Vote Protesters Occupy 52 City Halls in Mexico

In a widening protest over alleged electoral fraud, militants of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party are occupying 52 town halls throughout the central state of Michoacan and calling for the ouster of the state government.

The opposition party, which had already occupied a dozen town halls, took over 40 more during the weekend after the State Electoral College ratified the results of last month’s election that gave the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party a majority in the state legislature.

The Electoral College and the State Electoral Commission are dominated by the PRI, as the ruling party is universally called.

Disputes Results

According to the official results, the PRI won 12 of the 18 seats at issue, but the opposition, led by Michoacan native son Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, insists that it won a majority. The legislature has six other seats that are divided proportionally among the minority parties.

The rightist National Action Party has said that the election should be annulled. And an “independent tribunal” organized by the opposition--but including PRI members--has said that Cardenas’ party won 14 seats and that four of the others should be annulled.

In a nationwide poll this month, The Times found that only 12% of those interviewed believed that the July 2 election in Michoacan was honest.

Marcian Razo Amezcua, a leader of the Democratic Revolutionary Party in Michoacan, said Monday in a telephone interview that the party plans to take over more of the state’s 113 town halls.

“The purpose of these protests is to demand that (the government) overturn this fraud and recognize our triumphs,” Razo said. “We also are demanding that the government go--the governor and everybody else--because they used the police against the PRD (Cardenas’ party).”

Last week, competing PRI and Cardenista demonstrations engaged in a brawl in the state capital of Morelia as the Electoral College went into session to consider the election results. Police broke up the melee with tear gas but not before at least 18 people--and possibly as many as 40--were injured by sticks and bottles.

Jorge Mendoza, Michoacan’s secretary of government, said that there were no reports of violence Monday. He said the government has not decided whether it will attempt to evict the protesters from the town halls.

“We are evaluating the situation and still have not taken any measures,” he said.

The town halls in Uruapan, Zamora, Zitacuaro and Maravatio were among those occupied during the weekend. These towns are among the largest in the state. Razo said the PRD plans to take over in Morelia as well.

Pressure Tactic

“This is a policy of the PRD,” he said. “It is a form of pressuring authorities to quit making a joke of the popular will.”

Cardenas’ supporters adopted the tactic of occupying town halls last year to protest fraud in the federal election and to demand the ouster of an unpopular PRI governor. Cardenas, a PRI dissident, ran for president and won an unprecedented 31% of the vote, according to the official count.

Soon after taking office, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari replaced the Michoacan governor with another PRI official. But PRD activists held on to at least a dozen of the town halls, demanding the removal of the municipal governments. In several cases, they set up parallel administrations, and the PRI officials worked out of their homes.

The state and federal government chose to ignore those earlier sit-ins in order to avoid confrontations, apparently expecting to wear down the opposition. They seem to be pursuing the same strategy now.