Mexico

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Mexico

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The Politics of Mexico take place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic whose government is based on a congressional system, whereby the president of Mexico is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. The federal government represents the United Mexican States and is divided into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial, as established by the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, published in 1917. The constituent states of the federation must also have a republican form of government based on a congressional system as established by their respective constitutions.

The executive power is exercised by the executive branch, which is headed by the President, advised by a cabinet of secretaries that are independent of the legislature. Legislative power is vested upon the Congress of the Union, a two-chamber legislature comprising the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Judicial power is exercised by the judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, the Council of the Federal Judiciary and the collegiate, unitary and district tribunals.

The politics of Mexico are dominated by three political parties: National Action Party (PAN), the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Political parties[link]

Constitutionally, political parties in Mexico must promote the participation of the people in the democratic life of the country, contribute in the representation of the nation and citizens, and be the access through which citizens can participate in public office, through whatever programs, principles and ideals they postulate.^[1] All political parties must be registered before the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the institution in charge of organizing and overseeing the federal electoral processes, but must obtain at least 2% of votes in the federal elections to keep their registry. Registered political parties receive public funding for their operation and can also obtain private funding within the limits prescribed by the law. As of 2010 the following political parties are registered before the IFE and all have representatives at the Congress of the Union:

• Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI), founded in 1929;
• National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, PAN), founded in 1939;
• Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD), founded in 1989;
• Labor Party (Partido del Trabajo, PT), founded in 1990;
• Green Ecological Party (Partido Verde Ecologista de México, PVEM), founded in 1986, but lost its registry on two consecutive elections; it has retained its registry since 1993;
• Convergence Party (Convergencia, CV), founded in 1997;
• New Alliance (Nueva Alianza, PNA or PANAL), founded in 2005;

Political parties are allowed to form alliances or coalitions to nominate candidates for any particular election. The coalition must present itself with a particular name and logo. Proportional representation (plurinominal) seats are assigned to the coalition based on the percentage of votes obtained in the elections, and then the coalition re-assigns them to the constituent political parties. Once each party in the coalition has been assigned plurinominal seats, they do not necessarily continue to work as a coalition in government.

Throughout the 20th century, PRI had an almost hegemonic power at the state and federal level, which slowly began to recede in the late 1980s. Even though since the 1940s, PAN had won a couple of seats in the Congress, and in 1947 the first presidential municipality (in Quiroga, Michoacán),^[2] it wasn't until 1989, that the first non-PRI governor of a state was elected (at Baja California). It was in 1997, that PRI lost its absolute majority at the Congress of the Union, and in 2000 the first non-PRI president was elected since 1929.

Elections and political composition of the institutions[link]

Archivo General de la Nacion

Suffrage is universal, free, secret and direct for all Mexican citizens 18 and older, and is compulsory (but not enforced). The identity document in Mexico serves also as the voting card, so all citizens are automatically registered for all elections; that is, no pre-registration is necessary for every election. All elections are direct; that is, no electoral college is constituted for any of the elections at the federal, state or municipal level. Only when an incumbent president is absolutely absent (either through resignation, impeachment or death), the Congress of the Union constitutes itself acts as an electoral college to elect an interim president by absolute majority.

Presidential elections are scheduled every six years, except in the exceptional case of absolute absence of the president. Legislative elections are scheduled every six years for the Senate, to be fully renewed in elections held concurrently with the presidential elections; and every three years for the Chamber of Deputies. Elections are usually held on the first Sunday of July. State governors are also elected every six years, whereas the legislatures are renewed every three years. State elections need not be concurrent with federal elections. Federal elections are organized and supervised by the autonomous public Federal Electoral Institute, whereas state and municipal elections are organized and supervised by electoral institutes constituted by each state of the federation. Elections within the Federal District are also organized by a local electoral institute.

A strongly ingrained concept in Mexican political life is "no reelection." The theory was implemented after Porfirio Díaz managed to monopolize the presidency for over 25 years. Presently, Mexican presidents are limited to a single six-year term, and no one who has held the office even on a caretaker basis is allowed to hold the office again. Deputies and senators are not allowed to immediately succeed themselves.

Federal elections[link]

The most recent federal presidential elections were held on July 2, 2006 concurrent with the full renovation of both chambers of the Congress of the Union. In these elections the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Labour Party (PT) and Convergence (CV) formed a coalition called Coalition for the Good of All. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Ecologist Green Party (PVEM) formed a coalition called Alliance for Mexico.

Presidential elections[link]

Majority candidate per state according to PREP. Blue: Felipe Calderón, Yellow: Andrés Manuel López Obrador

The presidential elections were the most competitive in the history of the country in which the difference in the ballot count between the winner and the first runner up was less than one percent point, and in which neither candidate got absolute majority in a system in which a second round of voting has not been instituted. Felipe Calderón got the greatest number of votes according to the preliminary computation (PREP) and the ballot recount. Andrés Manuel López Obrador contested the results and demanded a vote-per-vote recount, which was denied by the Federal Electoral Tribunal, based on the argument that inconsistencies could not be proved for all electoral circumscriptions, but order a partial recount of votes of those that did show inconsistencies which represented 9.2% of the total, after which the results were not significantly altered. The Federal Electoral Tribunal declared Felipe Calderón the winner of the elections on September 5, and president elect. He took office on December 1, and his term will end on November 30, 2012.

