A group of students from the Faculty of Law-UNACH paint a bleak picture for the prospects of fair and democratic elections in Chiapas this year due the the omnipresence of organized crime.
Another municipality in Chiapas chooses not to participate in elections, citing violence and disorder. They will opt for governance by Municipal Council.
As elections draw closer, fears of an exponential surge in violence mount. “Such high levels of violence are clouding the quality of democracy and governance in the country. In particular, electoral violence, that intentionally implemented by the perpetrators to modify both the results and the electoral processes, distorts the virtues of a democratic regime. The outlook is black and murky for the Mexican elections.’’
‘But one only had to look at the rough sandals and dusty feet, the faces wrinkled by the sun, the broken teeth of many of the peasants who came with their bamboo clubs to the capital of Guerrero. Poverty is far from extinct. And what’s more, the leaders of the demonstration camouflaged their demands, which the government summed up in the release of two detained gangsters, with a list of social improvements in their communities: sewage drainage, asphalt streets, educational improvements and security on the roads. No one has any doubt that this is also necessary. But the absence of the State has been giving way to drug trafficking, little by little, election after election.”
by Raúl Zibechi Colombia, Ecuador and Chile all demonstrate recent processes that are relatively similar. Governments of the neoliberal right confronted long-lasting popular revolts, which opened breaches in domination and put governability in jeopardy. The political system responded by channeling the dispute into the institutional arena, with the approval and enthusiasm of the left. During the revolts, grassroots organizations were strengthened and new ones were created. In Chile, more than 200 territorial assemblies and more than 500 community kitchens in Santiago when the pandemic was declared. In Ecuador, they had the Parliament of Indigenous and Social Movements, with more than …
