Mexico’s “Democracy” Spurns Millions of Immigrants that Sustain Its Economy

By Margarita Salazar
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign on the Other Side

July 9, 2006

Los Angeles, California.- Even though Mexican immigrants sent $20 billion in remittances back home in 2005, as many as 10 million potential voters were sidelined from Mexico’s electoral “democracy” by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE, in its Spanish initials) during the country’s 2006 presidential race. The party of the presumed winner, the National Action Party (PAN), once again showed its scorn for the downtrodden, denying them their right to vote through sly trickery.

As those remittances poured in last year, Mexican legislators reformed the Federal Code of Institutions and Electoral Procedures (COFIPE) to allow more than four million interested Mexicans to vote in the presidential elections. However, a previous estimate by the IFE put the number of eligible voters in the United States at 10 million.

Nonetheless, a few months before the July 2 elections, immigrants discovered these measures were no more than a blatant ruse, denying them access to voting booths that could have easily been installed in consulates and embassies to facilitate the process.

Instead, in April, authorities mailed electoral packages to more than 40,000 registered Mexicans so that they could vote via express mail. These packages only went out to those who dished out the $9 registration fee needed to be inscribed on the electoral list.

Morevover, in order to vote, every Mexican in the United States must have a current voter’s credential, which is not renewable from abroad. The IFE never established the necessary electoral infrastructure outside of Mexico, nor was it possible for citizens abroad to learn about the proposals of each candidate.

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