political strategy and orchestrated media coverage by the Mexican state in coordination with methods of communication that have also criminalized at a minimum five of the remanded with their presumed innocence under threat and in detriment to the human rights of this process.

2. As it is we demand the repeal of article 362 of the Mexico City penal code that describes the crime as and attack on public peace (equivalent to the crime of federal terrorism laws) as in the rest of the state penal codes which contemplate by treating the crime as an attempt to blame the victims of the very disturbance of the public peace conducted by the state and for trying to act as a trap using the same to reprimand fights, manifestations and social protests along the history but under another regime as occurred in the atrocities of 1968 and 1971 under the penalty of social crisis. The investigation and punishment should fall exclusively on those responsible for the provocations and state violence. We reject the politicization of justice that does not lead to the construction of an authentically direct democratic state.

3. We demand guaranteed rights for all men and women. We protest against the criminalization of the struggle and social protest, we also demand respect for the character of our mobilizations and actions that the #YoSoy132 movement in its peaceful approach carries out.

IMMEDIATE LIBERTY FOR ALL WOMEN AND MEN POLITICAL PRISONERS!

WE ARE ALL PRISONERS! NOT ONE MORE ISOLATED STRUGGLE!

BECAUSE PROTESTING IS NOT A CRIME!

National Assembly of the #YoSoy132 Movement!

#Iam132 presents proposals for media democratization

CNN Mexico Blog: Americas Program Original Translation

On Tuesday, members of the student movement #Iam132 presented a series of proposals for media democratization in Mexico, one of the themes that gave rise to this protest group.

In a document that includes six issue areas, the activists mentioned that a media model should be established which consists of a commercial sector, another public and a community social one, in which citizens can be included from diverse sectors.

In another section, the document mentions that “the communication should be recognized as a public service and not as a matter of social interest,” and that the State should guarantee freedom of expression.

“It is necessary to promote public policies that aim to a media literacy such as the elimination of the digital divide,” added the representatives of around 20 assemblies, that make up the work group for the democratization of the media.

On its political position, the youth of this group indicated in a press conference that “the media monopoly” has taken the leading role in the state-level decision-making, “through the manipulation of public opinion, particularly the television.”

See Spanish original.
Translation by Bonnie Ho, Americas Program

Mexico's media monopoly vs. the people

Televisa helped elect the country's new president. Now it hears cries for the breakup of its broadcast empire.

By Nathaniel Parish Flannery, contributor

CNN FORTUNE -- On July 7, nearly 100,000 people forced their way down Reforma, one of Mexico City's main avenues, gathering in front of the Angel of Independence, a 150-foot-tall monumentin a plaza in the city center. "People, Listen! This is your fight!" they chanted. "Governing a country is not [the same as] making a telenovela," one of the protest posters announced. Mexico's election is over, but in the weeks following the July 1 ballot count, demonstrators have takento the streets. They are angry about the victory of Enrique Peña Nieto, a polarizing but telegenic candidate who ran a campaign based on simple slogans such as "You'll Earn More!"

As the demonstration passed by Museo de Bellas Artes, an iconic museum in downtown Mexico City, Carolina Reyes, a recent college graduate, explained "I think there was fraud in the promotion [of Peña Nieto] in the media." She had painted the front of a model TV screen to show a modified version of the Televisa logo, re-done in the red, white, and green colors of Peña Nieto's party, a political machine with a long and checkered history in Mexico. A plastic tyrannosaurus rex toy poked its head out through a rip in the center of the logo, a warning about the return of old, corrupt, political "dinosaurs" to power. "Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!" the crowd around Carolina chanted, as onlookers stopped to use their cell phones to snap photos as she held her TV prop over her head. The protesters, the majority of whom supported Andres Manuel Lopez Obredor (AMLO), a leftist candidate, are frustrated with the influence of Televisa (TV), Mexico's most important media company, in their country's political discourse. They don't want to see Televisa write the script for their country's elections.

