My
first diary here on Kos (July 4, two days after the election) was a translation of a text I received from a good friend, Daniela Pastrana, who works as a freelance journalist here in Mexico City. Daniela has been with Reforma and La Jornada and currently is writing an in depth chronicle of the peaceful civil resistance camps that have set up since 7/30.
It's been 47 days since the election and there is still no definitive official winner. It's been two and a half weeks since the camps were set up. Today I received this text from Daniela and with her permission I'm posting it along with the English translation. I'm accompanying with a cartoon that stuck in my mind when I first saw it over two weeks ago and speaks very much to Daniela's text:
update: some bombshell hard numbers from the recount? look below the fold.
August 2 cartoon by El Fisgón. TV announcer says: "Reforma avenue remains kidnapped!" while democracy wonders when they'll talk about her kidnapping...
One. Maybe because it took us by surprise and we didn't really have time to think about his proposal, but the vast majority of those of us who were at the July 30 "assembly" raised our hand to approve the idea of the protest camps. That is what I was told the other day by an engineer who usually lives in the USA when he explained his reasons for being at the camps, and I remembered him again today, as I witnessed the physical toll of some who are there on Reforma... we al raised our hand, but our daily life is winning out and we're abandoning them to fend off the critics and honking motorists by themselves...
Two. Many, myself included, had a conscience crisis when we saw the nine kilometers of camps and heard the complaints about the traffic and the economic loss, and bla bla bla... As you know, I've been there the past two weeks, touring the camps, interviewing people. The conviction and strength of their arguments makes me feel ashamed of my own vacillation: "the size of the protest camps is the size of THEIR crime", they very frankly say. As I walk down Reforma I think that for a long time now the city has been kidnapped by the motorists, who change lanes without warning, throw their car at you, park wherever they want, in double or triple lanes, on forbidden streets, on major thoroughfares... the city has also been kidnapped by those who put fencing on the streets and block access to motorists AND pedestrians...
It's also been kidnapped by hotel and restaurant owners who charge you 4 dollars for a cup of coffee with a view of Reforma... and when I see the artists at the Diana, the wrestling matches, the chess tournaments, the community radio stations, the photo exhibits, I think that maybe the camps have "liberated" Reforma... It's a nice dream to think it became a permanent pedestrian boulevard...
I see along the street of Madero a great amount of discussion and public debate that generate between strangers that want to, need to talk to each other, give their opinion, and they can do so right there, through the own conditions of the narrow street, and I think of the ancient greeks, debating in the public square... I think then, that maybe the shopping malls have kidnapped our public places.
I see people in the Zocalo, who come from the other states, many of them farmers with a primary level education, or I see teachers listening to a history lesson by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, and I think that our education system has been kidnapped, as is the health care system... I listen to each of the lyrics that in all types of genre, from cumbia to hip hop, have been composed about Andrés Manuel (my list is at 38, and that's not counting the corridos) and I'm convinced that our culture has been kidnapped...
The size of the protest camps, they say there, is the size of THEIR crime...
Three. Today in his history lesson, Taibo said something that's very true: the movement is solid and tightly knit from within. No mega hailstorms, no panista insults, no military water cannons, no criticism from moderate intellectuals can modify one degree the conviction of those who are camping out on Reforma, sure as they are that the size of THEIR crime demands nothing less. But outside this corridor, the movement has lost its social base. There are no pamphlet brigades, no debate on the bus, no discussions in universities and cafes, no letters to the editor... in other words, those of us on the outside of the camps, who also raised our hands on July 30, are abandoning them to their devices.
Four. The last one, before I go to sleep, is more of an invitation to not throw in the towel in the last round, because the only thing that can defeat the collective indignation of this great mobilization is disappointment and weariness: See you at the Zocalo on Sunday!
-daniela
original text in Spanish:
Uno. Quizá porque nos tomó por sorpresa y no nos dio tiempo para pensar en la propuesta, pero la gran mayoría de los que estuvimos en la "asamblea" del 30 de julio alzamos la mano para aprobar el plantón... eso me dijo el otro día un ingenieron que generalmente vive en Estados Unidos para explicar sus razones en los campamentos y hoy lo volví a recordar, al ver los estragos físicos de algunos de los que están ahí Reforma... todos alzamos la mano, pero la vida cotidiana nos está ganando y los estamos dejando sólos con las críticas y los claxonazos...
