May 2, 2000
The Boston Globe
By Richard Chacon

MEXICO CITY -- The expulsion of a US-based human rights official from Mexico is raising concerns that the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party may hinder foreign monitoring of the hotly contested July 2d presidential elections.

Ted Lewis, Mexico director of Global Exchange, a human rights and elections observation group based in San Francisco, was ordered out of the country by immigration officials on April 9 after he arrived in the western city of Guadalajara. Lewis was on his way to Mexico City to inquire about the 35 visas that the group was promised, but has not yet received, for a pre-election visit later this month.

Lewis's expulsion has raised concerns at Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute, the independent agency responsible for coordinating this year's election and credentials for international observers. The institute, formerly a government agency, was given autonomy in 1996 to ensure its impartiality.

"It seems the government is taking a hard line against international observers because they're worried we might get good information that would mess up their game plans," Lewis said Monday by telephone from California.

This year's presidential campaign is the tightest in recent history. Opposition candidate Vicente Fox of the conservative National Action Party, perceived as the hands down winner of last week's presidential debate, poses the strongest challenge to unseating the PRI, which has controlled Mexico's presidency for 71 years. In polls conducted before the debate, Fox trailed PRI candidate Francisco Labastida by 2 to 6 percentage points.

For that reason, many residents and experts fear the PRI---despite its pledges to support fair and open elections--may resort to its historical use of vote-buying and other fraudulent tactics to boost Labastida.

At a press conference last week with civic organizations, Jaime Cardenas, one of the Federal Electoral Institute's board members, said the Global Exchange problem was sending a disturbing signal about democracy in Mexico.

"We're worried that the Interior Secretariat, through immigration officials, is putting up obstacles for foreign oberservers," Cardenas said.

Rogelio Gomez, director of Civic Alliance, a political watchdog group, said the government's actions were "highly troublesome in the midst of an electoral campaign," and warned that the chances of government pressure on voters will increase as the election draws closer.

This year marks the third presidential election in Mexico to have international observers. Official delegations began monitoring in 1994. So far this year, the Mexican electoral institute has issued accreditations to about 70 observers and expects the number to increase to 1,000 by election day.

For their part, immigration officials emphatically deny that Lewis' expulsion from the country was politically motivated or that the government was trying to control foreign observers. But authorities have offered different explanations for rejecting his entry in Mexico.

One immigration spokeswoman told the Associated Press last week that Lewis had abused previous visas by making unauthorized visits to Chiapas state, an area where government troops have been fighting armed insurgents for six years. Authorities in the past have expelled some human rights officials believed to be sympathetic to the Zapatista rebels.

But another immigration official, Jose Angel Pescador Osuna, said Lewis had lied to authorities in Guadalajara by arriving on a tourist visa and then telling officers he was going to perform work as a human rights and election observer--activities which require a special visa, which could not be granted for another 90 days.

"It's false that there exists some hostility against Lewis and Global Exchange--or that the Interior Ministry is putting obstacles before international observers," Pescador wrote in a letter published Saturday in the Mexico City daily La Jornada.

Lewis said he traveled to Mexico after being told by the Mexican consulate in San Francisco that there was still no word about visas for a Global Exchange delegation visit this month. The delegation is expected to check for evidence of pre-election vote-buying, media fairness and the use of government resources to manipulate voters.

Lewis, who has been accredited by the electoral agency, was taken aside by immigration officers at the Guadalajara International Airport upon arriving from San Francisco. After several hours of interrogation, he said, he was refused entry and was told to take a flight back to San Jose.

Note from Global Exchange: There are a couple of minor inaccuracies in this article:

1. This is the second (not third) presidential election that has been observed by international groups. There was international observation of the 1997 mid-term elections.
2. Ted Lewis was not interrogated for several hours. In fact, there was no formal interrogation at all.