Need help understanding Mexican politics

[GPDP]

It's actually a bit embarrassing for me to say it, but despite the fact that I am a Political Science major, and I was born in Mexico, I remain more ignorant of Mexican politics than I should like.

It's particularly a problem when discussing about politics with my parents. If it's about American politics, I have very few problems, since I am well versed in that environment. But when it comes to Mexican politics, I can only nod my head, remain silent, or half-assedly try to argue with limited understanding of how things work or what the political figures and talking heads there stand for or actually do.

This wouldn't be too much of a problem if it wasn't for the fact my parents seem to exhibit a higher degree of right-wing views when talking about Mexican politics than in American politics, particularly so in the case of my father. For instance, in American politics, they generally support the Democrats, though they don't worship them or anything, and have been critical of them from a more left-wing POV. But in Mexican politics, they appear to be staunch PANistas, which, if I understand correctly, is the most right-wing of the big three parties. They listen to Mexican talk radio shows from right-wing commentators, and have a profound distaste for left-wing politicians, often deriding them as "populists" and "dictator-wannabes." They voted for Felipe Calderon in 2006, and have a profound hatred for Lopez Obrador and the PRD, yet I never hear them say anything bad about progressive politicians like Dennis Kucinich. And don't even get me started on what they think of Cuba and Venezuela. They almost sound like Miami gusanos when talking about those countries.

It's hard for me to argue with them, however, since they know Mexican politics very well, and I don't. Hell, I can't even say if there's an argument worth making to counter their tirades against the Mexican left-wing parties and politicians, because I don't really know what they truly stand for, what they do and have done, and how much of what they say is just right-wing propaganda and how much is true. I just wish I knew what causes their politics to shift so much to the right when talking about a country only a half-hour drive from where I live.

So, I want to do something about this. I'd like to get more acquainted with Mexican politics, and I'm hoping someone can help me. I'd like to know who some of the major influential figures are in the government, in the political process, and in the media. At the very least, some articles, websites, or book recommendations would be nice. Thanks in advance!

[Ligeia]

But in Mexican politics, they appear to be staunch PANistas, which, if I understand correctly, is the most right-wing of the big three parties.
Well, they are one of the two right-wing parties and handle things a bit differently but not too much.


They listen to Mexican talk radio shows from right-wing commentators, and have a profound distaste for left-wing politicians, often deriding them as "populists" and "dictator-wannabes." They voted for Felipe Calderon in 2006, and have a profound hatred for Lopez Obrador and the PRD, yet I never hear them say anything bad about progressive politicians like Dennis Kucinich. And don't even get me started on what they think of Cuba and Venezuela. They almost sound like Miami gusanos when talking about those countries.

It's hard for me to argue with them, however, since they know Mexican politics very well, and I don't. Hell, I can't even say if there's an argument worth making to counter their tirades against the Mexican left-wing parties and politicians, because I don't really know what they truly stand for, what they do and have done, and how much of what they say is just right-wing propaganda and how much is true.The media-propaganda in Mexico is quite heavy, you'll probably find almost no leftist program on TV or radio.
I remember during the 2006 elections they showed spots against Obrador and telling the audience that he would expropriate their houses and install a military dictatorship like in Cuba or Venezuela (while they showed marching soldiers in the spot). When the election results came out on TV you could listen to people talk on the streets, in stores, in theaters,cinemas...wherever, how they thought this must be a another fraud election (referring to the electoral fraud in 1988 where a PRD candidate also lost the presedency).
Also when the whole strikes came about, the media wouldn't acknowledge its real size, which surpassed millions of people. I've been there and people were angry(chanting stuff like revolution is the solution) but Obrador and his party urged the protesters not to take violent actions and somehow they didn't. I think the strikes lasted like 2 weeks....
After this the media would've done everything to discredit Obrador and paint him even more crazy than they've already painted him before and soon his popularity would decline.(And Obrador didn't even wanted radical changes, only the usual welfare and more nationalisation and less privatization: http://www.radioamlo.org/).