Many members of Mexico's urban, educated, tech savvy youth, who watched and criticized the campaigns via Youtube and Twitter, think that Televisa, a TV conglomerate that produces many of the country's most popular telenovelas, may be too big for the country's good.Televisa controls 70% of the broadcast television market, and its broadcasts reach 95% of all homes in Mexico. Unlike cable TV or the Internet -- platforms that offer a plethora of options -- viewers frustrated with the perceived political slant of news coverage on Mexico's broadcast TV networks have few alternatives. Especially in Mexico, a country with limited cable and Internet penetration, broadcast TV plays a central role. Right now the country has only two nationally broadcast TV channels. Javier Aparicio, a political economy professor at CIDE, a prestigious research institute in Mexico City, explained that his "main concern is the concentration of the media industry in Mexico." He added, "Televisa has an important influence in campaigns in national elections." Read more. 

With Mexico's election results upheld, what's next for the YoSoy132 movement?

The youth movement that emerged in opposition to the media's campaign coverage of President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto is redefining its message and working to give new life to Mexico's democracy.

CSM: Lauren Villagran,  Mexico City / September 11, 2012

When student protestors took to the streets after a government tribunal dismissed charges of fraud and upheld the results of Mexico’s July presidential election last month, they said they mourned “the death of democracy.” But not the end of their movement.

Known for its Twitter hash tag, #YoSoy132 emerged before this summer’s presidential election in opposition to what the students called favoritism by the television media for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto. Mr. Peña Nieto ultimately won the election with 38 percent of the vote in a field of four.

The election now settled, many are questioning what YoSoy132 will do next. Their No. 1 goal remains fair access to information and the “democratization” of Mexico’s media, according to a message emitted to coincide with President Felipe Calderón’s sixth and final state of the union address earlier this month. But the ad-hoc student movement, criticized early on for its lack of organization and focus, is still struggling to create a unified message, leaving some to question its significance and potential to endure in Mexico today.

“The problem with the movement is not whether it continues to have a voice; it’s that it has too many,” says Carlos Bravo Regidor, professor of political studies at Mexico City’s CIDE research center. “The internal diversity at times appears to overpower [the group’s] capacity to deliver coherent and effective messages.”

From nonpolitical marches against media manipulation to the “taking” of government buildings in the state of Veracruz to behind-the-scenes work on proposals for public policy, the private and public university students who consider themselves a part of the YoSoy132 movement differ as much on method as message.

That diversity is a source of strength, says Antonio Attolini, a political science student at Mexico City’s private Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM).  Read more. 

#Yo Soy 132 Garners International Support

#YoSoy132 New York in Action. 

Americas Program: Mexico City - Mexico's student-led resistance movement, #Yo Soy 132, has been gathering global support since May of this year. The movement that started just four months ago in Mexico has become a leading force for democracy, and against what it considers to be the "imposition" of presumed president-elect, Enrique Peña Nieto.

Just after the group’s inception the #YoSoy132 movement began forming groups, or “cells”, beyond Mexico´s borders. Mexican youth and their supporters have organized actions of international solidarity in Argentina, Barcelona and Paris and dozens of other cities.The protests against the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), election fraud, and biases in elections reporting by the mainstream Mexican media, now find their way into newspapers on several continents.

In Mexico, Yo Soy 132 ponders next step

LA Times: Yo Soy 132 ('I am 132'), a student movement disenchanted with Mexico's democracy, says it wants to keep the PRI on its toes, even if the election is over.

Richard Fausset. MEXICO CITY — Here they were again, marching through the dark and the rain — the preppies from private universities, the hipsters in fat-lace skater sneakers, the young intellectuals with faces framed in wispy Che Guevara beards, the regular kids with backpacks and smartphones. Read more.

Protesters blockade Mexico's biggest TV station

Reuters: Thousands of protesters on Thursday blockaded the studios of Mexico's most popular TV network, accusing it of biased coverage of the July 1 presidential election.

