Unlike the U.S. in 2000 and 2004, Mexico May Not Take Questionable Election Results Lying Down

More than 100,000 (some news outlets report considerably more while most say far less - 100,000 is cited by CNN and several others) angry Mexican residents appeared today at a single rally to demonstrate their ire over what many are calling a rigged presidential election in which the conservative Calderon has been declared the winner.

U.S. authorities told U.S. citizens visiting Mexico to avoid getting near the rally. The inference offered was that Mexicans might consider U.S.ers the enemy since American companies, like the controversial ChoicePoint, were involved in counting votes. However, I found myself wondering if the Bushies were afraid Americans might hear something that might make them question how their own elections are handled (and wouldn't that be a shame?).

The Mexican election story is generating a lot of attention, both in and out of the news media. Let me point you to just a few Web-based pieces.

THEBHC at Anything They Say (a blog that has done great coverage of this story throughout) is a good place to start. This post links back to today's (Saturday) oped in the New York Times; here's a snippet from the Greg Grandin piece there and I heartily agree that the U.S. should strongly support a full recount there:

But there is a way the Bush administration can help to set things on a different course. Although election officials say Mr. Calderón won the presidential vote, the United States should not rush to embrace him as the election's victor. The official tally gives Mr. Calderón a razor-thin lead, and there are credible reports of significant irregularities that could, at best, weaken the legitimacy of a Calderón presidency, and at worst, lead to escalating protests. The disputed votes include the 904,000 annulled ballots that come primarily from regions that went heavily for Mr. López Obrador, as well as discrepancies between the numbers handed in by polling stations and the actual ballots cast.

The best thing the United States can do now is to support the push for a recount and to refrain from calling on Mr. López Obrador to concede. Then, no matter who finally wins the election, the White House should renegotiate Nafta, allowing Mexico to set its own policy in support of its rural economy. If the Bush administration does otherwise, it might help begin yet another season of Mexican upheaval — just as the Aztecs might have predicted.

The L.A. Times notably uses language that sounds very similar to how the press behaved toward Al Gore regarding the Florida 2000 recount, like "deny Mr. Calderon his victory" (remember how the Bushies as well as Rehnquist and Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court used the same language to help Mr. Bush "win") like the popular vote of the people is something owned by an individual.

Greg Palast, who did some groundbreaking work on election fraud here in the 2000 presidential vote recount in Florida, has filed several articles, including a multiple part series entitled, "Dispatches from Mexico City".

Salon says activists in Mexico are invoking memories of Florida in November 2000 to get the world out to the Mexican people to be very, very concerned about the validity of their own vote results.

If you have good links on the subject, please share them in Comments. TYVM.