Well, what else?...the bourgoeisie are largly attached to PAN or PRI, many landowners vote for PRI (because of their clientelist practices), while the others vote for PAN because of their more free-market policies. But voter-behaviour is mostly managed by propaganda.
If we take the current situation, PRI would probably win since PAN has been constantly discredited since it's not doing its job very well. Especially when it comes to the war on drugs, while PRI made deals with the cartels so that they wouldn't shoot all around to expand their markets, PAN attacked them straight-forwardly (not to say, that nobody made any deals here,either). Hence the explosion of violence and open criminality in the last years.
Now this is because of PRI's history....they started to work with criminals so that they could keep the population in place and they can be in power (or something like this,...I can't remember it very well). Anyway, because of this disillusionment voters probably will just turn to PRI again.
Things like this aren't usually taught in school, nor showed in the media.
You could finally conclude that criminals, corporations and politicians(and bureaucrats) work together (with coercion on the workers, or clientelism...) to keep themselves in power and wealthy while the whole country is drowning in violence and poverty.
As for the PRD, I'm not sure....I haven't been very vigilante of mexican politics lately.

Anyway, you'll probably here such things about the views on the left like they are all "dictatorcitos", that they are not "pensante" ( but the right is:rolleyes:), they blame everybody for their problems, they don't like to work, they are irrealists....stuff like that. (the mayor media corporation of Mexico: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisa )


So, I want to do something about this. I'd like to get more acquainted with Mexican politics, and I'm hoping someone can help me. I'd like to know who some of the major influential figures are in the government, in the political process, and in the media. At the very least, some articles, websites, or book recommendations would be nice. Thanks in advance!Some not-right-wing news sites with a lot of information on mexican politics: http://www.proceso.com.mx/
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/
http://www.radioamlo.org/

[Red Commissar]

In order to understand the political landscape of Mexico you'll have to go back as far as the Mexican Revolution. If I am to try and explain this, it'll take up the majority of this post, so I'll just horridly summarize it- there was a lot of left-wing activity and radicalism, but ultimately the movement that won out was the one led by General Plutarco Calles, who created the Partido Nacional Revolucionario, and under which began instituting a state-capitalist like plan.

Calles and his associates were eventually kicked out when Lazaro Cadernas became president. Cadernas was more popular and "people" oriented than the previous domination of Calles. Between Cadernas and Calles, Mexico's oil industry was more or less fully nationalized into Pemex, which still exists today. After this the PNR was recreated as the PRI, and continued their policy of nationalizing major industries. They also continue to play their reputation as being the "party of the revolution".

However one can see that this opened the door for corruption and tax exploitations. It doesn't take much to see that despite the oil wealth of Mexico there is significant income disparity. PRI moved itself into a position to ensure its victory in the successive elections and eventually got to the point where it was serving the interests of the party and their clients rather than the people.

Naturally Mexicans would have gotten sick of this after 60 years of uninterrupted PRI rule and voted in Calderon and PAN.

They will typically associate the PRI (and its professed ideology) with corruption. Compare this to how some working-class Americans might favor the Republicans out of similar concerns with Democrats being "tax happy" and "corrupt". I would imagine the way "liberal" is used as a derogatory term in the United States, it is used in the same way against people they might associate with supporters of socialist or social democratic views in Mexico.

I would say than Calderon and PAN's victory can be seen as a parallel to Reagan and the Republicans in the 1980s in regards to what it did to the electorate and the political landscape.

This is why the PRD is cautious in its approach when dealing with the electorate. They don't want to say anything that would compromise them, as do the other more socialist parties that associate them. If anything on the whole PRD would probably be social democratic.

In between the damage to "left" ideals, or those perceived to be left, that PRI caused with its corruption, and the way PAN has changed the political landscape, it has led to this situation. It might take a while until the Mexican electorate sees that PAN has done little to alleviate the situation.

Really if anything I don't think it's so much of an ideological thing, it's more of an extension of the corruption and issues PRI caused in its rule. Look at how Communists are perceived in Eastern Europe and you'll see a similar situation.

However come voting time, the Mexicans might fall into the trap that Americans have- going back and forth between PRI and PAN. I can't quite gauge the impact PRD would have in the future elections, but it still seems that it's in the process of consolidating its power at the state level before it sees itself as a serious competitor at the national level.