Background

Global Exchange is a San Francisco based human rights organization that since 1994 has worked in support of and in close coordination with Alianza Civica -- Mexico's premier civil society watchdog organization. Alianza Civica has periodically called on Global Exchange to assist in observing, evaluating, and reporting on Mexico's evolution toward democracy. Alianza asked Global Exchange to send delegations during the Presidential elections in1994, governor's elections in Michoacan in 1995, Guerrero municipal elections in 1996, Federal mid-term elections in 1997, and Chiapas municipal elections in 1998, among others. In addition to being invited by Alianza Civica, Global Exchange also accredited observers with the Federal Electoral Institute or state electoral councils.

In every case, Global Exchange delegates met with State and/or Federal officials as well as representatives from various contending political parties, local community leaders, human rights organizations, as well as church and business leaders prior to engaging in election day poll-watching. Ted Lewis, Mexico Program director for Global Exchange was a leader in every one of these delegations.

In carrying out its work, Global Exchange receives no government funding. All of our electoral observation work has been financed through a combination of contributions from delegates themselves, individual private donations, and grants from foundations such as the Merck Foundation, Angelica Foundation, Winston Foundation for World Peace, the MacArthur Foundation, and others.

Other non-governmental and university groups have also participated with Alianza Civica [see annexed partial lists from 1994 and 1997]. The US and Canadian embassies also have mounted limited election day observation efforts.

Because of the great importance of the year 2000 elections for both Mexico and its neighbors, Global Exchange and Alianza Civica have maintained contact. In November 1998, they met in Cuernavaca along with more than two dozen Mexican and US church, civil rights, labor, and human right organizations. Together we evaluated the common experience and based on that discussion made agreements about how to carry out future election observation.

Among the important points of agreement were these:

• US groups concerned with democratic change in Mexico must not fall into the reigning mythology of US electoral superiority. Therefore, in addition to critiquing Mexican elections, we should widen the context to look at flaws of the US electoral system. The bi-national group decided to organize a Mexican observation of the US primary elections of 2000. Note: A Mexican observation of the California State primary took place on March 7 this year. Ted Lewis helped organize and lead this delegation throughout California.

• Many of the issues and fraudulent tactics that historically sway Mexico's elections are invisible on the day of the vote. Hence it is important that teams of international observers arrive well prior to the election to report on issues of media access, campaign finance, use of state resources for electoral ends, coercion by security and paramilitary forces, etc. Note: To accomplish this goal, Alianza Civica and Global Exchange have organized a delegation of 35 Mexico scholars from 33 universities in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan to visit Mexico between the 19th and the 29th of May, six week before the election. Ted Lewis is supervising this project.

• Because US public opinion deeply affects Mexican interests, it is important to educate and deepen the understanding of Mexico among the US public. To this end CENCOS (the National Center for Social Communication) together with Global Exchange developed the "VOICES" project. The project is funded by the MacArthur Foundation and aims to amplify the voices of Mexico's civil society in the US media on questions of democracy and other topics. In March, a group of three voceros visited the Washington DC and Los Angeles to speak with State Department and Administration officials, editors and journalists, in public forums and on radio and television. The vocero delegation included Emilio Zebadua , an member of the IFE general counsel. The vocero group pointed out that Mexico's electoral system has undergone a genuine and very positive transformation under the newly independent IFE. But, they noted that growth in the size and scope of army and security force activity and a rise in armed conflict and repressive state counter measures to political dissent threaten to undermine democratic gains. Ted Lewis and Global Exchange staff hosted, arranged meetings for, and accompanied this delegation.

Ted Lewis has played an important, responsible, and serious role in the development of bi-national civil society cooperation. His actions have been transparent and respectful of Mexican partner organizations as well as Mexican law and sovereignty.

The Events of April 9, 2000

On Sunday, April 9th, Ted Lewis traveled to Mexico on Mexicana flight #975. He arrived Sunday afternoon at the Guadalajara international airport, a stop over before his final destination of Mexico City. Mr. Lewis presented his passport, passed through customs and was issued a FMT visa for a thirty-day stay in the country. He proceeded to the waiting lounge and later to the "people mover" vehicle to return to the plane for the remainder of his journey to Mexico City. At approximately 15:30, he was approached by Mexicana Aitlines personnel who requested that he return to immigration. He was escorted was to the immigration desk where "Mantes C. Garcia Raymundo" showed him a short one page document that said simply that:

"We have information that Tedford Pierce Lewis will attempt to enter the country on April 9th. His entry should be rejected." Mr. Montes Garcia said the order in question was signed by Luis Nava of the INM. Mr. Montes Garcia also told Mr. Lewis that he would be sent back to the U.S. on the next possible flight.

Mr. Mantes Garcia then handed the document to Raul Ruiz, who identified himself as supervisor for Mexicana at the airport. When Raul finished reading the document, Mr. Lewis asked him for the paper saying, "I suppose this is mine." At that point Mr. Montes Garcia grabbed the document from Mr. Lewis with such force that it tore in half. Mr. Lewis told Mr. Mantes Garcia that he had no cause to be so rude and asked him upon what legal grounds was he rejecting Mr. Lewis' entrance to the country. Mr. Mantes Garcia replied that he didn't know and that he was simply carrying out an order from his superiors. He also threatened to call the police if Mr. Lewis did not do as he instructed immediately.

