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Halliburton, Mexico and Australia... Does This Ring Any Bells?MEXICO CITY (August 4th) -- Jacinto Guzman, an 80 year-old retired oilworker from Veracruz state, plants himself in front of the headquarters of the Halliburton Corporation on the skyscraper-lined Paseo de Reforma here and recalls the great strikes of the 1930s that culminated in the expropriation and nationalization of Mexico's petroleum reserves. Dressed in a wrinkled suit and a hard hat, the old worker laments the creeping privatization of PEMEX, the national oil corporation, by non-Mexican subcontractors like Halliburton, which is installing natural gas infrastructure in Chiapas. But he is less agitated about the penetration of the transnationals in the Mexican oil industry, or even Halliburton's craven role in the obscene Bush-Cheney Iraq war, than he is about the fraud-marred July 2nd presidential election here. The sign he holds reads "No A Pinche Fraude" (No to Fucking Fraud!), referring to Halliburton's membership in a business confederation that financed a vicious TV ad campaign against leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), who insists that he won the July 2nd election from right-winger Felipe Calderon, to whom the nation's tarnished electoral authority, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) awarded a razor-thin and much questioned "victory." Mr. Guzman's appearance at Halliburton on a Friday at the end of last month was one of myriad acts of civil resistance invoked by Lopez Obrador at a July 16th Mexico City assembly that drew more than a million participants. The campaign is designed to pressure a seven-judge panel (the "TRIFE"), which must determine a winner by the first week in September, into opening up the ballot boxes and counting out the votes contained therein -- "voto por voto." -from the n..San Francisco Bay Guardian read more here.
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banging spoons
(08-02) 11:59 PDT OAXACA, Mexico (AP) --
About 500 women banging spoons against pots and pans seized a state-run television station and broadcast a homemade video Wednesday that showed police kicking protesters out of Oaxaca's main square last month.
The women took control of Oaxaca's Channel 9 station Tuesday and held employees for about six hours before releasing them. It was unclear how long the siege would last and police were nowhere to be seen near the station Wednesday.
The standoff is the latest by demonstrators who accuse Gov. Ulises Ruiz of rigging his 2004 election victory and violently repressing opposition groups.
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Women Seize TV Station in Oaxaca, Mexico
Flea: .....one reason why the USA is so afraid of too many Mexicans settling in the USA and becoming citizen voters. The Mexican People are very passionate about their rights and relish in challenging what they believe is injustice. They are a hard working people willing to take the low paying jobs that most Americans see as "demeaning" and are unwilling to do, from cleaning toilets and collecting garbage to roadworkand ditch digging. They are willing to serve in the military as one way to gain an education and skills training they can use in later life. They are willing to work hard, to work long hours, to raise their children to aspire to success. And when they gain the right to vote as a Citizen they vote regularly and they vote informed. They do NOT trust governments and political types because they KNOW they are corrupt from El Presidente' on down. The stereotypical 'stupid' or 'lazy' Mexican from the movies is a myth.
You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman
hot pots .....