Congressional elections[link]

The concurrent congressional elections were not contested by any party. Both chambers were completely renewed and no party obtained absolute majority. All deputies and senators took office on September 1. First-past-the-post plurality candidates (FPTP) of coalitions represent the parties of which they are members. Proportional representation (PR) seats assigned to coalitions were further reassigned to their constituent parties in whatever manner and number they agreed upon. Parties that formed a coalition for the general elections may continue to work together but they do not form a unified political bloc at the Congress; parliamentary groups are identified by parties and not by coalitions.^[3]

The 64 Senate first-past-the-post (FPTP) seats are assigned to the pair of senators of the same party (who run together) that obtain the majority of votes per state and the Federal District. The 32 first minority (FM) seats are assigned to the first runner-up per party and the Federal District. Finally, 32 proportional representation (PR) seats are assigned according to national votes to the party or coalition in relation to the total number of votes obtained nationally. PR seats are assigned to the coalition who then reassigns them to its constituent parties in whatever manner and number they had originally agreed upon, and may or may not work as a bloc in the Senate.

State elections[link]

States and political party in power

The elections in each state are done at different times, depending on the state, and are not necessarily held at the same time with the federal elections. Currently, even though the PRI is the third political force in the Congress of the Union, in terms of number of seats, it is still the first political force in terms of the number of states governed by it. As of 2010:

• PRI governs 20 states: Aguascalientes, Campeche, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Durango, Hidalgo, México, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatán and Zacatecas.
• PAN governs 7 estates: Baja California, Baja California sur, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Sonora and Tlaxcala.
• PRD governs 3 states and the Federal District (Mexico City): Chiapas, Distrito Federal, Guerrero and Michoacán.
• Convergencia governs a state: Oaxaca.

Historical political development[link]

Vicente Fox, president 2000-2006

In 1929, all factions and generals of the Mexican Revolution were united into a single party, the National Revolutionary Party (NRP), with the aim of stabilizing the country and ending internal conflicts. During the following administrations, since 1928, many of the revolutionary ideals were put into effect, among them the free distribution of land to peasants and farmers, the nationalization of the oil companies, the birth and rapid growth of the Social Security Institute as well as that of Labor Unions, and the protection of national industries. The party was later renamed the Mexican Revolution Party and finally the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The social institutions created by the party itself provided it with the necessary strength to stay in power. In time, the system gradually became, as some political scientists have labeled it, an "electoral authoritarianism",^[4] in that the party resorted to any means necessary, except that of the dissolution of the constitutional and electoral system itself, to remain in power. In fact, Mexico was considered a bastion of continued constitutional government in times where coup d'états and military dictatorships were the norm in Latin America, in that the institutions were renovated electorally, even if only in appearance and with little participation of the opposition parties at the local level.

The first cracks in the system, even though they were merely symbolic, were the 1970's reforms to the electoral system and the composition of the Congress of the Union which for the first time incorporated proportional representation seats allowing opposition parties to obtain seats, though limited in number, in the Chamber of Deputies. As minority parties became involved in the system, they gradually demanded more changes, and a full democratic representation. Even though in the 1960s, a couple (of more than two thousand) municipalities were governed by opposition parties, the first state government to be won by an opposition party was Baja California, in 1989.

The presidential elections held in 1988 marked a watershed in Mexican politics, as they were the first serious threat to the party in power by an opposition candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a defector from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and son of former President Lazaro Cardenas, who was nominated by a broad coalition of leftist parties. He officially received 31.1 percent of the vote, against 50.4 percent for Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the PRI candidate, and 17 percent for Manuel Clouthier of the National Action Party (PAN). It was widely said that Cardenas had won the election, but that the then government-controlled electoral commission had altered the results after the infamous "glitch in the system" (se cayó el sistema, as it was reported). In the concurrent elections, the PRI came within 11 seats of losing the majority of Chamber of Deputies, and opposition parties captured 4 of the 64 Senate seats - the first time that the PRI had failed to hold every seat in the Senate. Capitalizing on the popularity of President Salinas, however, the PRI rebounded in the mid-term congressional elections of 1991, winning 320 seats.

Subsequent changes included the creation of the Federal Electoral Institute in the 1990s and the inclusion of proportional representation and first minority seats in the Senate. The presidential election of 1994 was judged to be the first relatively free election in modern Mexican history. Ernesto Zedillo of the PRI won with 50.2 percent of the vote, against 26.7 percent for Diego Fernández de Cevallos of PAN and 17.1 percent for Cardenas, who this time represented the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Although the opposition campaign was hurt by the desire of the Mexican electorate for stability, following the assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio, the intended PRI candidate, and the recent outbreak of hostilities in the state of Chiapas, Zedillo's share of the vote was the lowest official percentage for any PRI presidential candidate up to that time.

In the 1997 mid-term elections, no party held majority in the Chamber of Deputies, and in 2000 the first opposition party president was sworn in office since 1929. Vicente Fox won the election with 43% of the vote, followed by PRI candidate Francisco Labastida with 36%, and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) with 17%.

