Socialists elect deputies in Mexican elections
1985Vaughn Hovanessian 1985-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 16 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 16
16 SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1985 MEXICO CITY-The mood here is one of excitement and triumph. From the national election results just posted, the PRT (Revolutionary Workers Party), Mexican section of the Fourth International, has won 1.7 percent of the national vote and for the first time has six federal deputies.
This is a tremendous step forward for revolutionaries in Mexico as well as for the Fourth International.
Two of the new members of the Chamber of Deputies are not actual members of the PRT but ran on the PRT slate. They include Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, well-known leader of the National Front Against Repression, and Ruben Aguilar, leader of the Peoples Defense Committee of Chihuahua. The four other new deputies include PRT Central Committee members Pedro Penaloza, Ricardo Pascoe, Efrain Calvo, and Rosaria Peredo.
Initially, the early results posted after the July 7 elections showed the PRT candidates had not won any delegates and in fact had not garnered enough votes to maintain their status as a registered party. Parties are allotted federal deputies depending on the percentage of the national vote they win.
Threat of protest
However, in the face of mounting protest from the PSUM (United Mexican Socialist Party), the PMT (Mexican Workers Party), and the PRT about growing irregularities in the election counts from the various states of Mexico, the PRT was conceded a larger margin of the national vote and six deputies. The Chamber of Deputies has 400 members.
This victory is especially sweet because it is gained in contention with the notoriously corrupt election procedures orchestrated by the ruling PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party). It is a common occurrence here during elections that ballot boxes are stolen or lost. In some cases trucks of soldiers drive from polling station to polling station with troops voting numerous times for PRI candidates.
Prior to the elections, the PRT had organized 1400 of its members and supporters as poll watchers all across the country to better monitor the election process. The government backed down and conceded that the PRT had won a higher percentage of the vote only when it was announced that the PRT with other left parties would launch a largescale protest against the election fraud.
It is important to understand that the PRT is well known throughout Mexico as a party with integrity, making no back-room deals with the PRI. They are presented in most of the Mexican press as the revolutionary socialist party with principles.
On the night of the victory announcement, this reporter attended a spirited victory celebration attended by hundreds of supporters at the Chabacana headquarters of the PRT.
It was emphasized by speaker after speaker at the event that the new PRT deputies would speak loud and clear for the interests of the working people and the poor of Mexico. The defense of civil liberties and the struggle for justice against the brutal repressiveness of the police and military is a prime issue for the representatives. The PRT election platform also calls for the cancellation of the foreign debt and for land to be given to those who work it.
In a related development, on July 19, two nights previous to the PRT victory, Mexico City witnessed a grand celebration marking the sixth anniversary of the Nicaraguan revolution. Nearly 10,000 people jammed into the National Auditorium for an evening of song, dance, satire, speeches FSLN victory.
Roger Uriarte of the National Union of Nicaraguan Students, in a speech, made a promise when he summed up Nicaragua's attitude in the face of growing U.S. threats against his country: "Should the United States make the mistake of invading Nicaragua, Central America will become the tomb of imperialism."
Continually throughout the evening the audience broke into chants declaring their intention to fight shoulder to shoulder with the Nicaraguans should that country be invaded by the Yankees. This reporter observed that besides the many workers and students in attendance there was a large percentage of the very poor and disenfranchised present and active in the proceedings.
It is clear that in Mexico and in Central America great advances have been made by revolutionaries. The prospects for the future look even better.