AlJazeera, The Stream: Rise of the 'narcobloggers'

We discuss Blog del Narco and its impact on the drug war and journalism in Mexico.

WikiLeaks: AMLO 02

1.- Los informes de la embajada —como un estilo analítico—, recurren a intelectuales o escritores para expandir sus interpretaciones sobre la realidad política de México. En el cable 06MEXICO4654_a, la historiadora Alejandra Lajous habla sobre la personalidad de AMLO:

"Lajous said that AMLO's personal charisma should not be underestimated as a factor in maintaining his movement, and she expected his hard-core supporters to stay with him until the bitter end. To illustrate his charisma, she said the director of a television news program told her that whenever he sent a journalist to cover AMLO for an extended period during the campaign, that journalist ended up becoming a "believer," no matter how cynical his initial views about AMLO."

2.- Las primeras protestas y la embajada se pregunta, ¿La marcha de un millón de hombres?:

"On Sunday, July 16, AMLO led a mass march of supporters down Paseo la Reforma, Mexico City's leading thoroughfare, terminating in a vast rally in the city's Zocalo, or central square. The PRD-led Mexico City Department of Public Security estimated the crowd at 1.1 million, although other estimates of the crowd ranged from 300,000 (MSNBC) to 700,000 (Notimex) to 1.5 million (the President of the PRD). Although the actual turnout is likely to remain in dispute, by all accounts the turnout was considerably heavier than at last week's event (ref A), which was estimated at between 150,000-280,000."
 
3.- Después de que los magistrados electorales al servicio del poder oligárquico nombraron "presidente" a Felipe Calderón en una salita judicial, a contrapelo del mandato de las urnas, la embajada escribió sobre el veredicto en el cable 06MEXICO5005_a:

"In a unanimous decision, the seven magistrates acknowledged various irregularities in the election process, most notably the improper intervention of President Fox in the campaign, but said these irregularities taken together provided insufficient grounds to invalidate the election. Tallying up the final vote total, the TEPJF found that Calderon won by a margin of 233,831 votes (0.56%) of the 41.6 million cast. While the magistrates announced their decision, several hundred angry AMLO supporters noisily protested outside, preventing attendees from leaving for a short time following the hearing's conclusion."

WikiLeaks: los campamentos de Reforma del 2006

Contrario a lo que las empresas de medios y propaganda de la oligarquía intentaron imponer como historia de lo que en los campamentos sucedió (caos y violencia), los "ojos que todo lo ven" de la embajada estadounidense reportaron así —cable 06MEXICO4292_a— lo que en los campamentos de Reforma sucedió:

1.- "Overall, the environment in the Zocalo and on the blockaded streets was very much like that of a block party, with live music, street vendors selling food, and even chess tournaments taking place under tents. Supporters emphasized that the protests would remain peaceful, but indicated that more forms of civil resistance might be forthcoming."

2.- "The general atmosphere of both the Zocalo and the blockaded streets seemed to be rather festive. Vendors selling food, jewelry, and clothing, among other goods, were common. Most demonstrators seemed to be enjoying themselves. One tent near the Palacio de Bellas Artes even had a chess tournament under way."

3.- "An older woman from the state of Guerrero said she came to the Zocalo out of anger about alleged vote-buying in her local town, claiming the PAN was paying 300 pesos per vote. At the Tabasco camp, a young man commented that the Tabasco group's 100 participants planned to stay until the decision of the Tribunal. In the event the court does not rule in their favor, they would wait for instructions from AMLO."

4.- "Poloffs made a follow up visit on August 2 to reassess the situation in the Zocalo. Compared to two days prior, the permanent encampment had become somewhat more organized, with many more tents spread across the plaza. The crowd appeared about the same in number, if not smaller, as more tents had taken up space along the main plaza. As on Paseo de la Reforma, many tents appeared to be sparsely populated. The overall atmosphere was still festive, with music playing and street vendors selling their goods to the plaza's new tenants." 

Estudiante de la UNAM acusa a Javier Sicilia de vender el movimiento a Calderon y Peña Nieto

WikiLeaks: AMLO 01

¿Y qué reportes mandaba la embajada Green-Ga-ga sobre las elecciones del 2006 y AMLO? Aquí algunos cables del PlusD:

1.- Según el cable 06MEXICO1124_a, en el programa "Diálogos por México" que organizó Televisa, coordinado por los intelectuales orgánicos Luis Rubio, Luis de la Calle y Federico Reyes Heroles, en AMLO los gringos advirtieron un radicalismo, cambiaría el modelo económico neoliberal por otro:

"The analysts agreed that despite the written documents sent by the three candidates and the interviews held, the three candidates proposals are still very general and lacking in detail. Felipe Calderon has been the most explicit and coherent, while AMLO has been the most radical, stating that the current economic model should be modified."