Numerous electoral reforms implemented after 1989 aided in the opening of the Mexican political system, and opposition parties made historic gains in elections at all levels. Many of the current electoral concerns have shifted from outright fraud to campaign fairness issues. During 1995-96 the political parties negotiated constitutional amendments to address these issues. Implementing legislation included major points of consensus that had been worked out with the opposition parties. The thrust of the new laws has public financing predominate over private contributions to political parties, tightens procedures for auditing the political parties, and strengthens the authority and independence of electoral institutions. The court system also was given greatly expanded authority to hear civil rights cases on electoral matters brought by individuals or groups. In short, the extensive reform efforts have "leveled the playing field" for the parties.

The 2006 elections saw the PRI fall to third place behind both the PAN and the PRD. Roberto Madrazo, the presidential candidate, polled only 22.3 percent of the vote, and the party ended up with only 121 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, a loss of more than half of what the party had obtained in 2003, and 38 Senate seats, a loss of 22. Nevertheless, at the state level, more states are still governed by PRI than by the rest of the parties.

References and notes[link]

See also[link]

Mexico portal

• State governments of Mexico
• Federal government of Mexico
• Powers of the Union (Mexico)

External links[link]

• Presidency of the United Mexican States
• Congress of the Union
• Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation
• Mexican Council for Economic and Social Development
• Mexico Development Gateway

Wayne Madsen (born April 25, 1954) is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist, author and columnist specializing in intelligence and international affairs.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} He is the author of the blog Wayne Madsen Report.^[8]

Background and Early Life[link]

Madsen was born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania on 28 April 1954 to an American mother and a Danish mariner. His grandmother, who emigrated to the U.S. with his father after World War II was Victoria Madsen, a Danish communist party official.^[9][10] In the 1950s Victoria Madsen was deported by the FBI^[11]

Madsen attended the University of Mississippi where he joined the Navy ROTC.

Career[link]

This section may contain improper references to self-published sources. Please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources, where they are used inappropriately. (October 2011)

U.S. Navy[link]

Upon graduation from University of Mississippi, he joined the U.S. Navy. He was commissioned an ensign.

In 1982 he was stationed at the Coos Head Naval Facility. Naval Facility Coos Head had an allowance of twelve officers, ninety-five enlisted and 15 civilians. He was later given a bad fitness report by his executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Marney Finch.^[12]

His new commanding officer at Coos Bay transferred him to Washington D.C. He resigned from the Navy in 1985 as a lieutenant, having been passed over for promotion. Madsen described himself as the "most senior lieutenant in the Navy"^[13] at the time of his resignation and has blamed his lack of advance on a powerful group of pedophiles hidden in the top of the U.S. Navy ranks. Madsen says that independent investigations into illegal homosexual activity in the federal government by other journalists were eventually published by the Washington Times in 1989.^[14][15]

In 1984 he "benefitted from the 1983 bombing of the Computer Area in the Washington Navy Yard" and the 1984 White House screening of the movie War Games which he suggests prompted President Reagan into putting money into computer security. He was loaned in 1984 to the NSA by the Navy to work in computer security.^[14]

He has been described by Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic Monthly as a conspiracy theorist.^[16]

Post Navy Career[link]

Between 1985 and 1989 Madsen held a series of jobs, first working for RCA as a government consultant on contracts for the National Security Agency (NSA). Later he worked for the Navy's Naval Data Automation Command as a civilian employee. After this Madsen briefly established his own consulting firm, then worked for the National Bureau of Standards, and later for the State Department.^[14]

In 1990 Madsen joined CSC, working there from 1990 until 1997,^[14] when he joined the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) as a senior fellow. In late January 2005 Madsen left EPIC.^[14]

Journalism career[link]

Madsen says that in 2001 he was denied a press pass as an Internet journalist to cover the first inauguration of George W. Bush.^[17]

In 2005 Madsen began working as a free-lance journalist for publications such as The American Conservative, CorpWatch, CounterPunch, CovertAction Quarterly, In These Times, Multinational Monitor, The Progressive and The Village Voice. His columns have appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Columbus Dispatch, Houston Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald and the Sacramento Bee. Madsen also publishes his own news blog.^[11]

Reporting and Opinions[link]

In 2002 he suggested to the Guardian newspaper that the United States Navy had aided in an attempted overthrow of Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez.^[18]

In January 2002 he expressed concern over the possible use of torture by the United States government against suspected terorrists,^[19] as well as possible plans to use the military in domestic law enforcement, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.^[20]

In 2003 he said that he had uncovered information linking the September 11 attacks to the government of Saudi Arabia as well as to Bush administration.^[21] In 2005, he wrote than an unidentified former CIA agent claimed that the USS Cole was actually hit by a Popeye cruise missile launched from an Israeli Dolphin-class submarine.^[22]

In 2005 he said that the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, had pressured American politicians to stay away from protests against the Iraq War.^[23]

In 2006 he criticized the Iraq Study Group, saying:

"I think it is a whitewash group and nothing will come of it, except that they may concoct some reason for the US to stay the course in Iraq, with perhaps a little more international support, like Germany and Canada. The commission is a whitewash because the members are all consummate Washington insiders, many of whom have a political and financial stake in the successful outcome of the war. The longer the war goes on the more money they make."^[24]

