Yet obstacles to democracy remain. Alianza Civica and other electoral watchdog groups in Mexico have concluded that the most common types of electoral manipulation currently being used are subtle and invisible at the actual hour of the vote. One of the gravest threats to democracy is the increasing militarization of Mexico.

In many areas, especially in Mexico's southeast, patterns of repression by army, police and paramilitary organizations are disrupting the rule of law and creating a climate of fear and intimidation that makes true democracy impossible.

Other significant impediments to democracy surround questions of campaign finance, equitable access to media, and use of state resources to boost candidacies These more subtle forms of manipulations surface long before election day, making vigilance and analysis of pre-electoral conditions a critical component for those working to promote democracy in Mexico.

Overview
7/3/00	An Anxious Vigil in Mexico's Political Trenches -- Deep in the trenches of today's elections, Gerardo Mellado served his party as a sort of 911 operator, manning a two-way radio that crackled with calls for help from the rural communities in the mountains that surround this city of 120,000 people.
11/3/99	In 'New' Mexican Politics, Some Old Tricks -- Mexico's governing party pledged to turn over a new leaf this year by making its first presidential primary open, clean and fair. But since Francisco Labastida Ochoa seems to be the president's choice, many old guard party leaders are backing him with the dirty electoral tricks that have kept the party in power for 70 years.
10/16/99	What Concerns the Federal Electoral Institute? -- According to the opinions of different counselors, vote buying, absenteeism, last minute changes of officials in voting booths and the lack of equity in the media are just some of the foreseeable problems that must be monitored in the presidential elections of 2000 in order to reduce the margins of irregularity and fraud.
Media Access
5/9/00	Nasty Tricks in Mexico's Election -- Two months ago, when Mexico's presidential election campaign kicked into full gear, the country's 210 news programs were devoting a fairly even amount of time to each of the three main candidates. But by April, a shift had occurred: Suddenly the candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, which has held the presidency for 71 years, was getting half the coverage.
Fraud and the Electoral Process
7/4/00	Although Electoral Fraud Did Not Affect the Outcome of the National Election, Widespread Incidents of Vote-Buying, Coercion and Intimidation Persist -- Between June 25 and July 2, a group of 60 international observers including academics, religious workers, and human rights activists, visited Mexico to investigate the conditions surrounding Mexico's July 2 federal elections. During the 7-day investigation, which included visits to some of the most impoverished and conflict-ridden states of the republic, the observers recorded a large degree of voter manipulation in poor, rural communities.
7/3/99	Mexico's Senate Blocks Overhaul of Election Rules -- Lawmakers from Mexico's governing party have killed a package of new election rules to monitor spending in presidential primary campaigns now under way and to allow Mexicans expatriates to vote in national elections next year.
Campaign Finance and Corruption
1/5/00	Mexico candidates take on corruption in 2000 polls -- Corruption within Mexico's ruling party, which critics say has reached alarming levels, is rapidly shaping up to be one of the main issues in this year's presidential campaign.
10/22/99	The Cost of Wheeling and Dealing -- The spending of the political parties is exorbitant, unnecessary and even harmful for the construction of a modern democracy.
10/22/99	The Cost of Wheeling and Dealing -- The spending of the political parties is exorbitant, unnecessary and even harmful for the construction of a modern democracy.
7/7/99	Donor Implicates Mexican Party in Scandal -- A financier who recently disclosed that he was a donor of large sums to President Ernesto Zedillo's presidential campaign before he broke with the governing party and fled Mexico now says that senior party officials conspired with him in 1994 to arrange $4 million in illegal donations to the Zedillo campaign.
Votebuying
6/28/00	Mexico enters final day of campaign ahead of vote -- Mexico on Wednesday entered the final day of campaigning ahead of Sunday's hotly contested presidential vote, a ballot seen as a potential watershed in its transition from one-party rule to full-blown democracy.
6/28/00	Clean Vote Vowed in Mexico, but Fraud Dies Hard -- Authorities have promised that Mexico's presidential election this Sunday will be the cleanest in history. But recent events suggest that at least some hard-liners in the governing party still believe that electoral chicanery can help them triumph.
6/19/00	In Mexican Campaign, Money Still Buys Votes -- Much has changed in Mexico to make the current campaign for the presidency the fairest and most competitive in the country's history. The media has been opened up to broadcast free-wheeling debates, an independent election agency has reduced the governing party's margin for fraud, and for the first time an opposition candidate might have a chance to win.
5/9/99	'Progesa' Cheques Distributed -- Moments before Ernesto Rodrmguez Escalona, the PRI mayoral candidate for this port, canvassed six communities on the margins of this tourist municipality, government personnel handed out cheques worth 150 to 500 pesos (US$15 to US$50) each to a significant number of its inhabitants, drawn from the program against poverty "Progresa."
Misues of State Resources
9/29/99	The PRI Diverted Resources, says Governor -- The Governor of Southern Baja California, Leonel Cota Montaño, denounced that at least 40 million pesos [US$4 million] were diverted from the Financial Secretariat of Southern Baja California during the period in office of the 'priista' Guillermo Mercado in support of prior PRI electoral campaigns.