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Associated Press
June 18,
2003
Summary: Six of the
candidates running for Mexico’Äôs lower house of Congress are U.S.
residents, although they are Mexican citizens. Such candidates are
spending time campaigning for support in the U.S., pledging to gain
a voice in Congress for Mexican citizens living in America. Although
millions of U.S. residents are technically eligible to vote in
Mexican elections, they are not allowed an absentee ballot, and so
must travel to Mexico to vote. Mexico uses a mixed member system of
full representation (proportional representation).
Associated Press
Campaigning north of the border
By Deborah
Kong
June 18, 2003 STOCKTON --
Standing before a packed room decorated with his party's brightly
colored signs, congressional candidate Josˆ© Jacques Medina implores
the crowd to give him its support in next month's election. It's
just another campaign stop, except that the election is hundreds of
miles away in another country -- Mˆ©xico -- and the yellow and black
signs adorning the restaurant's walls bear the emblem of the Party
of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD in Spanish. Medina is one of
six U.S. residents seeking a seat in Mˆ©xico's lower house of
Congress in July's midterm election. A Los Angeles labor organizer
who came to the United States 30 years ago, he is eligible to hold
office in Mˆ©xico because that nation considers him a citizen. He was
born in Mˆ©xico City in the regional district he hopes to represent.
Mexican voters won't directly vote for Medina and the other
immigrant candidates, who are running for 200 at-large seats under a
proportional representation system. Instead, their names appear on
five regional lists compiled by the political parties in order of
preference. The party's share of the vote determines how many
candidates are selected from each list. Medina pledged he would
bring immigrants' concerns to the Mexican Congress. There are about
9.1 million Mexican-born residents of the United States, including
citizens of both countries. "We don't have our own voices," Medina
told the crowd, a mix of recent immigrants and longtime residents,
all taking a break from their jobs in the Central Valley's fields,
construction sites and service industry. "There's no
representation." Mexican President Vicente Fox has hailed the
immigrants, who sent home more than $9 billion last year, as heroes
for adding a needed boost to his country's economy. Immigrants say
it's time that support translated into political power. The
remittances have "a direct impact on the economy, but we have no
representation for the money we send to Mˆ©xico," said Felipe
Aguirre, president of the PRD in California. "We're saying we should
have our seat at the table." Immigrant candidates say a top
priority is securing the right to an absentee vote for citizens
living outside of Mˆ©xico. A 1996 constitutional amendment in Mˆ©xico
envisioned voting abroad, but Mexican lawmakers have never passed
measures to enact it. Mexican citizens who live in the United States
must travel to Mexico in order to vote. But even without an
absentee vote, Mˆ©xico's political parties believe immigrants can
influence the outcome of elections by calling relatives in Mˆ©xico.
"Because they're in the U.S. making a living, they have a certain
standing within the family structure in Mˆ©xico," said Armand
Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the Mˆ©xico Project at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Ricardo Enrique Murillo, a researcher at the University of Chicago,
said he is also a candidate registered with the PRD, though his name
hasn't been added yet to the Mexican government's list of official
candidates. Murillo, who was born in a small town in western
Mˆ©xico, came to the United States when he was 25, with only a
grammar school education. He crossed the border seven times -- twice
getting caught and deported. He says he once ran from Tijuana to San
Diego, then traveled to Los Angeles in the trunk of a car. "I know
life in the States, life from an immigrant's perspective," said the
44-year-old Murillo, who eventually earned a master's degree in
international relations. Like some of the other candidates, Murillo
became a legal resident after applying for amnesty under a 1986
federal law. Others are citizens of both countries. Mˆ©xico's two
other main parties, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI,
and Fox's National Action Party, the PAN, are not slating any U.S.
residents as candidates, U.S.-based party members said. The PRI and
PAN each currently hold more than 200 seats in the lower house of
Congress; the PRD holds 52. Three years ago, PRI candidate Eddie
Varˆ„n Levy became the first immigrant candidate to win office.
Varˆ„n, a Los Angeles legal consultant, finishes his term this
summer. Luis Magaˆ±a, an immigrant organizer who attended the
Stockton meeting, said the immigrant candidates are a "good
beginning," though he wishes more were from agricultural areas.
It's like saying to the Mexican government, "Hey, wake up, we're
here," Magaˆ±a said. "Don't just see our economic power." |
