In Mexico, a Month Later, the Police Brutality in Atenco is Covered Up with Newer Violations of Human Rights
by Al Giordano
Political Prisoners, Many Still Gravely Wounded, Are Held Incommunicado and Without Access to Doctors, Family Members or Human Rights Investigators
Imagine Mexican President Vicente Fox, on the telephone with his foreign political consultants, seeking advice on how to do “damage control” on the public relations disaster that began a month ago in the towns of Texcoco and Atenco and just keeps growing. “Hey, Dick Morris, when I went to Los Angeles and Seattle they accused me of being a rapist.” Or, “hey, Rob Allyn, I went to Chiapas and an angry multitude surrounded the restaurant and ruined my lunch with the governor.” This is a man so eager to change the subject from Atenco that, on his way home from California last month, he mistakenly claimed to reporters on his airplane that a vote in the U.S. Senate on a dubious immigration reform bill meant passage of a law and a victory for his administration… even though the measure still had to go to the House of Representatives – where its chances are nil – and where it languishes still. When he realized his error he bolted from the press cabin, scowling, and cut short the press conference.
Fox clearly isn’t bothered by the human side of the problem on the Mexican side of the border: the illegal arrests, warrantless searches, savage beatings, sexual tortures and rapes that federal and state police inflicted on May 3 and 4. (Is it any wonder that so many Mexicans – living under a government like this one – head North?) For Fox and his gang it is a political problem: All that firepower and muscle sent to round up the dissidents and still the State failed to silence those who dared to say that Mexico is governed by an illegitimate authoritarian regime. Day after day, every new fact that emerges proves that Fox and others who say Mexico has transitioned to “democracy” with “human rights” are lying cynically from the same script that defined the seventy years prior of one-party rule.
A politician, at a time like this, asks his consultants how to spin the story. And the advice is always the same: try to change the subject, and if there is bad news, hush it up.
Here are some examples of what Fox would consider “bad news” from a PR perspectiv
...
Political Prisoners, Many Still Gravely Wounded, Are Held Incommunicado and Without Access to Doctors, Family Members or Human Rights Investigators
Imagine Mexican President Vicente Fox, on the telephone with his foreign political consultants, seeking advice on how to do “damage control” on the public relations disaster that began a month ago in the towns of Texcoco and Atenco and just keeps growing. “Hey, Dick Morris, when I went to Los Angeles and Seattle they accused me of being a rapist.” Or, “hey, Rob Allyn, I went to Chiapas and an angry multitude surrounded the restaurant and ruined my lunch with the governor.” This is a man so eager to change the subject from Atenco that, on his way home from California last month, he mistakenly claimed to reporters on his airplane that a vote in the U.S. Senate on a dubious immigration reform bill meant passage of a law and a victory for his administration… even though the measure still had to go to the House of Representatives – where its chances are nil – and where it languishes still. When he realized his error he bolted from the press cabin, scowling, and cut short the press conference.
Fox clearly isn’t bothered by the human side of the problem on the Mexican side of the border: the illegal arrests, warrantless searches, savage beatings, sexual tortures and rapes that federal and state police inflicted on May 3 and 4. (Is it any wonder that so many Mexicans – living under a government like this one – head North?) For Fox and his gang it is a political problem: All that firepower and muscle sent to round up the dissidents and still the State failed to silence those who dared to say that Mexico is governed by an illegitimate authoritarian regime. Day after day, every new fact that emerges proves that Fox and others who say Mexico has transitioned to “democracy” with “human rights” are lying cynically from the same script that defined the seventy years prior of one-party rule.
A politician, at a time like this, asks his consultants how to spin the story. And the advice is always the same: try to change the subject, and if there is bad news, hush it up.
Here are some examples of what Fox would consider “bad news” from a PR perspectiv
...
posted by Alice at
Monday, June 05, 2006
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