Shouting "Tell the truth," the demonstrators, including students and union workers, stopped employees entering the offices of the Televisa studios in Mexico City although they allowed others to leave. Read more.

Protests Against Elections Heat Up with "National March Against the Imposition"

Photo: Clayton Conn

Mexicans hit the streets again on Sunday, in the third mass demonstration against the apparent president-elect, Enrique Peña Nieto, in the three weeks since the elections. After months of demonstrations, Mexico's movement to reject the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)
shows no signs of fading away.

The July 22 "National March Against the Imposition" began at the presidential residence and arrived shortly after noon at Mexico City's Angel of Independence. Hundreds of people waited to join at the gold-tipped monument, swelling the ranks as students, unions, and citizens moved on to the central plaza.

At the final destination, tens of thousands poured into the square. They marched in clumps and converged from different routes, making it impossible to grasp the full dimension of the march at any given moment. But what the mobilization lacked in route planning, it made up for in energy, indignation and creativity.

This was about the fifth or sixth march against the PRI and its candidate that I've observed first-hand.  I wanted to check out two questions at this one: 1) what difference, if any, the coalition of organizations forged during the National Convention July 14-15 made and 2) what the main demands are, as election day fades into history and evidence of foul play mounts. I also wanted to see if accusations that the student-led movement is controlled by the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) had any substance behind them.

Organizations like the electricians union (SME) and the democratic current of the teachers' union (CNTE) that took part in the planning meeting in the town of Atenco turned out, although not in huge  numbers. The march was called just a week after the accords in Atenco and most organizations have to go through a series of assemblies to make decisions. It may take longer to really assess the impact of the formal incorporation of other sectors into the movement against Peña Nieto and the PRI.

Some unions and universities walked in contingents but for the most part, the march--unlike most Mexico marches--was made up of citizens with home-made signs who marched without visible organizations. Most were young, some were older, including veterans of past movements. The predominance of seemingly unaffiliated people added to the sense of spontaneity of the demonstration, but also to questions about its longer term direction and longevity.

National March Against the Imposition
Since the elections and accusations of fraud, vote-buying and coercion, the marches against the PRI have focused more on the electoral process. "Imposition" refers to the protesters' belief that Peña Nieto was imposed on voters through a series of manipulations and falsifications that violated electoral laws and the popular will. Recent demonstrations called by the student group "Iam132" continue to before the elections denounced the candidate, the way the highly concentrated mass media openly promoted his candidacy and the possible return of the PRI. Most of the students who make up the movement have no real memory of living under a PRI government, since the conservative National Action Party (PAN) has held the presidency for the past twelve years. One young woman carried a sign that read, "We are the children of the ideals you never succeeded in killing".

Photo: Clayton Conn

They have done their history homework. In one of the first demonstration against Televisa, the giant television conglomerate accused of having sold favorable coverage to Peña Nieto as far back as 2009, students projected scenes from the PRI government's massacre of protesting students in 1968 and 1971 against the wall of the media giant's office building. The ruling elite that controlled a one-party system to perpetuate itself in power eternally is a legend they don't want to repeat.

An Ominous Response
The march was replicated in scores of cities across the country and by groups of #Yosoy132  in other countries. Unlike past marches, the July 22 marches met with a violent response from the government in various cities. In Leon, police picked up several protesters and drove them around for three hours, captive, before taking them into detention.

In Oaxaca City, state and federal police arrested and allegedly beat up youth protesters, sexually threatening and abusing the women.

Here is part of the statement from the #YoSoy132 movement:

We also demand the a full explanation of the physical and legal situation of the 24 young people arrested--including two minors, identified in the #YoSoy132 movement, who were arbitrarily imprisoned by state government officials in Oaxaca City. We call on the competent authorities to investigate the cases and clear their names. We request that the officials involved in the various violation of human rights be sanctioned for their acts.

