'Dictator' ad stirs anger in Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

'Dictator' ad stirs anger in Mexico
Posted on Sat, Apr. 19, 2008Digg del.icio.us AIM print email
By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY -- A television spot comparing a leftist leader to Adolf Hitler over a blockade of Congress has infuriated his followers, who condemned the ad on Saturday and demanded it be withdrawn.

The spot that ran on Mexican television on Friday denounced Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose followers took over the chambers of both houses of Congress on April 10 to block action on government proposals to ease restrictions on private participation in the country's state oil industry.

"What kind of people close down congresses?" asks a narrator. "Adolf Hitler in 1933." It also includes stock footage of Lopez Obrador, along with Hitler's fascist ally Benito Mussolini of Italy and the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

"Our democracy is in danger. Our peace is at risk," continues the spot, which was sponsored by a conservative civic group called Better Society, Better Government.

Officials of Lopez Obador's Democratic Revolution Party said they would file a complaint with federal electoral officials. They allege the spot violates a 2007 law that bans individuals and groups from buying televised attacks on political parties - a measure meant to prevent privately financed end-runs around party campaign spending limits.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/915/story/502438.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hitler ad fans tensions over Mexico oil reform plan

Hitler ad fans tensions over Mexico oil reform plan
Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:30pm BST

MEXICO CITY, April 20 (Reuters) - A political row in Mexico over an oil reform plan intensified at the weekend as a TV ad compared a firebrand leftist leading a siege of Congress to 20th century dictators Hitler and Mussolini.

Funded by a Mexican businessman angry at a 10-day blockade of Congress by opposition left-wing lawmakers, the television ad says the antics of protest leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are endangering democracy in Mexico.

Leftists seized Congress podiums on April 10 to block a government proposal to lower barriers to private investment in the oil sector, controlled by the state since 1938.

"Who shuts congresses? In 1933, Adolf Hitler in Germany. In 1939, Benito Mussolini in Italy. In 1973, Augusto Pinochet of Chile," it says, over grainy footage of the former Nazi leader, his fascist ally in Italy and Chile's late military dictator.

The 30-second spot was a flashback to conservative ads run in the 2006 election campaign calling the former rights activist and then presidential hopeful a danger to Mexico.

More:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2020888120080420

[AlphaCentauri]

2. A spanish article with some good info

http://www.proceso.com.mx/noticia.html?nta=58663

The promotion of hatred
Alvaro Delgado
Mexico City, April 21 (ap) .- "Best society, better governance", which signs the spot that compares Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with dictators like Adolf Hitler, and that since the night of last Thursday, 17 transmitted by television in primetime is one of the agencies which fostered, in the presidential campaign of 2006 and outside the law, media campaigns against the then presidential candidate PRD and for Felipe Calderon.

The president of "Best Company, better governance" is Guillermo Velasco Arzac, co-author, along with Jose Antonio Ortega Sanchez, the complaint filed with the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) for the alleged crime of "terrorism" against Mexicans killed in Ecuador at the hands of the Army of Colombia, whose president, Alvaro Uribe, the two met just Wednesday morning.

The third guest in the interview with Uribe, who described as "terrorists" to the four young Mexicans killed by Colombian troops and survivor Lucia Morett was the PAN governor of Jalisco, Emilio Gonzalez Marquez, who pays the salary of a state budget adviser Ortega Sanchez. The latter is also lawyer of Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, the agent who recently gave a donation of 90 million pesos.

Velasco Arzac chairs the Coordinating Citizen, the national political grouping registered with the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), and Ortega Sanchez - who chairs the Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, a body of the Employers Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) -- are operators of El Yunque, the extreme right-wing organization to which they belong, for example, the private secretary of Calderon, Cesar Nava, and the Undersecretary for Migration and Religious Affairs of the Interior Ministry, Ana Teresa Aranda.

The two have a bulky dossier wanderings as El Yunque activists and the many facades that had this secret organization in its half-century history:

Velasco Arzac, whose nickname is Xenophon, began as a member of the Movement University Renovadora Guidance (WALL) at the Iberoamerican University, the National Union of Parents (UNPF) and then in Mexico United against Crime, which was expelled , along with Ortega Sanchez, the group claiming to use as a facade over El Yunque.