Later that year he criticized the movie industry for indirectly causing suffering in Africa by promoting diamonds in movies like Breakfast At Tiffany's and Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. He included Leonardo DiCaprio, whose film Blood Diamond dealt with the issue, as well as Russell Simmons who is selling a line of "nonconflict diamonds." Madsen said about them, "It's a p.r. campaign. They should be saying, 'Don't buy diamonds at all.'"^[25]

In a 2008 ArabNews article, Madsen is quoted as suggesting that the criminal prosecution of New York State governor Eliot Spitzer was partly due to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.^[26]

On June 9, 2008 he reported that unnamed "GOP dirty tricks operatives" had found a Kenyan birth certificate registering the birth of Barack Obama, Jr. on August 4, 1961. "However, the registration is a common practice in African countries whose citizens abroad have families with foreign nationals."^[27] This birth certificate was a cornerstone of the "Kenyan Born" subset of the birther conspiracy theories, and Madsen's article was cited in a Washington state petition challenging Obama's eligibility to serve.^[28]

On April 25, 2009, Madsen reported that some unidentified UN World Health Organization officials and scientists believed the 2009 new H1N1 strain of swine flu virus appeared to be the product of U.S. military sponsored gene splicing, as opposed to natural processes.^[29][30] While it can not be ruled out that the virus was created in a research laboratory or vaccine factory, the most plausible explanation is that the virus is the result of modern farming techniques. New Scientist magazine cited the example of a H1N2 influenza pandemic in the 1990s that only affected pigs in the United Kingdom. This subtype of the H1N2 was also a reassortment (mix) of swine, human and avian strains.^[31]

In July 2009, Madsen released a report saying there was a Q Group within the National Security Agency tasked with concealing US government involvement in 9/11.^{[32][verification needed][unreliable source?][dead link]}

In 2010, Madsen reported in the Pakistan Daily that unnamed sources suggested that the company formerly known as Blackwater, had been conducting false-flag operations in Pakistan that were blamed on the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.^[33]

Bibliography[link]

• Jaded Tasks—Brass Plates, Black Ops & Big Oil: The Blood Politics of Bush & Co. (TrineDay, 2006) ISBN 0-9752906-9-X
• America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II with John Stanton (Dandelion Books, 2003) ISBN 1-893302-29-6
• Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden (foreword) Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie (Nation Books, 2002) ISBN 1-56025-414-9
• Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999 (African Studies) (Edwin Mellen Press, 1999) ISBN 0-7734-8002-1
• Handbook of Personal Data Protection (New York: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1992) (reference book on international data protection law) ISBN 1-56159-046-0

References[link]

External links[link]

• Wayne Madsen Report

Brad Will
Brad Will performing at the Dreamtime Village in the 1990s.
Born	Bradley Roland Will 1970 Evanston, Illinois, USA
Died	October 27, 2006 Oaxaca, Oax., Mexico
Education	B.A. in English, Allegheny College
Occupation	Activist, Videographer, journalist
Notable credit(s)	Indymedia

Bradley Roland Will (1970–2006) was an American activist, videographer and amateur journalist affiliated with Indymedia. On October 27, 2006 during a labor dispute in the Mexican city of Oaxaca,^[1][2] Will was shot twice by government-aligned paramilitaries, resulting in his death.

Early life[link]

Brad Will (far right) at the Dreamtime Village, about 1993.

Will was born in Evanston, Illinois, and raised in the affluent community of Kenilworth, Illinois.^[3] He attended New Trier High School, graduating in 1988 and went on to attend Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he earned a B.A. in English.^[3] Beginning in the summer of 1991, he was a regular attendee at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, the summer writing program of Naropa University and was a teaching assistant to Peter Lamborn Wilson (a.k.a. Hakim Bey). In 1995, after spending time at Dreamtime Village in southwest Wisconsin. He later moved to Manhattan where he squatted on the Lower East Side before moving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Activism[link]

U.S.[link]

At Naropa, Will participated in a satirical performance art piece designed to mock the Colorado socially conservative Christian community and protest a proposed amendment to the Colorado constitution which sought to limit gay rights. Will, (who was homosexual), was married to an gay man in a ceremony conducted by Peter Lamborn Wilson, a Universal Life Church-ordained minister. The mock ceremony included a procession of their wedding party in drag, parading in front of a Promise Keepers event in Boulder.

While in New York City, Will became involved in the squatters movement of the Lower East Side and in what has become known as freeganism, an effort to live outside the mainstream economic grid by means that includes collecting and eating food discarded by stores and food manufacturers. He also fought the removal of community gardens, including the Chico Mendez Mural Garden on the Lower East Side, named after Brazilian activist Chico Mendes. Will was an active participant in protests across the country, usually for various social justice and human rights causes, and was involved with environmental movements such as Earth First! and the Fall Creek Tree Village in the Willamette National Forest outside Eugene, Oregon.

Will gained some notoriety for his efforts to prevent New York City from demolishing a squat on Fifth Street in the Lower East Side. When construction crews arrived at the building to begin taking it down, he stood atop the roof waving his arms. His efforts stalled the demolition, but the city eventually leveled the building, which housed a café, a meeting place and a performance space. Will later talked about the building in a program produced by Paper Tiger Television called "ABC Survives, Fifth Street Buried Alive".

