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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2006 
Assassins Try to Halt Release of Fraud Tape
 Manuel Roig-Franzia - Washington Post
| | A Mexico city policeman investigates the scene behind the partially shattered glass of a bulletproofed car owned by jailed businessman Carlos Ahumada after the car was shot at while carrying Ahumada's wife and children in Mexico City, Mexico, Tuesday, June 6, 2006. No one was injured in the attack. Gunmen shot at the car hours before his wife was to release videos believed to be damaging to presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). (AP/Marco Ugarte) |
Mexico City - Assassins tried Tuesday morning to kill the wife of a jailed businessman who had threatened to release potentially damaging corruption tapes hours before the start of tonight's highly anticipated Mexican presidential debate.
Cecilia Gurza and her three children, who were traveling in a bulletproof vehicle, were not hurt in the early-morning attack in Mexico City. Her husband, Carlos Ahumada, had been accused in 2004 of bribing top city officials in Mexico City's government while Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador - now a leading presidential candidate - was mayor.
Ahumada had said he would release tapes today showing payoffs to other allies of Lopez Obrador, a move that political commentators say could damage his efforts to portray himself as the anti-corruption candidate. After the shooting, it was unclear whether Ahumada would follow through with his threat.
Regardless of the assassination attempt, Lopez Obrador is expected to be the focal point in Tuesday's debate, which will be the first - and only - face-off between Mexico's three major-party candidates. Lopez Obrador skipped the first debate, opening himself up to attacks accusing of him being afraid to take on opponents and of having something to hide.
Lopez Obrador, who represents the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, had been the overwhelming favorite in opinion polls for nearly two years, but his lead has evaporated in the past two months. He is now tied in most polls, or slightly behind, Felipe Calderon, the candidate from Mexican President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, or PAN.
The two men differ sharply in style and in their approach to governing. Lopez Obrador is a fiery populist, a favorite of Mexico City's vast underclass, who has promised to lower gas and electricity prices. Calderon is wonkish and an understated campaigner. He has espoused job creation and has promised to continue the work of Fox, whose election in 2000 ended the seven-decade reign of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
The PRI candidate, Roberto Madrazo, is running a distant third in opinion polls. But he is not without influence. Despite Madrazo's poor showing, his party maintains Mexico's most widespread, well-funded and efficient political machine, as well as controlling more than half the state governorships in the country.
"If none of the candidates commits a large error, then the debate won't change much in the campaign," said Jorge Chabat, a political expert in Mexico City. "But the most susceptible to committing an error is Lopez Obrador because he has a tendency to get angry. If I was Calderon, I'd try to provoke him."
Lopez Obrador's temperament has created problems for him during the campaign. Lopez Obrador was widely condemned recently when he said Fox should "shut up" about the campaign.
"Here we have a great respect for the presidency," said Jorge Montano, who served as both Mexican ambassador to the United States and Mexican ambassador to the United Nations in the 1990s. "We are not like the United States where you make fun of the president every night."
Lopez Obrador also appears to have suffered from negative advertisements by Calderon's party that attempted to paint him as a leftist with ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Calderon has called Lopez Obrador "dangerous" and predicted an "economic disaster" if he is elected.
While Lopez Obrador has been declining, Calderon has been rising on the basis of a dogged, stay-on-message approach, which combines proposals to stimulate job creation by attracting foreign investment and unstinting attacks on Lopez Obrador.
Their duel - which almost completely ignores the presence of Madrazo - has brought Mexico to the precipice of what could be one of the closest elections in its history on July 2. The race is so close that some Mexican political forecasters have begun to use a word American voters are all-too-familiar with: recount. |
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