Dos. Muchos -me incluyo- tuvimos crisis de conciencia cuando vimos los nueve kilómetro de plantón y escuchamos las quejas por el tráfico y las pérdidas económicas, y blablablabla... Como saben, he estado ahí las últimas dos semanas, recorriendo campamentos, entrevistando gente. La convicción y firmeza de sus argumentos me hace sentir un poco apenada de mi propia vacilación: "el tamaño del plantón es del tamaño del agravio", dicen con razón. Mientras camino por Reforma pienso que hace mucho la ciudad ha estado secuestrada por los automovilistas, que se te cierran, te avientan el carro, se estacionan donde quieren, en doble fila, en calles prohibidas, en ejes viales... la ciudad también está secuestrada por quienes ponen rejas en sus calles y no nos dejan pasar por ellas... también está secuestrada por los hoteleros y restauranteros que te cobran 40 pesos por un café con vista al paseo de la Reforma... y pienso, cuando veo a los pintores en la Diana, las luchas libres, el ajedrez, las radios comunitarias, las exposiciones fotográficas, que más bien los campamentos "liberaron" Reforma... qué lindo sueño que se hiciera un largo paseo Peatonal...
Veo en Madero la cantidad de discusiones y debates públicos que se generan entre personas que no se conocen , pero que quieren hablar, dar su opinión, y lo pueden hacer ahí, por las propias condiciones de una calle más cerrada, y me imagino a los antiguos griegos discutiendo en las plazas... pienso entonces que los centros comerciales secuestraron los espacios públicos.
Veo a la gente en el Zócalo, que viene de los estados, muchos campesinos, con instrucción de primaria, o maestros, escuchando las clases de historia que imparte y reparte Paco Ignacio Taibo II, y pienso que la educación está secuestrada, como el sistema de salud pública... escucho cada una de las letras que en todos los ritmos musicales -desde cumbias hasta hip hop- se han escritos sobre ANdrés Manuel (llevo una cuenta de 38 y me faltan los corridos) y me convenzo de que la cultura está secuestrada...
EL tamaño del plantón, dicen bien en los campamentos, es del tamaño del agravio...
Tres. Hoy en su clase de historia, Taibo decía algo muy cierto: el movimiento está sólido y bien amarrado hacia adentro. Ni las súpergranizadas, ni las mentadas panistas, ni las tanquetas militares, ni las críticas de los intelectuales moderados pueden modificar un grado la seguridad de los que acampan en Reforma, seguros como están de que el agravio no es para menos. Pero fuera de ese corredor, el movimiento ha perdido su base social. No hay brigadas volanteando, no hay debates en los camiones, ni discusiones en las universidades y en los cafés, ni cartas a los periódicos... Es decir, los que estamos afuera, que también alzamos la mano el 30 de julio, los estamos dejado solos.
Cuarta. La última, antes de irme a dormir, es más bien una invitación a no tirar la toalla antes del último round, porque lo único que puede vencer toda la indignación colectiva de esta gran movilización es la decepción y el cansancio: ¡Todos al Zócalo este domingo!...
besísimos,
d.
update:
This was published 8/14, don't know if it's been referenced here, but if these hard numbers published by NarcoNews' Al Giordano are true, this is a bombshell:
Finally, the hard numbers are starting to come in. In the "partial recount" of paper ballots from the July 2 presidential election in Mexico, ordered by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (known as the Trife), the recount has been completed in 10,679 precincts of the 11,839 ordered by the court (about 9 percent of Mexico's 130,000 precincts). From these precincts, Narco News has obtained the following preliminary numbers that confirm the massive and systematic electoral fraud inflicted on the Mexican people:
- In 3,074 precincts (29 percent of those recounted), 45,890 illegal votes, above the number of voters who cast ballots in each polling place, were found stuffed inside the ballot boxes (an average of 15 for each of these precincts, primarily in strongholds of the National Action Party, known as the PAN, of President Vicente Fox and his candidate, Felipe Calderón).
- In 4,368 precincts (41 percent of those recounted), 80,392 ballots of citizens who did vote are missing (an average of 18 votes in each of these precincts).
- Together, these 7,442 precincts contain about 70 percent of the ballots recounted. The total amount of ballots either stolen or forged adds up to 126,282 votes altered.
- If the recount results of these 10,679 precincts (8.2 percent of the nation's 130,000 polling places) are projected nationwide, it would mean that more than 1.5 million votes were either stolen or stuffed in an election that the first official count claimed was won by Calderon by only 243,000 votes.
- Among the findings of this very limited partial recount are that in 3,079 precincts where the PAN party is strong and where, in many cases, the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) of candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not count with election night poll watchers, one or more of three things occurred: Either the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE, in its Spanish initials) illegally provided more ballots than there are voters in those precincts, or the PAN party stole those extra ballots, or ballots were forged.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article2010.html