Mexico 2006 ballots finally to be destroyed

With the final decision of IFE, Mexico's institute responsible for organizing elections, to destroy what remains of the ballots used in Mexico's contentious 2006 election, that saga seems to be coming to an end.

IFE's general council also agreed to destroy the 2012 ballots.

A couple of years after the fraudulent 1988 election, PRI and PAN conspired, following a deal with Carlos Salinas and Diego Fernández de Cevallos, Diego, to have the ballots burned so as to remove forever any possibility of finally knowing the extent of the fraud that brought Salinas to power.

Yet one should be very careful with any analogies to 2006 here. In 1988, all opposition candidates claimed that fraud had taken place, and much evidence surfaced to back the claim. After July 2, 2006, AMLO was the sole candidate to claim fraud took place - as he claimed in 2012 as well. Yet not one single investigation has uncovered the slightest evidence that AMLO won more votes than Calderón, or that any massive fraurd took place where ballots were altered in any systematic way favoring the PAN candidate.

It is understandable that this is still a touchy issue for many, especially those individuals and organizations who have repeatedly sought access to the 2006 ballots. Yet IFE has pretty good reasons for wanting them burned. The institute is, for sure, required by law to dispose of electoral material after the final verdict has been passed on an election, but other motives are quite mundane: Money. It has so far cost the institute more than half a billion pesos to store them, and half a billion pesos more for the army to store them.

And the clincher: Despite the billion pesos spent, much of the ballots are already so rotten and decayed that they are useless in any case.

But the larger point should not be forgotten: Even if much of the ballots were not already destroyed, there is no reason to think that any full recount would alter the result in any significant way.
It seems to me that it is therefore time to let go.

Source:
Acuerda el IFE eliminar boletas. El Universal, Oct. 4, 2012

El Jefe Diego: Alliances are "political transvestism"

Now we know what "El Jefe Diego," or Diego Fernández de Cevallos, thinks about the PAN-PRD alliances: He recently described them as "political transvestism." In this, in perfect agreement with Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

When you know that the two arch-enemies Diego and AMLO are both against something... I'd say it is yet another signal that you might be doing the right thing.

El Jefe Diego is back in politics - in Baja California Sur

After weeks of confusing, crypitical, and contradictory statements regarding his captivity, Diego Fernández de Cevallos is now back to politicking: In Baja California Sur, ads were launched on the radio where Fernández calls upon voters to cast their lot with Marcos Covarrubias, the PRD federal deputy-turned-PAN-candidate. 

I wonder what the Misteriosos Desaparecedores will think about this.

It's all in the family: The Fernández de Cevallos family, that is.

For a glimpse into what must surely be one of Mexico's most dysfunctional families - and not only because its head, "El Jefe" Diego Fernández de Cevallos, one of Mexican politics' most sinister character, is still kidnapped  - the outstanding journalist Lydia Cacho expands on some disturbing news over the weekend, where one of Fernández de Cevallos' sons, David, broke into the house of his wife, armed and accompanied by thugs who may or may not have been federal police, to violently snatch away his two children, despite the fact that his wife had been granted temporary custody over them. 

I really recommend that you read Lydia's column where she details this and preceding events, which appears a quite disturbing case of domestic violence and spousal abuse. 

The apple, and the tree...