2.- En el cable 06MEXICO2702_a, los estadounidenses se muestran duros con las palabras duras de AMLO sobre Vicente Fox y lo comparan con ¡Hugo Chávez!: 

"AMLO's biggest obstacle is often his own mouth. After weeks of keeping his promise to not mention Fox in any of his speeches in order to avoid further verbal confrontations, AMLO could not resist calling Fox a puppet of the U.S. and a man of straw for his allegedly weak reaction to U.S. plans to send the National Guard to the border. This had echoes of Chavez calling Fox a puppy of the U.S., and it is only a matter of time before the Calderon campaign tries to capitalize on the gaffe."

3.- En el cable confidencial 06MEXICO3907_a, del 13 de Julio de 2006, se lee a otro intelectual orgánico, José Woldenberg, sobre el (no) fraude y lo que sería la estrategia discursiva de todo ese frente de pensadores al servicio del poder, "la elección fue limpia y cerrada", por lo tanto, las protestas postelectorales, son un berrinche de AMLO:

"On July 13 we met with former IFE head Jose Woldenberg, who opined that the election appeared to have been conducted with complete transparency. He doubted AMLO's allegations of widespread fraud, insisting that the dispute simply reflected the understandable frustration felt by the second place candidate in a very narrow race."

4.- Y en el cable 06MEXICO6867_a, se pueden leer los cantos de Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas contra las protestas que encabezaba AMLO y su advertencia sobre la pronta disposición del PRD para negociar con el régimen impuesto:

"Cardenas told poloffs that AMLO's protest tactics, specifically the two month long encampment in the Zocalo and on Mexico City's principal boulevard, as well as PRD legislators' successful effort to block former President Fox's State of the Nation speech on September 1 (ref A) and their unsuccessful attempt to block Calderon's December 1 swearing-in ceremony, have hurt the party's image. He feared that public dissatisfaction with the PRD would be reflected in next year's municipal and state legislative elections, as well as in the gubernatorial races in Yucatan and Baja California. Although inter-party tensions remain high, Cardenas is optimistic that the dust will settle "in a few weeks" and expects the PRD will start acting less like a protest movement and more like a normal opposition party."

Y sobre Calderón el michoacano dijo:

"Cardenas offered Calderon the benefit of the doubt, expressing personal respect for the president and a cautiously optimistic prognosis for his administration. He said he had met Calderon on a few occasions, but does not know him very well. Overall, Cardenas' thinks the new president has both good intentions and the political skills to push reforms further than Fox did."

5.- Y en el cable 06MEXICO4958_a, se vuelve a mencionar el 'otro' papel que fungió invisible Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas en el conflicto postelectoral del 2006:

"On an unrelated issue, Soria told poloff that PRD founder, presidential candidate, and "moral leader" Cuauhtemoc Cardenas is no longer in line with PRD thinking, describing him as "the face of historical fraud" for his unwillingness to maintain a long-term protest movement in the face of the apparently fraudulent 1988 presidential election. She described him as "collaborating" with those international contacts that supported Felipe Calderon during MEXICO 00004958 003 OF 003 the election." 

Democracy Now: How the Pentagon used video games to spy on users worldwide

WikiLeaks: Atenco

En Aristeguinoticias realizan una profunda cobertura a los miles de cables publicados por WikiLeaks en su plataforma PlusD, y sobre Atenco la embajada estadounidense dijo:

"La Agencia de Seguridad Estatal del Estado de México (ASE), dependiente del gobierno local en 2006,  fue la principal responsable de los abusos y acciones “brutales” contra pobladores de San Salvador Atenco, durante los hechos del 3 y 4 de mayo de ese año, cuando Enrique Peña Nieto encabezaba el gobierno de la entidad."

Wikileaks: Baja California

Re-visé los documentos sobre Baja California que publicó WikiLeaks en la plataforma PlusD. Aquí un ejemplo:

PLEASE TRANSMIT FOLLOWING MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT FORD TO THE HONORABLE MILTON CASTELLANOS EVERARDO, GOVERNOR OF BAJA CALIFORNIA NORTE, MEXICALI: QUOTE: DEAR GOVERNOR CASTELLANOS: MRS. FORD AND I APPRECIATE THE MANY COURTESIES THAT WERE EXTENDED TO OUR SON, JACK, DURING HIS RECENT VISIT TO BAJA CALIFORNIA. THE WARM WELCOME JACK RECEIVED MADE HIS STAY THERE A MOST PLEASANT AND MEMORABLE OCCASION. SINCERELY, SIGNED GERALD R. FORD. UNQUOTE.

Seguir leyendo los cables en B1+4.