Guerrero
The Guerrero group spent one and a half days in Chilpancingo. We then traveled to La Montaña where we visited Tlapa and four other communities. We spoke with state and district IFE officials and councilors; representatives of the PRI, the PRD dominated Alianza por México, and the PAN; members of the press; representatives of the Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan; and the Secretary of Government for the state. We also met with Florencio Salazar, who recently resigned from the post of sub-Secretary of Government for Guerrero to become Director of Recruitment for the Alianza por el Cambio.
1. Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) and the Administration of the Elections
The Guerrero IFE officials are dedicated professionals, in the main teachers and professors. They are confident that IFE is increasingly perceived as a truly independent organization. They have several concerns, however, which include: 1) the ability of political parties, particularly the PRI, to buy votes in rural areas, especially among women and indigenous people; 2) irregularities in choosing poll workers; 3) a blurring of the distinction between public officials and party activists; and 4) the failure of individuals and parties to make effective use of the system for filing complaints when there were allegations of electoral improprieties.
The state IFE has taken a number of steps to guarantee free elections. In March 2000, it issued a statement criticizing Governor Rene Juarez Cisneros for meddling in party politics. It stated that ethical considerations should prohibit public officials, including the president, governor, and municipal officials, from engaging in political campaigns. It also forwarded seven complaints about specific violations of electoral laws to the Special Federal Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes FEPADE. IFE officials complained that to date they have received no information about the status of those cases.
In the district of Tlapa, IFE officials are concerned about the difficulty of choosing and training the seven poll workers (funcionarios de casilla) required for each polling place. Remote indigenous villages present them with many logistical problems. Factors such as illiteracy, the inability to speak or read Spanish in some indigenous villages, a highly unstable voter base due to levels of migration as high as 60 percent of the population, and pressure on women by their husbands to withdraw as candidates limit the potential pool of qualified persons. In addition, the absence of a sense of national civic duty as well as the lack of remuneration in a region racked by poverty discourage volunteerism. Finally, reliance on the level of education as a criterion for choosing poll workers favors bilingual, educated men.
In the communities we visited, brief interviews with residents suggested a potential for fraud or at least the mishandling of elections. In the Mixtec community of Atlamajancingo del Monte, the poll workers were all members or long-time supporters of the ruling party. Apparently the one sympathizer of the PRD who was chosen was forced to resign by her husband. It also turned out that one poll worker was a member of the municipal government. In the Nahua community of Xalpatlahuac, the PRI dominated even more completely; several women we interviewed were afraid to talk openly because of the politicized climate. In the communities we visited, we found no IFE educational materials. One female substitute poll worker had received no information on the training program. In additional to these anecdotal impressions, professionals we interviewed in the state capital asserted that many irregularities could occur at the polls. The editor of the Guerrero daily newsaper El Sur, for example, warned that last minute substitutions of poll workers could result in partisan control of the casillas.
2. Misuse of Public Funds
The most common concern this delegation encountered had to do with the misuse of public funds for electoral purposes. For many of our informants, the mere fact that the government is distributing fertilizer to campesinos at election time was troubling, even though this is legal. Others complained that government programs were being manipulated to influence the vote. The PAN presented two complaints regarding the distribution of fertilizer and of PROCAMPO and PROGRESA funds in the communities of Santa Catarina and Santa Marta. In the first, a local official was accused of threatening to cut off PROCAMPO and PROGRESA funds to those who did not vote PRI. In the second case, a municipal president distributed government-purchased fertilizer from his own warehouse which was painted with PRI electoral slogans. A local IFE official in Tlapa reported that he had witnessed a PRI party official handing out money in an indigenous community. There are reports of similar problems with the distribution of goods and services in municipalities governed by the PRD. It was difficult to determine how widespread such practices were. The accusations we received came from the more accessible parts of the state but we heard reports that such actions were more common in poorer and remoter regions.
Perhaps more disturbing is the rapid rotation of politicians from public posts to party campaigns and back again. In one case, Secretary for Rural Development Héctor Popoca Boone, took a leave of absence to work on the Labastida campaign only six weeks prior to the elections. Opposition leaders and IFE councilors questioned publicly whether campesinos who had been beneficiaries of programs directed by Popoca Boone would be able to distinguish between his former role as a government official and his current role as a party advocate. This controversy underlines the considerable gray area between practices that are illegal and those that, while not clearly illegal, involve questionable uses of the advantages of incumbency.
