 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2005 
Mexican Citizens Permitted Absentee Votes
 Alfredo Corchado - The Dallas Morning News
| | President Benito Juarez, one of the country's most beloved leaders, who during political turmoil in the mid-1800s fled Mexico for Cuba and later to New Orleans. |
Mexico City - Mexican expatriates at a weekend conference acknowledged that a new law granting many of them the right to vote in Mexico's presidential election is a promising start. But they called for measures allowing more of their compatriots living in the United States to cast absentee ballots.
"This is a significant first step," said Carlos Olamendi, a Southern California businessman and member of the Mexican Coalition for the Political Rights of Mexicans Abroad. "But there are too many other Mexicans who carry Mexico in their hearts but who have no choice but to stand on the sidelines and watch because the rules are too rigid."
The two-day meeting, which ended Saturday, came as Mexican immigrants in North Texas prepare to turn the region into a hotbed of political activity in the months to come.
Over the past few weeks, top Mexican politicians from the three major parties have made stops in the Dallas area to lobby on behalf of the leading presidential candidates.
Mexico's three leading candidates, including former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, have locked up representatives in North Texas. Lopez Obrador, who leads all polls, plans to visit Dallas sometime next month, supporters and aides said.
Lopez Obrador's area coordinator is Gustavo Bujanda Reyes, who has been busy building what he calls "a web of citizen supporters to spread the message."
The activity is expected to intensify in the months to come as more presidential candidates make what some call "informative stopovers" in the Dallas area.
New rules established by the Mexican Congress make the Dallas area a prominent player in the 2006 presidential election. On June 30, Congress passed a measure that grants about 4 million Mexicans with voting credentials - the government began issuing those cards in 1996 - the right to participate in presidential elections by using mail-in ballots.
Those eligible will have between October and January to register by showing voting credentials and an address abroad.
The 4 million with voting credentials is less than half of the estimated 10 million potential voters who call the United States home.
That means that recent immigrants both legal and illegal are more likely to participate than so-called old-timers - immigrants who arrived before 1996 and lack voting credentials.
While Dallas has been a magnet for immigrants from Mexico since the turn of the century, it's only been in the last two decades that their numbers and places of origin of these immigrants have increased dramatically, consulate officials in Dallas have said. Immigrants from the states of Guanajuato and San Luis Potosi no longer dominate in North Texas, they say, as the area now includes people from virtually all of the 31 Mexican states.
These are people who are increasingly immersed in their homeland, thanks to stronger ties through the Internet, telephone and daily international flights, enabling many to live binational lives, albeit with limited political power.
On Friday, under a cloudy, gray sky, immigrants placed a large wreath at the Monument to President Benito Juarez, one of the country's most beloved leaders, who during political turmoil in the mid-1800s fled Mexico for Cuba and later to New Orleans. The gesture was one of solidarity and recognition that they now join immigrants from other countries in enjoying voting privileges from abroad.
"Benito Juarez was not the only one who left Mexico," said Jesus Martinez Saldana, a federal deputy and immigrant from Fresno, Calif. "We too left and we continue to fight for a better country and for more fair and just laws. ... This is a first, important step, but not the only one." |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us