"We were making a home out of a crumbling building. The interior of the building needed help, and we brought that building back to life. It was standing strong. And the only reason it was standing was because people were living in it. If we had let it go the way the city wanted it to go– they tore out the stairwell, they punched holes in the roof. The water– the rain was rotting that building from the inside out. We replaced the joists. We rebuilt the floors. We sheet rocked the walls and made the building alive. What did they do? They killed it. That building is over a hundred years old. It was standing strong."^[4]

Will was a proponent of anti-corporate media and he hosted his own program on Steal This Radio, a Lower East Side-based pirate radio station.

In 1998, he and partner Hazel spoke at the Ecosaloon, a weekly activism forum held on Tuesday evenings at the Wetlands Preserve nightclub. Their presentation connected the struggle to defend the forests of the Pacific Northwest with the fight against the gentrification of Manhattan's Lower East Side. After helping organizing Buy Nothing Day and a Reclaim the Streets protest in Times Square, Will traveled to Seattle for the 1999 WTO protests, and was a long-standing participant in the New York City Direct Action Network (DAN) and New York Independent Media Center (IMC). In August 2001 he joined participants for a roving exploration of usable food in Tribeca garbage accompanied by a TV crew from PBS's Life 360. In his latter years, Will began recording documentary videos, releasing them on the internet through the Indymedia network of websites. During the summer of 2006, Will continued videotaping demonstrations, including a June 15 protest at the Mexican Consulate in response to a police incursion into a teacher's plantón (encampment). On June 29, he video-recorded and helped organize a protest against Victoria's Secret at the Manhattan Mall in response to the resources used to print the high volume of mail-order catalogs the company sent to its customers. He also shot a street theater performance by the group A for Anarchy, organized in response to the release of the film V for Vendetta. At the time of his death, he was working on a documentary about folk punk music.

International[link]

In 2000, while visiting the Czech Republic Will attended a protest in Prague against the International Monetary Fund Summit. He later traveled through South America while participating in anti-globalization Ecuador, Argentina and Chiapas, and Brazil.

Death[link]

Will in Oaxaca, days before his death

Traveling under a tourist visa, Will had arrived in Oaxaca in early October 2006 in order to document and film the teachers' strike.^[5] On October 27, he was videotaping near a barricade erected by pro-strike protesters when he was shot twice by a paramilitary group supporting the Mexican government against the strikers. He died while being carried away from the area. Along with Will, two protesters – Esteban Zurita López and teacher Emilio Alonso Fabián – were also killed. Several others were injured.

During a news conference on October 29, 2006, Oaxaca mayor Manuel Martínez said that four men, all local public officials, were being detained in connection with the shooting.^[6]

Reaction[link]

An open letter written "to honor the memory" of Will and support "the Oaxacan people's efforts to establish a popular government that recognizes local traditions and values," was signed by numerous academics and activists, including Noam Chomsky, David Graeber, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Arundhati Roy, Starhawk and Howard Zinn.^[7]

Federal Police mobilized[link]

Later on the day of the shooting, the Oaxaca airport was closed to commercial flights as the Federal Preventative Police arrived to reestablish government control of the city. The army was also mobilized to provide intelligence support to the police, but not to engage directly with protesters. APPO representatives declared their intention to resist the government's armed response the crisis and by the beginning of November, violent clashes continued between protesters and police.^[8] The government claimed that the Federal Police that entered Oaxaca were unarmed.

Demonstrations at Mexican consulates[link]

On October 30, more than 200 protesters convened outside the Mexican consulate in New York City to deplore the killing of Will and others and to demand an end to the violence. The protest was organized by the grassroots group named in his honor, The Friends of Brad Will.^[9][10]

Committee to Protect Journalists[link]

The Committee to Protect Journalists sent an open letter on October 30 to the Mexican attorney general calling on the federal government to launch an official investigation into Will's death. The statement also mentioned that David Vega Vera, special independent prosecutor, had begun gathering information and facts related to the case.^[11]

Commemoration and memorial[link]

Poster of Will at the 2006 New York City Halloween Parade

On November 11 and 12, 2006, Friends of Brad Will organized a gathering in New York City to commemorate Will's life. The event included a memorial service at St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery attended by 250 people, as well as speeches and concerts.^[12] Outside the church was an array of freegan food as well as a pile of Will's personal possessions, from which attendees were urged to take.^[12] It was followed by a procession through the EEast Village described by The Villager as "jubilant and rowdy", which culminated in marchers breaking into the former CHARAS/El Bohio - inside which they cavorted, scrawled graffiti, twirled a fire bolas and cycled - for about 20 minutes.^[12]

Brad[link]

David Rovics wrote a song about his life and death, titled 'Brad'.

See also[link]

• 2006 Oaxaca protests
• Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brad Will

• [1], From The Mike Cannon Show – IndyMedia radio. MP3 Edited version of Democracy Now coverage of Brad Will’s life and death.
• Anarchist Superstar: The Revolutionary Who Filmed His Own Murder, from Rolling Stone: Issue 1044 Jan. 24, 2008.
• Obituary, from The Chicago Tribune.
• Friends of Brad Will, activist group created in his name.
• One More Martyr in a Dirty War: The Life and Death of Brad Will, by Matthew Power, Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 2007
• Brad Will 1970-2006, a friend's tribute.
• Remembering Brad Will, Kate Crane, Brooklyn Rail
• Memoriam and tribute from American poet Lisa Jarnot, October 28, 2006.

