Mexican left demands vote recount
…The preliminary results issued by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) gave Mr Calderon 36.38% of the vote compared with 35.34% for Mr Lopez Obrador.
But Mr Lopez Obrador said he would not accept the results, which he believed had “many inconsistencies”.
His party claimed some voting places were counted twice while others were not counted at all.
If Mr Calderon’s win is confirmed, the victory will halt the rise of the so-called left in Latin America, and the US will continue to have a like-minded administration on its southern border, the BBC’s Duncan Kennedy in Mexico City said.
bbc.co.uk
There’s a Riot Going On
…Despite outgoing president Vicente Fox’s avowal that Mexico is “at` peace”, it doesn’t really look that way. As the tightest presidential election in its 196-year history comes down to the wire, the nation is wracked by a spasm of violent social confrontation.
Item–On April 21st, a thousand elite state and federal police descended upon a striking steel plant in Lazaro Cardenas Michoacan, firing tear gas and live ammunition wildly. But 600 strikers fought back with slingshots and iron ore pellets and drove the police off with heavy machinery. Two young workers were killed in the melee, inflaming a usually quiescent Mexican labor movement. The strike at the Villacero steel plant, Latin America’s largest steel bar manufacturer, continues in its fourth month.