We repudiate the unjustified or disproportionate use of force, arbitrary arrest, torture, just to mention a few, repression that denies freedom of expression and the free manifestation of ideas, as well as abuse of power, threats and harassment against members of social movements. We therefore demand these cases be cleared up and public officials brought to justice and that state and federal authorities prosecute cases of complaints related to these events.

 The violent and arbitrary response by police in these cities could be an ominous sign. The movement continues to insist on peaceful and non-confrontational tactics as it moves into a series of actions decided at the National Convention. The July 22 march was the first of those actions It showed that the movement still has a great ability to draw people into the streets for organized protests-- even weeks after elections that the media and political elite attempted to portray as an unassailable victory-- and among those protestors the rejection of the PRI candidate runs as strong as ever.

As for the second question--what are longer term strategies, beyond the action plan from here to Dec. 1--in all the enthusiasm of the march, I couldn't discern any. The people I talked to said for now, the focus is on consolidating the movement and making its voice here from now to the inauguration.

Youth agree on a peaceful demonstration at Televisa

- In the event of any provocation, protestors will sit on the floor.
El Universal: Americas Program Original Translation  (See Spanish Original)
The People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), the Mexican Electrician’s Union (SME), and the National Committee of Education Workers (CNTE), support the civil and peaceful demonstration that includes the “symbolic take” of Televisa by the #Iam132 movement, as part of their actions against what they call the "imposition" of Enrique Pena Nieto as president of Mexico.

This coming Friday, universities and organizations will set up a “human circle” around the Chapultepec Televisa that will last for 24 hours, in which they will prevent access to the company’s facilities, but will not obstruct the way out for staff.

In a press conference, the participants said that in the event of any provocation they will not respond with violence, instead, will only sit on the floor.

“No one will march with a hood or with their face concealed, nor will anyone carry objects or weapons…no one will be allowed to participate under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” they said.

With respect to the demonstrations planned for the Televisa facilities in the other Mexican states, the local assemblies called for avoiding any provocation.

The “human circle” will be formed from Thursday, the 26th, at 8:00 pm, congregating in the Revolution Monument, and from this point march toward the Televisa at Chapultepec.

#IAM132 Statement on Today's Symbolic Occupation of Televisa

Note: I attended the National Convention in Atenco and the proposed protest of Televisa was the most controversial action adopted. The day after, many press outlets reported that the #IAm132 movement was splitting with the Convention due to disagreement with the Action Plan, especially the Televisa action. This was never true. The agreement always allowed for member organizations to carry out assemblies to decide if they would participate- and how they would participate- in all the activities. The #IAm132 Movement and most of the other organizations at the Convention operate on the basis of assemblies. This video (in Spanish)  is an excellent explanation of that form of organization. Because of those rumors, and because the protest against Televisa that begins tonight at 8:00 PM and continues all day tomorrow is the second important action after the July 22 march, we publish below the statement on the decision of the Mexico City assemblies to participate in a "peaceful, symbolic occupation" of Televisa, in keeping with the movement's commitment to non-violent action. Laura