• Memorial and Convergence more information from Lisa Jarnot on the Brad Will memorial at the Poetry Project, including a schedule of events.

• Fragments of a Shattered Hope, essay by Brad Will on the squatter movement in Sohno, Brazil (reprint of an article that appeared in Boog City, Issue 24, April 2005).
• Brad Will interview, El Libertario, February 2006 (Spanish)
• BradWill.org: website set up by Will family
• Brad Will Foundation

Video[link]

• Brad Will's footage from Oaxaca including his final tape. 8 minute edited piece
• Brad Will's last video footage, 2006 Oaxaca teachers' strike, includes interviews with protesters and the shooting (16:32, mp4 format). Creative Commons by-nc-sa license. Torrents available from indytorrents.org.
• Brad Will's last video footage, 2006 Oaxaca teachers' strike @ YouTube
• Brad Will In His Own Words, archival Footage of Will discussing the importance of community media and the struggle against NYC demolition of a lower east side squat (via Democracy Now!)
• Brad Will 1970-2006, friends remember Indymedia journalist and activist killed in Oaxaca (via Democracy Now!)
• Friends of Brad Will Shut Down the Mexican Consulate, Includes footage of Brad singing, and of arrests at Friends of Brad Will demonstration. (via Not An Alternative)

Peter Schiff

Austrian School
Born	(1963-03-23) March 23, 1963 (age 49)
Nationality	United States
Field	Financial Economics
Alma mater	U.C. Berkeley (B.B.A.), 1987[1]
Opposed	John Maynard Keynes,[2] Alan Greenspan,[3][4][5] Ben Bernanke,[6][7][8] Paul Krugman,[9] Christopher Dodd,[10] Barack Obama,[11]
Influences	Irwin Schiff, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard

Peter David Schiff (pronounced /ˈʃɪf/; born March 23, 1963) is an American businessman, investment broker, author and financial commentator. Schiff is CEO and chief global strategist^[1] of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., a broker-dealer based in Westport, Connecticut^[12] and CEO of Euro Pacific Precious Metals, LLC, a gold and silver dealer based in New York City.^[13]

Schiff frequently appears as a guest on financial television and is often quoted in major financial publications. He is host of The Peter Schiff Show, a radio show broadcast on terrestrial and internet radio. He is a frequent guest on internet radio^[14][15][16] as well as the host of the former podcast Wall Street Unspun.^[14][17] In 2010 Schiff ran as a candidate in the Republican primary for the United States Senate seat from Connecticut.^[18]

Schiff is known for his bearish views on the dollar and dollar denominated assets, while bullish on investment in tangible assets as well as foreign stocks and currencies.

Early life and education[link]

Peter Schiff was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut. His father, Irwin Schiff, is a prominent figure in the U.S. tax protester movement, currently serving a 13-year sentence for tax evasion.^[19] Peter Schiff attended Beverly Hills High School in California,^[20] and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1987 with a Bachelor's degree in finance and accounting.^[1]

Financial career[link]

Schiff began his career as a financial consultant at a Shearson Lehman Brothers brokerage.^[1] In 1996 Schiff and a partner acquired a small brokerage firm that had been founded in 1980, reincorporated it in California and renamed it Euro Pacific Capital.^[21][22] The company today has more than 15,000 clients^{[citation needed]} and six offices nationwide, with its headquarters in Westport, Connecticut.^[12][21][23]

According to a 2005 article in The Advocate of Stamford, Connecticut Schiff relocated the firm to Darien, Connecticut to find brokers "who think like him". The New York Metropolitan Area, Schiff says, has the biggest concentration of brokers in the country, making it easier to recruit employees.^[24] The company has offices in Newport Beach, California as well as in Scottsdale, Arizona, Palm Beach, Florida, Los Angeles and New York City. Euro Pacific Capital also holds the exclusive rights to broker some Perth Mint gold products in the United States.^[25]

Economic forecasts[link]

Peter Schiff voices strong support for the Austrian School of economic thought, first introduced to him by his father.^{[26][27][28][29]}

2002–2008[link]

In his 2007 book Crash Proof, Schiff wrote that United States economic policies were fundamentally unsound, and predicted that the United States dollar would lose much of its value.^[3] Schiff believed that the imbalance between the amount of goods the U.S. consumed and what it produced would eventually lead to problems for the U.S. economy.^[30][31] As a remedy Schiff favored increased personal savings and production which he said would stimulate economic growth.^[32] Schiff cited the U.S.'s low personal savings rate as one of the causes of its transformation from the world's largest creditor nation in the 1970s to the largest debtor nation in the year 2000.^[33] Schiff attributed the low savings rate to higher inflation and the artificially low interest rates set by the Federal Reserve.^[34]