He was member of the Secretariat of Public Security on the eve of the government of Vicente Fox, but was fired by Alejandro Gertz and took refuge as a consultant Marta Sahagun, for whom his son, Guillermo Velasco Barrera was his publirrelacionista, along with other militant El Yunque, Ana Garcia Garcia.

Ortega Sanchez, for his part, campaigning in El Yunque since he was a high school student and was the companion exsubprocuradora Maria de la Luz Lima Malvido, who tried, in coordination with Cardinal Sandoval Iñiguez, to reopen investigations into the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo to prove the thesis of the plot and make it holy.

In fact, for this purpose the government of Jalisco pays advice Ortega Sanchez, whose immediate boss is the secretary general of the state government, Fernando Guzman Perez-Pelaez, penultimate president of Integral Human Development and Citizen Action (DHIAC), another facade of El Yunque.

"Best society, the better government" campaign began last night with the times bought on television, and therefore, IFE began this noon a procedure for determining whether Velasco Arzac, who chairs a national political grouping, is prohibited from doing so under article 41 of the Constitution, and also at the request of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

The PRD representative at the IFE, Rafael Hernandez, filed a complaint with a request for interim measures to stop spread in a spot Televisa hired by members and sympathizers of the NPA, as Velasco Arzac, who in turn, radio interview with Carlos Loret de Mola, publicly acknowledged that it is the idea of spots, but refused to disclose the source of funding for transmission on television.

The spot, which shows the face of Lopez Obrador, along with dictators, is narrated by a voice-over: "Who closed Congresses? 1933, Adolf Hitler in Germany; 1939 Benito Mussolini in Italy, 1973, Augusto Pinochet in Chile; 1913 Victoriano Huerta was the last that had closed the Congress in Mexico. Now, 2008, the PRD, PT and Convergence have closed the Congress. Our democracy is in danger, our peace is at risk! Mexico does not deserve this! ".

A similar spot was broadcast widely on television in the election process of 2006 2001, which mixed images of weapons and corpses in the streets of Caracas.

The spots were signed by the Centre for Leadership and Human Development (Celiderh) Commitment Young and Mexican Alliance Association (ASM), agencies formed by Velasco Arzac and led by militants of the National Action Party (PAN), as the case of the brothers Terraces Torres, owner of Cementos Chihuahua.

As is credited in the book Deception. Prédica and practice of the NAP, whose author is a reporter Celiderh, Commitment Young and hired ASM times on radio and television in contravention of the electoral law, in article 48, states: "It is the exclusive right of political parties to recruit times on radio and TV to broadcast messages aimed at obtaining the vote during election campaigns, in accordance with the standards and procedures set forth in this Article ...".

Despite this prohibition, the General Council IFE chaired by Luis Carlos Ugalde prevented the spread of campaigns these agencies linked to the PAN, also part of the organization in Society Movement, sponsored by Coparmex and others agencies Business Coordinating Council (CCE), which also illegally recruited times on radio and television to campaign for Calderon and against Lopez Obrador.

"Best society, better governance" was also one of the letterhead that part of a Society Movement, and indeed Velasco Arzac was authorized as a spokesperson and one of the representatives was the head of the national Yunque, Bernardo Ardavín Migoni.

As described in the chapters "The financiers of hatred" and "The head Ardavín" Velasco Arzac was open campaign against Lopez Obrador, often illegally credited as the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) and for Calderon, who allegedly made him earn more than a million votes.

After the Federal Election Tribunal decided that Calderon was the winner of the elections, as had been campaigning for him, Velasco Arzac made public its intention to be taken into account in the new government.

"We do not have asked any prize, we are not gaining bills, but to take into account the agenda of the people who support it, we were many," said velasco Arzac, October 3.

Velasco Arzac failed to chamba in Calderon's government, but prominent members of El Yunque and at the same time, activists in the PAN: One of them is Jose Ramon Ardavín Ituarte, the son of the head of the national organization, who is deputy chief of the National Water Commission, Jose Luis Luege, and the other is Cesar Nava, private secretary of Calderon, among dozens in the federal government ...