YoSoy132. Original Americas Program Translation. The Convention against the Imposition held in San Salvador Atenco July 14-15 and called by the Front of Peoples in Defense of the Land and the #|Am132 Movement agreed on an action plan for mobilizations against the imposition of Enrique Peña Ñieto. Regarding this, the assemblies of the [Mexico City] metropolitican area declare:
1) Our assemblies met and assumed the agreements reached at the Convention as our own and announced the participation of our assemblies in the action to be carried out at Televisa.
2) by consensus, our assemblies decided that the action for Friday, July 27 in front of Televisa Chapultepec will be of a civil and peaceful nature as a human chain around the installations, maintaining the pacific principle of our movement.
3) This protest will be held to denounce the media chain's daily manipulation and especially in the past electoral process and of the role the company has played in the imposition of Enrique Peña Nieto.
4) This chain wil be held in coordination with the grassroots movements united at the Convention, headed by the Front of Peoples in Defense of the Land, the Electricians Union (SME), the Naitonal Coordinating Body of Education Workers (CNTE, among others.
5) We invite all citizens to support this initiative by gathering at 8:00 PM Thursday, July 26 at the Monument of the Revolution to march to Televisa Chapultepec and create the peaceful human chain that will last 24 hours. During the action of the chain there will be cultural and symbolic activities to demonstrate our rejection of the television monopoly, since the #IAm132 Movement recognizes the importance and legitimacy of culture as a form of resistance, protest, denouncement and struggle. We invite all communications media to cover the statement to the press we will release at 10 PM.
6) We demand guarantees to our constitutional rights of free assembly, considering that we are exercising an act of peaceful civil disobedience that does not attempt to enter the company's offices and will not use violence or aggression of any kind against any member of the company's personnel, since our struggle is against the media monopolies, de facto powers, the political power of the television network and not against its staff or public guards. For this reason, we will not block the exit of the building and it will be a peaceful chain, with our own bodies creating the links surrounding the television headquarters. We reject any attempt to criminalize our movement or any participant in the human chain.
7) We call on our organizations, collectives, movements, networks and citizens in general to respect and participate in this peaceful chain, avoiding any confrontation with the police or company security. In case of suffering any attack or provocation by consensus we have decided to NOT respond with violence but with peaceful civil resistance by sitting on the ground.  We announce that no one will march with a hooded head or covered face, nor will it be allowed to carry objects or any type of arms that could present risks to the action. Of course, no one will be able to participate under the influence of drugs or alcohol. With this decision by consensus of all the assemblies of #IAm132 of the metropolitan area we maintain our unity.
8) We send greetings to the mobilizations that will be held throughout the country and respectful of their decisions of each state, city or school, however, we call on them to avoid any provocation in carrying out their demonstrations within the framework of the action plan against the imposition. We invite all citizens and organizations to join this effort that is of everyone.

ASSEMBLIES OF THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF #yosoy132
AND SOCIAL, CIVIL AND POPULAR ORGANIZATIONS, UNIONS,PARTICIPANTS IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AGAINST THE IMPOSITION
Cd. De México, UIC Universidad InterContinental, Académicos UNAM, Universidad Iberoamericana, Facultad de Química, Colegio de México, Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo, Universidad del Anáhuac, Facultad d Ciencias, UAM – Xochimilco, Posgrados UNAM, Universidad La Salle- Neza, ITAM Río honda, ENAH,TEC Monterrey Cd. México, UACM Cuautepec, ENP – 9, Fac Odontología –UNAM, IPN – ESCATepepan, Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, Facultad de Arquitectura, UACM CentroHistórico, Acampada Revolución, Instituto Mora, Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Yosoy132Nicolás Romero – Estado de México, CCH Oriente, Facultad dFilosofía y Letras, Prepa TEC CCM,Yosoy132 Internacional, FES Iztacala, UACM – Iztapalapa, Facultad de Psicología, CentroUniversitario de Educación Superior, UAM-Cuajimalpa, Facultad de Economía –UNAM, Movimientode Aspirantes a la Educación Superior, Escuela Nacional de Trabajo Social, UAM- I Posgrado, UNP,UPN, Prepa 2, UCSJ, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria yZootecnia, FES CUAUTITLAN, DERECHO UNAM, Lasalle Prepa, Lasalle Cd México, Escuela Libre deDerecho, Facultad de Contaduría y Administración, UVM San Rafael , Académicos metropolitanos,CCH VALLEJO, Prepa 3, Prepa 5, UACM –Del Valle, LaSalle San Fernando, LaSalle DF, LaSalle Neza,Bachillerato 4, ITAM Sta. Teresa, FES ACATLÁN, UAM Azcapotzalco, Facultad de Filosofía y letras, Asamblea Zona Norte EdoMex., UVM indios verdes, CCH Azcapotzalco, FES Zaragoza.

Thousands turn out to march against election results in Mexico

AP: MEXICO CITY – Thousands marched through Mexico City's center on Sunday to protest what they called the "imposition" of the candidate of the old ruling party as the country's new president.

