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Tapes add to drama over Tijuana mayor race
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20041113-9...
PAN officials appear to discuss illicit acts in phone recordings
By Sandra Dibble
November 13, 2004
TIJUANA ? With the possible annulment of the Aug. 1 mayoral race, this city of 1.5 million residents is in the grips of a political melodrama that
changes with each passing day.
The latest twist involves secretly tape-recorded telephone conversations of political operatives from the National Action Party, or PAN.
In the tapes, the men and women seem to be discussing ways to hide campaign expenditures. If that's true, it would put the PAN in a most awkward
position.
The PAN has been calling since August for the annulment of the election, which it lost by nearly 5,000 votes. It claims that the winner,
multimillionaire racetrack operator Jorge Hank Rhon, far exceeded campaign spending limits.
The upshot is that 18 days before Hank, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is scheduled to take office, there is a chance that
he will not. And as the electoral court's decision approaches, political temperatures have been rising.
Hank's victory ended a five-term winning streak for the PAN. It was a race watched across Mexico as a test of the PRI, which is trying to make a
presidential comeback after the PAN's Vicente Fox won in 2000.
It is unclear whether the release of the tapes this week will be taken into account by the Trife, a federal electoral tribunal in Mexico City. The
panel of judges is expected to rule on the Tijuana election next week, although it could take until Nov. 30.
The Trife has been playing a growing role in recent years, ruling on strict legal grounds on issues that once were decided politically by the party in
power.
"It's a credible place to expedite electoral justice," said Gast?n Luken, a Tijuana businessman and former citizen counselor to Mexico's Federal
Electoral Institute, which oversees federal elections. "I've dealt with them personally and professionally, and I think they have a well-deserved good
reputation."
The Trife may never hear the tapes, but in Tijuana they have already had a strong effect.
PAN leaders demanded yesterday that the federal attorney general's office look into the situation and punish those responsible for the "telephone
espionage."
"Certainly there is a beneficiary to all of this, and the beneficiary is the PRI," said Jos? Guadalupe Zamorano, the PAN's state president, after
leaving the attorney general's office in Tijuana's Rio Zone. "This type of action originates from a conduct of criminals and Mafiosos."
But Zamorano also admitted that the people on the tapes appear to be members of his party. "These are two PANistas that participated in the campaign
committee," he said. Still, Zamorano said he wasn't convinced that their comments referred to illicit acts involving campaign expenditures.
The PRI has denied any connection to the tapes, just as it has consistently denied spending more than the law allows, 4.8 million pesos, or $423,000.
Hank appeared on Radio Hispana yesterday morning, saying he had no doubt he would be Tijuana's mayor starting Dec. 1.
"I didn't go over the campaign spending limit," he said.
The tapes, released anonymously to Tijuana journalists, have been playing over and over on television and radio stations since Thursday.
Carlos Barboza, municipal president of the PRI, said he, like Hank, is certain his party will prevail. And in the meantime, he is not saying much:
"We're very calm, waiting for the decision of the Trife."
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Official: Mexico tired of political scandal
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20041112-1430-mexi...
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 12, 2004
MEXICO CITY ? Interior Secretary Santiago Creel said Friday that Mexico was sick of a serious of compromising video tapes, tapped phone conversations
and telltale documents that have led to scandal after political scandal.
"Why talk about videos and recordings when we have such intense work with the Congress that has turned out well," Creel said, defending the federal
budget, which was approved by the Senate in the wee hours of the morning and now will be considered by the House.
"It's good news and it doesn't have to do with embarrassment or videos or recordings or the bad conduct of some," he said.
Creel, a top member of President Vicente Fox's Cabinet, has himself been the center of political turmoil as election tribunal officials consider
charges he exceeded campaign spending limits during an unsuccessful run for Mexico City Mayor in 2000.
But much of the controversy has fallen on the man who beat Creel, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a fiery populist from the left-leaning Democratic
Revolution Party.
Constitutional term limits bar Fox from seeking office again and the capital's mayor is a favorite to replace him in elections in 2006. His approval
ratings remain sky-high despite a number of problems to affect his administration.
In March, he was embarrassed by the release of videotapes showing city officials stuffing mounds of cash into their pockets and allegedly spending
taxpayers' money at gambling tables in Las Vegas.
In May, the Attorney General's office asked Congress to strip Lopez Obrador of his immunity from prosecution after he failed to obey a court order in
a land expropriation case.
And in June, hundreds of thousands of citizens marched through Mexico City's streets to protest high levels of crime.
The most potentially damaging action is the Attorney General's request, given that the Mexican constitution prohibits anyone facing criminal charges
from running for office.
Last week a Mexico City lawmaker who once headed Lopez Obrador's party's block in the local legislature was removed from office after appearing on a
tape taking cash from a now jailed businessman.
Lopez Obrador has accused the federal government of unfairly targeting him, saying his administration has been the victim of a massive plot.
Creel, himself a presidential hopeful in 2006, said he believed it was time to put a culture that has been mesmerized by one scandal after another "on
ice."
"I think we're tired of this, and that's the word I want to use, fed up with all the scandals that have occurred in this country," he said. "And we're
tired of these scandals obscuring the good things that have happened."
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