In a May 2002 interview with Southland Today, Schiff predicted that the economic downturn triggered by the bursting of the dot-com stock market bubble, an event that he had also forecast well in advance, would lead to a bear market likely to last "another 5 to 10 years."^[35][36] Later that year, following a 30% decline in the Dow Jones, Schiff reversed his call, and became bullish on U.S. stocks in nominal terms. However, he remained bearish in gold terms. In November 2002, as Schiff predicted, US stock indexes began a nominal bull market uptrend that held steady for five years,^[37] until reversing course in 2008, when they began a decline to less than half of their peak 2008 values,^[38] followed in 2009 by the Dow climbing 61% from its low point over the following year.^[39] However, priced in gold, U.S. stocks remained in a bear market the entire time. In May of 2002, the date of the Southland Today interview,^[40] the Dow Jones was worth over 34 ounces of gold. By 2011 the Dow fell below 6 ounces of gold, a nine-year decline of over 80%, in line with Schiff’s 2002 forecast.^[41]

In an August 2006 interview he said: "The United States economy is like the Titanic and I am here with the lifeboat trying to get people to leave the ship... I see a real financial crisis coming for the United States."^[42] On December 31, 2006 in debate on Fox News, Schiff forecast that "what's going to happen in 2007" is that "real estate prices are going to come crashing back down to Earth".^[42]

As part of these exchanges on Fox News and his repeated appearances on financial news network CNBC, Schiff had mentioned factors such as speculators and "the absence of lending standards" which are now seen by many^[43][44] to indeed be contributing factors to the housing crisis which began in 2007. On December 13, 2007 in a Bloomberg interview on the show Open Exchange, Schiff further added that he felt that the crisis would extend to the credit card lending industry.^[45] Following this observation, it was soon reported on December 23, 2007 by the Associated Press that "The value of credit card accounts at least 30 days late jumped 26 percent to $17.3 billion in October from a year earlier at 17 large credit card trusts examined by the AP... At the same time, defaults -- when lenders essentially give up hope of ever being repaid and write off the debt -- rose 18 percent to almost $961 million in October, according to filings made by the trusts with the Securities and Exchange Commission."^[46]

Since 2007, Schiff has stated many times that if the government doesn't change course there will be hyperinflation in the US.^[3] Schiff is one of a minority of economists credited with accurately predicting the financial crisis of 2007–2010 while "nearly all [macroeconomists] failed to foresee the recession despite plenty of warning signs".^[47][48] In his book Crash Proof, he described several aspects of the U.S. economy that would lead to a recession.^[3]

A YouTube video entitled "Peter Schiff was right" became popular in late 2008 and 2009.^[49][50] The video consists of a compilation of clips of his many appearances on various financial news programs from networks including CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC and Bloomberg, most of which took place from 2005 to 2007. In the video segments Schiff explains the fundamental problems he saw with the United States economy at that time. Schiff's warnings of a coming economic collapse earned him the moniker "Dr. Doom."^[22][51][52]

2009–present[link]

Despite predictions regarding the housing bubble and automotive industry difficulties coming to fruition, as early as 2009 Schiff was receiving criticism due to the performance of some of his client's accounts in 2008, as well as controversies over the predictions themselves. In January 2009, economic blogger and investment adviser Michael Shedlock reported, "I have talked with many who claim they have invested with Schiff and are down anywhere from 40% to 70% in 2008."^[53] Later that week an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal reporting that Schiff's broker-dealer firm, Euro Pacific Capital Inc., "advised its clients to bet that the dollar would weaken significantly and that foreign stocks would outpace their U.S. peers" and that instead, the dollar advanced against most currencies, "magnifying the losses from foreign stocks Mr. Schiff steered his investors into."^[54]

The Director of Communications at Schiff's investment firm responded to the original Shedlock piece by saying, "While it is true, that our accounts have suffered badly in 2008, a fact that we have never disputed or ran from, [Shedlock's] estimates for the size of our typical client losses are exaggerated and unfair."^[55][56] Schiff personally responded to Shedlock's criticism by saying, "to examine the effectiveness of my investment strategy immediately following a major correction by looking only at those accounts who adopted the strategy at the previous peak is unfair and distortive" and called Shedlock's blog entry "nothing more than an overt advertisement (and a highly deceptive one at that) to use my popularity to advance his career," adding that losses were felt mostly by recent clients and not by others.^[57]

Schiff responded similarly to criticisms made by Wade Slome of Sidoxia Capital Management, LLC. in a September 2009 blog entry entitled, "The Emperor Schiff Has No Clothes."^[36] Schiff stated not only were the losses suffered by his clients in 2008 highly exaggerated, but also that most of those losses have already been recouped, stating that many who were down then are now up, and most long-term clients were never down at all, but merely temporarily lost some of the profits they had earned over the years.^[36]

The January 2009 Wall Street Journal article discussed the value of Schiff's predictions, and stated how deficiencies "made mincemeat of investors who took his advice in 2008."^[54] In an interview the following week Schiff likened himself to billionaire investor Warren Buffett, saying they were both "buy and hold" long-term investors. Contrasting his negative press he compared claims about accounts managed under Schiff's firm to the stock market value of Buffett's company, saying: "His approach is you buy stocks and you never sell them—you hope to never sell them—and Berkshire Hathaway is down 40% in the last thirteen months; I don't see the Wall Street Journal saying 'Warren Buffett made mincemeat out of his clients.'"^[58] The Wall Street Journal also published a letter written by Schiff in response to his critics saying: "My central investing premise, a weakening dollar and safety in gold, commodities and foreign stocks, didn't materialize in 2008. But all the ingredients were (and remain) present for those movements to occur. Over the past year, market reactions that I didn't foresee—massive global deleveraging, a knee-jerk 'flight to quality' into U.S. Treasuries and a sharp counter trend rally in the U.S. dollar—have kept the scenario from playing out."^[59]