Protesters carried signs accusing presumed President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto of electoral fraud and Mexico television giant Televisa of being a "factory of lies." Opponents say Pena Nieto's party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, won the July 1 election through vote-buying and overspending, including paying major media outlets such as Televisa for favorable coverage. Read more.

Mexico student movement plans more protests against Peña Nieto

latimes.com: MEXICO CITY -- The student-led movement that emerged in Mexico against president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto is planning another round of protests Sunday. The protests are part of a wave of demonstrations that began almost spontaneously during the presidential campaign and appear to still be drawing big crowds since the July 1 election.

The #YoSoy132 movement, or "I Am 132," said it will call demonstrations in "all public plazas" and at the presidential residence Los Pinos in Mexico City, in rejection of Peña Nieto's victory by more than 3 million votes over his nearest rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Read more.

#IAm132 demands that the TEPJF give credibility to the election

La Jornada: Americas Program Original Translation by Ryan Gentzler

See Spanish Original.

- Presents action proposal “to protect democracy”
- If the authority ignores complaints, there will be a “risk of social unrest”

Emir Olivares and Laura Poy. The commission of citizen’s watch and the #IAm132 movement’s legal and human rights committees presented a plan of action to “protect democracy, demand a clean electoral process, demand the invalidation of the presidential election and prevent the imposition [of Enrique Peña Nieto],” which includes participation in this Sunday’s “megamarch.”

Representatives of both organizations clarified that several points of the plan must be approved by the interuniversity congress that will be held on July 28 and 29 in Morelia, Michoacán.

In the press conference, they called on the Electoral Tribunal of Judicial Power (TEPJF) to “give credibility” to the election and contribute to cleaning up the polls, and said that calling them clean, equitable and transparent “would send a very bad message to society. The assessment of the electoral process has already been given by the citizens and it doesn’t favor the PRI’s candidate.”

They warned that if the electoral authorities ignore “the thousands of citizen complaints (about alleged irregularities) documented up to this point, it would be a step towards a serious risk of social unrest.”

Mexico’s conservative party joins leftists in demanding probe of presidential winner’s funding

In the latest development of the ongoing legal challenge to this month's presidential election, runner-up Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Gustavo Madero, national chairman of the PAN, have jointly accused the victorious PRI of laundering millions of dollars through front organizations to fund Enrique Peña Nieto's campaign and are demanding that the election be annulled.

AP: MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s conservative National Action Party said Thursday it has “strong and conclusive evidence of the use of illicit funds” in the campaign of the winner of the July 1 presidential election, Enrique Pena Nieto.

National Action leader Gustavo Madero said his group is joining with the country’s leftist parties to demand that electoral authorities investigate the use of pre-paid debit cards purportedly used by Pena Nieto’s campaign to distribute an estimated 108 million pesos ($8.2 million). That would be about a third of all the money he was legally allowed to use in the race. Read more.

Posted by Ryan Gentzler. 

Plan to “take on and surround” Televisa and boycott Soriana and Wal-Mart

La Jornada: Americas Program Original Translation
See Spanish Original.
- National demonstration against fraud, meeting in Atenco

Laura Poy Solano and Javier Salinas Cesáreo. San Salvador Atenco, Méx., July 15th. On participating on the first National Convention Against the Imposition, representatives of at least 300 organizations achieved a national central focus of action that will bring together students, farmers, workers, unions and teachers, who will drive national demonstrations, boycott companies that participated in fraud, occupy public plazas and “take on and surround” the Televisa facilities throughout the country, with the objective of preventing Enrique Peña Nieto from assuming presidency.

Members of the #Iam132 movement, Villages in Defense of Land Front (FPDT), Mexican Electricians Union (SME) and the National Committee of Education Workers (CNTE), among others, approved of having a national march this July 22nd in the capital of the country, while on Friday the 27th, they will call for action against the television company, among other measures, even though they will postpone for the second convention, to be carried out the 22nd and 23rd of September in Oaxaca, the plan for action that will take place between November 20th to December 1st.

