"Un Mexico ciego no puede votar - A blind Mexico can't vote"
Mérida, Yucatán --
YoSoy 132 is a very grass roots movement of Mexican activists who have joined forces during this electoral season to protest what they allege is massive manipulation of the candidates and the political process itself by the country's news media, especially at the presidential level. The movement sprang into existence almost overnight, and plans to stage public rallies all over the country from now through July 1. Tens of thousands of the "YoSoys" marched in Mexico City last weekend. Several hundred others gathered at Mérida's main plaza late this afternoon, for 90 minutes of speeches and banner waving.
The group is mostly young and mostly composed of university students, as such protests frequently are. But plenty of working class folks were in attendance, too, as well as lots of members of la tercer edad (the "third age," as senior citizens are so respectfully referred to in Mexico). There was so much press in attendance that we took pictures of each other. The crowd was orderly and polite, and there was not a sign of police presence anywhere.
Although YoSoy claims to be nonpartisan, most participants made no attempt to conceal their antipathy towards PRI and its 2012 nominee, Enrique Peña Nieto. And they spared none of the national media, including the major television networks such as Televisa, T.V. Azteca and Milenio. The group even denounced Mérida's daily newspaper, El Diario de Yucatán. If Diario is not a solidly pro-National Action Party (PAN) paper then the Pope is not a Catholic. It ridicules or attacks PRI virtually on a daily basis. Since Diario is strongly opposed to Peña Nieto, it's hard to figure out why it was also on YoSoy's target list today.
Can YoSoy claim to be a representative slice of Mexican society in 2012? Perhaps, to the same extent that the bar where I take an occasional mojito might be considered a cross-section of Mexican society. Some nights yes, others not, depending on who's in the joint and how much they drink. But the rally today had more of a politically partisan feel than a bona fide protest against the mass media, despite its official billing as the latter. While the media in this country is admittedly biased, so too are the American, British and Canadian - and all media everywhere else (especially in the U.S.). That's the way the media has been since the Year 1, and the way it will remain. That's the way God made it.
Except for me, of course. I'm always 100% objective, without even the hint of an opinion.
The demonstrators' pancartas told the whole story this afternoon in Mérida's main plaza
Yo NO Soy's "summer of discontent"
Enrique Peña Nieto rejects YoSoy debate demand
YoSoy 132 demands final debate between Mexican presidential candidates
Mexicans surveyed on YoSoy 132 attitudes
Mérida YoSoy 132 promises to turn up the heat
U.K.'s Guardian reveals Televisa-EPN deal: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/06/uks-guardian-reveals-televisa-pri-deal.html.
YoSoy 132 returns to Mérida streets, this time showing its true colors: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/06/yosoy-132-returns-to-merida-streets.html#more.
A "free press" in Mexico - but who's really paying the tab?: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/05/free-press-in-mexico-but-whos-really.html.
YoSoy132 pide a simpatizantes participar como observadores electorales: http://mexico.cnn.com/nacional/2012/05/28/yosoy132-pide-a-simpatizantes-participar-como-observadores-electorales.
A guide on how to fool voters with bread and circuses - or tortillas and circuses: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/05/pan-prd-reject-cross-urges-to-withdraw.html.
López Obrador loyalists march nationwide as thousands protest Peña Nieto: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/05/lopez-obrador-loyalists-march.html.
Mexico's presidential campaign begins: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.mx/2012/03/mexicos-presidential-campaign-opens.html#more.
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