Mr. Mantes Garcia then requested Mr. Lewis' FMT, which Mr. Lewis surrendered under protest that the action had no legal basis. Mr. Lewis asked repeatedly for the use of a telephone. When this was refused Mr. Lewis asked if he was under arrest. Mr. Montes Garcia said no, but that Mr. Lewis was not permitted to leave the immigration waiting area because that would be considered Mexican territory.

Mr. Lewis explained to Mr. Mantes Garcia that he thought Mr. Mantes Garcia and his agency were making a serious mistake. Mr. Lewis pointed out that though he was travelling as a private U.S. citizen, he had been approved on March 24th as an observer for the presidential electoral process. Mr. Lewis explained that due to an apparent communication failure between INM and the IFE, the Mexican consulates around the world had not been provided with the proper application forms for elections observers, despite January edict of the IFE general council approving the presence of observers.

Mr. Mantes Garcia simply repeated that he was only carrying out orders and did not have any information as to why Mr. Lewis was being denied entry.

At approximately 18:30 Mr. Lewis boarded a plane to San Jose. From San Jose he was forced to take a taxi to recover his vehicle at the San Francisco airport, which cost nearly 80 U.S. dollars.

On April 10, back in San Francisco Mr. Ted Lewis approached Ambassador Carlos Tello, Consul General of Mexico, who expressed surprise and concern about the treatment given to Mr. Lewis by immigration officials. Ambassador Tello, contacted Jose Angel Pescador, Undersecretary of Population, who agreed to contact Mr. Montes Garcia and Luis Nava.

On Wednesday--three full days after the incident--the Counsel General of San Francisco received Mr. Montes Garcia's "version" of the incident. The document, which itself is clearly an after-the-fact fabrication, contains numerous inaccuracies.

1. The documents in question were at no time presented to Ted Lewis.

2. Ted Lewis did not refuse to sign anything. Mr. Montes Garcia perjures himself on this point. In fact Ted Lewis was given no document. He was shown a communication (described above) from Luis Nava, but as was mentioned previously, that memo was torn from Ted Lewis' hands by Mr. Montes Garcia when Mr. Lewis expressed the intent to retain it.

3. Ted Lewis never mentioned anything about the Federal Electoral Institute until after the above mentioned memo (not the falsified document signed by Mr. Montes Garcia) was shown to him. At that time, all he said was that the arbitrary and illegal actions being taken against him were all the more egregious in light of the fact that: 1.) The IFE had established that elections observation could begin in January, 2.) that the Lic.. Fernando Zertuche Muños Executive Secretary of the IFE had approved Mr. Lewis' application to be an elections observer on March 24 and that 3.) INM had, thus far, failed to supply the San Francisco consulate (or any other consulate for that matter) with the necessary forms to process applications.

   Mr. Lewis also reminded them that in 1994 and 1997, the IFE procedure allowed election observers to enter the country with an FMT that was later turned in for an election observer visa at an IFE/INM module inside Mexico. Mr. Lewis also mentioned that the IFE had told him that thirteen other applications for FMVEs were in limbo due to the failure of the INM to issue the required paperwork. Nevertheless, Mr. Lewis did not seek to enter the country as an election observer. He did tell the officials that he planned to visit the IFE on Monday April 10th to pursue the visa matter with them.

4. Mr. Lewis never told any immigration official that he was going to visit the "Centro Miguel Agustín Pro, la Academia de Derechos Humanos," or "La Comisión Mexican Para la Defensa de Derechos Humanos." This is an outright lie, though an interesting one because it repeats a list that INM had typed onto an FM3 visa for human rights observation that was issued to Lewis last year.

Note: The regulations issued from the IFE for the year 2000 electoral process specifically state that an election observation visa can be obtained from within Mexico after entrance with an FMT visa.

Annex

A. Elections observer groups working with Alianza Civica in 1994 Presidential Election:

• Global Exchange (GX)
• Washingtong Office on Latin America (WOLA)
• United States-Mexico Alliance for Democracy (agrupando a IUE, AFL-CIO Distrito 11; o Mexico Despierta, San Antonio, Texas)
• Union Sin Fronteras, California
• Committee in Defense of Immigrante Rights, Seattle, Washington
• Latino Program-AFSC, Chicago, Illinois
• C.A.T.A. Glasboro. New Jersey)
• Witness for Peace, Washington, D.C.
• Carter Institute, Washington, D.C.
• American Friends Service Committee, Washington, D.C.
• Resource Center of the Americas
• University of Michigan
• University of Columbia
• Grassroots International, Boston, Mass.
• Instituto de Estudios del Votante
• algunos ciudadanos y ciudadanas estadounidenses a título personal provenientes de diferentes estados

B. Elections observer groups working with Alianza Civica in 1997 Federal mid-term election:

• Global Exchange
• Humanitarian Lay Proyect, UWA Region 1 A International Labor Solidarity Network
• WOLA
• Monterey Institute of International Studies
• William C. Velazquez Institute
• University of the Pacific
• University of Oregon
• San Diego State University