For more than five hours, the 2,600 delegates and representatives of 29 organizations, according to figures from the organizers, discussed more than 200 mobilization proposals. August 4th was the date agreed on to convene in Jalisco for the meeting for the provisional national committee to organize its second convention. Likewise, on Friday the 8th, they will call their first national community protest and test out a general strike.

Mexico's #Iam132 student protesters weigh next moves

BBC: During Mexico's presidential election, a group of university students voiced their frustration at what they saw as biased media coverage. Their movement, born on social media and known as #YoSoy132 (I am 132), shook up a staid campaign - but what now for the protesters?

"Turn off the stupid TV, turn on the truth," was the call as students marched in their thousands in the Mexican capital and other towns and cities in May and June. Read more.

Mexico's Election: A Vote for Peace, a Plan for War

The Nation: Tom Hayden. The authorities were boasting that all flights were on time as I landed at Mexico City’s international airport on June 26 to cover the country’s national election. Terminal 2 bustled with travelers; the duty-free shops gleamed with jewelry and alcohol, and the food courts were in full service mode. Only twenty-four hours earlier, however, travelers were crawling on the same terminal floor during a shootout that killed three federal police. The shooters escaped in broad daylight. The dead officers were not shot by narcotraffickers but by other police who apparently were working for the narcos. It turned out that AeroMexico stewardesses were helping export cocaine on flights to Spain. Bienvenidos to the Mexican labyrinth, where nothing is transparent, including elections. Read more.

Another Rigged Vote? The Big Sham in Mexico

Counter Punch: Paul Imison. Mexico City. Mexico could be forgiven for partying like it’s 2006. Following the election on Sunday, where Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto appeared to win the presidency by a 6.5% margin over leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the result is being hotly contested. Just as in 2006, when he lost by a mere 0.56% to Felipe “drug warrior” Calderon, AMLO demanded a full recount based on evidence of irregularities in no fewer than – wait for it – 113,855 voting booths around the country.

The authority trusted (or not) with clearing up this mess is Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), which on Tuesday granted a partial recount of ballots from 78,000 voting booths, or casillas (54.5% of the total vote). Compare that to the just 3,000 ballots recounted in 2006 when the result was even tighter. The concession was surely an attempt to dampen the mobilization of AMLO’s considerable (and angry) support base that rocked the nation’s streets six years ago – not to mention the rolling thunder of the #YoSoy132 student movement. Read more.

Mexico’s Election: A Personal Commentary from Oaxaca

Upside Down World: When we lose an election, and feel angry with or without cause, it’s natural to shout “Fraud!” However, the count of votes cast on July 1, 2012 provoked a scream of rage which didn’t indicate baseless anger, or that no fraud actually occurred. Enrique Peña Nieto the PRI presidential victor, feels safe saying he will go along with a recount. The fraud won’t show up on the paper ballots.

In Mexico, how much fraud decides an election? President Felipe Calderon never permitted a true examination of his 2006 electoral results, and that refusal supported a public perception of fraud, not diminished it. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, his left-leaning opponent, never stopped saying Calderon is illegitimate. Six years later we hopefully embarked on the same scenario, this time with Peña Nieto. Read more.

Students march against Mexico's election result

AP: MEXICO CITY – Tens of thousands of protesters marched in Mexico's capital on Saturday to protest Enrique Pena Nieto's apparent win in the country's presidential election, accusing his long ruling party of buying votes.

The protesters were angered by allegations that Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party gave out bags of groceries, pre-paid gift cards and other goods to voters ahead of July 1 national elections.

The students, unionists and leftists in the march carried signs reading, "Pena, how much did it cost to become president?" and "Mexico, you pawned your future for 500 pesos." Mexico City officials put the size of the crowd that reached its central Zocalo plaza at 50,000. Read more.