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dallasnews.com
Friday, June 29, 2012
The Dallas Morning News
World MEXICO
Cartels use threats, cash to sway vote Local races easier to influence; election violence flaring up EMILIANO ZAPATA, Mexico — Before the sun climbed above the hills around this central Mexican town, Saúl García and his family awoke to the sound of bullets piercing the front gate. A masked motorcyclist had opened fire on their brick home, leaving a poster signed by La Familia drug cartel, warning the mayoral candidate to withdraw from the race or the gang would kill him, his wife and three children. García, a candidate for the local Social Democratic Party, didn’t pull out. A state police officer now follows him 24 hours a day while he seeks votes on the steep and narrow streets of Emiliano Zapata, a suburb of Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos. As Mexicans head to the ballot box Sunday to elect a president and hundreds of state and local officials, drug cartels are using scare tactics and cash in an effort to make sure that whoever is elected doesn’t interfere with their lucrative operations. The focus is usually on local politics, where officials and their police departments can cause problems — or smooth the way — for gangs moving drugs or shaking down businesses. It’s also easier to influence a local race than a national election in the glare of media coverage.
ro, a security analyst. Graco Ramírez, gubernatorial candidate in Morelos for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, said people
in remote areas are telling him that gangs have threatened them to stay home on election day. “Drug gangs don’t want me
to become governor,” he said. “We would stop turning a blind eye to their activities.” Adriana Gómez Licón, The Associated Press
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Alexandre Meneghini/The Associated Press
As Mexicans head to the polls Sunday, drug cartels are making their presence known to make sure whoever is elected doesn’t interfere with their operations. Candidates of all parties are accused of taking money from cartels.
“We’ve said for several months that we have to recognize the presence and action of criminal groups around the election, particularly in the local sphere,” Mexico’s federal interior secretary, Alejandro Poire, said Thursday. “We are acting to contain it, to prevent it and to bring those responsible to justice.” García said he doesn’t know why he was targeted. “I don’t have enemies,” said García, whose home was attacked April 30. “When I realized they were threatening me and saying I had to quit, I thought, ‘But wait, we are free to vote and to be elected.’ ” Election violence this season has flared in Morelos and in other states where voters will choose six governors and hundreds of mayors and council members.
While the federal government does not track the number of candidates threatened, there have been reports of attacks or threats against politicians and campaign workers in several states. Drug cartels have bribed officials for decades, paying off governors, mayors and other public officials as part of the cost of doing business. The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, ruled Mexico for 71 years, and in those days, cartels didn’t need to pay attention to the electoral season. But the party’s ouster in 2000 created a power vacuum and left territory and elective offices up for grabs. Since then, candidates of all stripes have been accused of being bought by cartels. “This new phenomenon systematically pulls mafias into politics,” said Eduardo Guerre-
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A6 06-29-2012 Set: 21:06:40 Sent by: jlose@dallasnews.com News
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