In a November 2009 videoblog, Schiff said that five stocks he picked for Fortune Magazine in January 2009 had gained a total of 360%.^[60][61]

In a March 2009 speech Schiff said that it would be impossible for the U.S. debt to China to be repaid unless the U.S. dollar's value is substantially diluted through inflation. In September 2009 Schiff said that "I would not be surprised to see [gold] at $5,000 over the next several years" and that the 2009 stock market rally was a "bear market rally".^[62]

According to economist Paul Krugman, Schiff's Austrian approach to economics led him to incorrectly predict hyperinflation in the United States.^[63]

Political career[link]

Schiff was an economic adviser to Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign. In support of Paul's economic revitalization plan, he said: "We need a plan that stimulates savings and production, not more of the reckless borrowing and consumption that got us into this mess in the first place. Ron Paul's plan is the only one that amounts to a step in the right direction. If you want meaningful change—for the better that is—Ron Paul is the only candidate capable of delivering it."^[64]

In 2008, Schiff also endorsed Murray Sabrin for the U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey.^[65]

In an interview in February 2009, Schiff's position was summarized as a nonpartisan critique of American policymakers, comparing former presidents George W. Bush to Herbert Hoover and President Barack Obama to former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, with neither of the more recent incumbents comparing favorably to the earlier ones.^[66]

Schiff supports the reduction of government economic regulation, and is concerned that President Obama's administration may increase such regulation.^[67] Schiff says that the economic crisis of the late-2000s provides an opportunity to transition from borrowing and spending, to saving and producing. He is critical of the U.S. government's efforts to "ease the pain" with economic stimulus packages and bailouts. According to Schiff, the U.S. government's approach of replacing "legitimate savings with a printing press" could result in hyperinflation.^[68]

2010 U.S. Senate campaign[link]

In December 2008, Connecticut citizens created a website encouraging Schiff to campaign against the incumbent Senator Christopher Dodd.^[69][70] Approximately 5,000 people made campaign contributions using the web site.^[69] On February 21, 2009, a moneybomb raised over $20,000 for Schiff's campaign.^[71] In a May 2009 video blog, Schiff said that he was seriously considering a run for the senate and when questioned by a Washington Post reporter, he said the chance of him entering politics was "better than 50-50".^[72] In June 2009 Schiff commissioned a poll of likely voters which indicated that he trailed Dodd in popularity by four percentage points.^[73] On July 9, 2009, Schiff launched an exploratory committee and an official campaign website.^[69] He began accepting donations in an attempt to see if "people who really believe in freedom, liberty, sound money and the constitution are prepared to support that with an actual political contribution or to volunteer their services and work on this campaign." He received over 10,000 donations and many e-mails from around the world.^[69]

After giving some hints on The Daily Show^[74] Schiff officially announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination on September 17, 2009, during the MSNBC Morning Joe show.^[18][75][76] By October 2009 Schiff had received more than 10,000 telephone calls and letters^[69] and raised over $1,960,000 (USD) in campaign contributions.

At the May 2010 Republican convention, Linda McMahon received the most delegate votes but not enough to prevent an August primary election. U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons received more than the required 15 percent of the total votes necessary to force the primary. Schiff then collected the signatures necessary to earn a position on the August 2010 GOP primary ballot, submitting at least 400 signatures over the state requirement.

In July 2010, Schiff's campaign received endorsements from Steve Forbes and Ron Paul.^[77][78]

In the Republican primary, held on August 10, 2010, Schiff lost the nomination to Linda McMahon.^[79] McMahon collected 49% of the vote, with Simmons on 28% and Schiff 23%.^[80]

Ultimately, the election was won by the Democratic Party primary winner, Richard Blumenthal.^[81]

Broadcasting[link]

From 2005 to 2010 Schiff hosted a weekly podcast named Wall Street Unspun. In October 2010 Schiff began hosting a new radio show named The Peter Schiff Show. The show is broadcast weekdays from 10am-noon ET on internet and terrestrial radio. The show has featured guests such as Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Niall Ferguson, Dennis Kucinich, Rick Santelli, and others.^[82]

Books[link]

Peter Schiff is the author of six books published by John Wiley & Sons. His book, Crash Proof 2.0, appeared on both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.

• Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse, February 2007, ISBN 978-0-470-04360-8 1
• The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets: How to Keep your Portfolio Up When the Market is Down, 2008, ISBN 978-0-470-38378-0 2
• Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse, 2nd Edition, September 2009, ISBN 978-0-470-47453-2 3
• The Little Book of Bull Moves, Updated and Expanded: How to Keep Your Portfolio Up When the Market Is Up, Down, Or Sideways, 2010, ISBN 0-470-64399-4 4
• How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes, 2010, ISBN 978-0-470-52670-5 5
• The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy---How to Save Yourself and Your Country, 2012, ISBN 978-1-250-00447-5

References[link]