3. Media
Democracy depends on voters’ access to balanced information about candidates and the performance of incumbent officials. In the state of Guerrero, access to any sort of information on candidates is scant for much of the population. Many of the rural poor, who comprise about 70% of the population, have no electricity and therefore no radio or television. Among those with access to electronic media, statistics commissioned by the IFE on electronic media coverage suggest a mixed scenario in which the official party enjoys disproportionate time and quality of coverage on the radio but appears to have no consistent advantage in television coverage.
Beyond radio and television, the print media play an important role in reporting on politics and government administration. Though the circulation of print media is quite limited, investigative reporting represents an important means for political activists to learn of any malfeasance by government officials or party activists. The delegation spoke with four local reporters and the chief of the Guerrero daily, El Sur. All felt that, despite some real loosening of media controls in recent years, serious impediments to critical reporting remain. The government remains the most important source of revenue for print media by way of advertisements; hence papers that report stories critical of the government will suffer financially. On the other hand, the reporters agreed that the old practice of reporters taking money in exchange for articles biased in favor of the government or the official party had diminished greatly.
A more serious problem for journalists in Guerrero is fear. A journalist was murdered in Guerrero three years ago and the crime has never been solved. All the journalists interviewed reported having received anonymous threats while investigating sensitive stories. While none said that they had stopped investigating the stories, they did view the threats as serious. More common than outright intimidation is a scenario in which superiors remove reporters from stories with explosive implications. The journalists said that in response to such pressures, many of their colleagues censor themselves. Although most of the threats and reprisals against journalists are the result of a generalized climate of lawlessness rather than a deliberate campaign against the media by state officials, the effect on reporting is essentially the same.
4. Local Issues
Guerrero’s large indigenous populations (13%)–mostly Nahuas, Mixtecs, Tlapanecs, and Amuzgos–are the most marginalized of the state. Their extreme poverty, high rates of illiteracy, and lack of Spanish fluency aggravate electoral problems found throughout the state. Indigenous people are thought to be especially vulnerable to electoral coercion and vote buying. Many lack adequate access to education and information and hence present special difficulties in locating qualified poll workers. In many communities, these problems are compounded by high rates of migration which considerably diminish the resident population during the months that the poll workers are selected and trained. Moreover, the election process conflicts with local traditions according to which male elders select individuals to fill public offices and civic-religious positions. Non-Spanish speaking indigenous women are especially marginalized in the political process. The Tlapanec women we spoke with appeared to be very uninformed about the elections. IFE officials stressed that the problems are worst in the higher, more remote regions where militarization and drug production are common. The most isolated regions require additional polling places (casillas extraordinarias) which, in turn, cause delays in processing the votes.
5. Violence and Militarization
While militarization in Guerrero was frequently mentioned as an issue during our meetings in Mexico City, the military presence was rarely visible in the areas we visited. Government representatives turned aside our questions about the impact of militarization on the electoral climate. We were told by journalists that since military camps were established in the mountains two years ago, the public response has turned from support to disapproval. Residents testified that when guerrillas come to a community, they buy food and supplies or are given them by community members, but when the military comes, they steal. We were also told that in some areas the military controls the community leader who in turn controls the local vote. Reports issued by human rights organizations working in the area we visited suggest that a pervasive pattern of violent abuses against local residents by military, judicial police, and municipal police have contributed to citizens’ disapproval.
Two opposition party members brought up the issue of encapuchados (armed, masked men) who in times past were sent by the government to create a climate of fear, resulting in a voto de miedo (vote of fear) in support of the party in power or a large number of abstentions. However, neither speaker believed that encapuchados would have any effect on the vote this time.
Conclusion
Guerrero is a state with a long history of poverty and violence, but also with a distinguished history of civic mobilization in defense of the vote. Electoral fraud in times past has provoked guerrilla movements and public disturbances. Such popular resistance has been met with a heightened military presence and with paramilitary groups linked to the ruling party, accompanied by reports of human rights abuses. These dynamics certainly color the electoral process, though they have arguably provoked votes of protest as well as votes of fear. The extension of electoral reforms over the last several years has increased the confidence of party officials and ordinary citizens in the electoral process. As a consequence, recent elections have produced a growing number of opposition-led municipal governments and fewer incidents of political violence. But serious problems remain. They call for careful monitoring and continued reform of the laws governing electoral conduct.
