Politicians in Mexico's most populous state vowed to...
Politicians in Mexico's most populous state vowed to push ahead with a plan to institute the death penalty despite questionable public support and strong opposition from human rights groups, the president and the Roman Catholic Church
Politicians in Mexico's most populous state vowed to push ahead with a plan to institute the death penalty despite questionable public support and strong opposition from human rights groups, the president and the Roman Catholic Church.
The effort - which goes against the country's historical opposition to the death penalty - is shaping up to be one of the hot-button issues in state and national elections.
Leaders of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said that the results of the February 16 referendum gave them the mandate to push for capital punishment in Mexico state, a sprawling region of suburbs and shantytowns surrounding Mexico City.
"The results were very clear," state PRI president Isidro Pastor told The Associated Press. "We asked the people and the people responded. ... We have to act accordingly."
With 13 million residents, Mexico state is the most populous and one of the country's most diverse. It is often viewed as a microcosm of the nation.
The nonbinding referendum, sponsored by an alliance of the PRI and the Green Party, asked voters whether they would like to see kidnappers and murderers put to death.
Pastor said final returns showed 85 percent of voters were in favor of capital punishment and 95 percent favored life sentences. But only 800,000 - or about 10 percent - of the state's 8 million eligible voters participated in the poll, raising doubts about whether the PRI had a mandate.
"The death penalty did not bring out the vote," proclaimed the front-page headline in the major Mexico City newspaper El Universal. The newspaper Reforma cast doubt on the vote's validity, noting that one of its reporters was able to cast a vote three times - on the Internet, by telephone and at a polling place.
The national PRI withheld comment on the state referendum. But given the measure's apparent popularity in Mexico state, it is one that national party members could latch onto as campaigning heats up for midterm elections on July 6.
All 500 congressional seats and several governor's posts are up for grabs in the upcoming elections - the first major national contest since Vicente Fox won the 2000 presidential election, ending 71 years of PRI rule.
Fox, of the conservative National Action Party, rejected the initiative, saying that "Democratic countries ... don't believe in the death penalty."
High sentiment against the death penalty also has roots in religion; the majority of Mexicans are nominally Catholic. In his Sunday sermon, Cardinal Norberto Rivera said the death penalty "would not solve anything."
The effort - which goes against the country's historical opposition to the death penalty - is shaping up to be one of the hot-button issues in state and national elections.
Leaders of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said that the results of the February 16 referendum gave them the mandate to push for capital punishment in Mexico state, a sprawling region of suburbs and shantytowns surrounding Mexico City.
"The results were very clear," state PRI president Isidro Pastor told The Associated Press. "We asked the people and the people responded. ... We have to act accordingly."
With 13 million residents, Mexico state is the most populous and one of the country's most diverse. It is often viewed as a microcosm of the nation.
The nonbinding referendum, sponsored by an alliance of the PRI and the Green Party, asked voters whether they would like to see kidnappers and murderers put to death.
Pastor said final returns showed 85 percent of voters were in favor of capital punishment and 95 percent favored life sentences. But only 800,000 - or about 10 percent - of the state's 8 million eligible voters participated in the poll, raising doubts about whether the PRI had a mandate.
"The death penalty did not bring out the vote," proclaimed the front-page headline in the major Mexico City newspaper El Universal. The newspaper Reforma cast doubt on the vote's validity, noting that one of its reporters was able to cast a vote three times - on the Internet, by telephone and at a polling place.
The national PRI withheld comment on the state referendum. But given the measure's apparent popularity in Mexico state, it is one that national party members could latch onto as campaigning heats up for midterm elections on July 6.
All 500 congressional seats and several governor's posts are up for grabs in the upcoming elections - the first major national contest since Vicente Fox won the 2000 presidential election, ending 71 years of PRI rule.
Fox, of the conservative National Action Party, rejected the initiative, saying that "Democratic countries ... don't believe in the death penalty."
High sentiment against the death penalty also has roots in religion; the majority of Mexicans are nominally Catholic. In his Sunday sermon, Cardinal Norberto Rivera said the death penalty "would not solve anything."
— SOURCES
- (Sources: AP, 17/02/2003)