Mexico’s Dirty Political Laundry Hung on Exhibit

Opposition parties have compiled an exhibit of what they say are dirty doings in Mexico’s electoral system and plan to take it on the road in the United States and Europe.

The exhibit, called Expo-Fraud, includes hundreds of ballots, photographs and documents purporting election fraud in Mexico, where opposition parties have declared for decades--often correctly--that voting is rigged.

“Naturally, we can’t display all of it,” said organizer Javier Livas, a leader of the conservative National Action Party in Monterrey. “There wouldn’t be enough room. But we’ve got some very telling samples.”

The display includes about 350 examples of alleged fraud in gubernatorial elections over the last 10 years under former President Miguel de la Madrid and President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

It will open in Mexico City next week as the Congress debates electoral reforms. Later, it goes to Washington at a time when the U.S. Congress could be preparing to debate whether to join Mexico and Canada in a North American Free Trade Agreement.

“We’re interested in combatting the image abroad that there is democracy in Mexico,” Livas said. “It’s not an attack on NAFTA, but democracy is more important than a treaty.”

The National Action Party and the liberal Revolutionary Democratic Party joined to gather the material against the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, which has held power for 64 years.

Under Salinas, more opposition victories are being recognized. He has overturned some results when it appeared members of his own party won unfairly. But allegations of cheating persist, bolstered by a long tradition of political trickery.

In Washington, the event is being organized by the Mexico Report, a newsletter often critical of the Salinas administration.

“What Expo-Fraud is about is showing that these races are clearly unfair,” publisher Christopher Whalen said.

Livas said the show will also go to Los Angeles and Brussels. Dates are pending.

The exhibit shows samples of altered voter registration lists and ballots, and photographs and videos showing fraud and violence in elections in the state of Mexico and the states of Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, Sonora, Puebla, San Luis Potosi and Tamaulipas.