On the eve of the elections, a foreign visitor missionheaded by the former presidents Evo Morales and Alberto Fernándezwithout official accreditation before the National Electoral Institute, which caused doubts and complaints from opposition political parties and members of official international missions who, for months, met the accreditation requirements to be able to be in the country.
Officially, the INE accredited 1,309 foreign visitors coming from 63 countries, who carry out work programs that include meetings with candidates, party leaders, electoral advisors, magistrates of the Electoral Court, academics, civil society organizations and government authorities.
One of the most notable missions is that of the Organization of American States (OAS), headed by the former Foreign Minister of Chile, Heraldo Muñoz, and made up of 100 specialists from 24 countries. This mission has met with candidates from both the government and opposition parties, and is the most robust of those accredited to the INE.
Evo and the mission of the Puebla Group
However, on Friday the presence in Mexico of a mission of the so-called Puebla Group headed by the former presidents Evo Morales, of Bolivia, and of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, not officially accredited before the INE, but invited by the Morena party.
“The delegation will be headed by the former Argentine president, Alberto Fernández; the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales; the former Chilean presidential candidate Marco Enríquez-Ominami and the former Secretary of Climate Change and Argentine parliamentarian of Mercosur, Cecilia Nicolini,” the Puebla Group indicated in a statement, “during their stay they will have the important mission of being able to observe the electoral process and thus way to guarantee the transparency and freedom of the Mexican people in what will be the largest vote in its history.”
This delegation was joined by Colombian senator Clara López Obregón; the former president of the Upper House of Bolivia, Adriana Salvatierra; the former president of the National Assembly of Ecuador, Gabriela Rivadeneira; the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, Ricardo Patiño, and the president of the Workers’ Party (PT) of Brazil, Gleisi Hoffmann.
Yesterday, former president Evo Morales published a post on your X account with a photograph in which he appears with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with the following message: “we arrived in Mexico to accompany our Mexican sisters and brothers in the national elections of this beloved and strange (sic) homeland, invited by the party Morena politician. As a Latin American, I feel proud to visit the land led by @lopezobrador_, who culminates an excellent management characterized by peace and social justice.”
Later, Morales uploaded a photograph of the work of the mission he heads, in a meeting with the former presidential candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas.
“Today I return to Mexico to accompany the electoral process. We are sure that tomorrow we will witness a democratic party. I keep in mind my deep gratitude to the Mexican People and to President @lopezobrador_ for providing us with political asylum and saving our lives after the Coup d’état in 2019. The Mexican diplomatic, solidarity and democratic tradition is worthy of recognizing and highlighting in our Abya Yala.” , public in his second message already in Mexico.
He Grupo Puebla is an organization of leftist parties in Latin Americawhich was founded in 2019 in the Mexican city of the same name.
Yesterday, several users of the social network
While another mission of foreign visitors accredited to the INE, belonging to the Geopolitical Group of Latin America and the Caribbean, sent a letter to the president advisor of the INE, Guadalupe Taddei, asking about the reason for the presence of a mission not officially accredited.
“We turn to your high authority to request clarification of the role that will be played by those people, institutions or organizations that, without being accredited by the body in their worthy position, present themselves as an Observation Mission that will monitor and evaluate the electoral day of this 2 of June. Our organization considers that every citizen has every right to express with their presence their solidarity and ideological and moral support for any party or candidate, but not to call themselves observers or observation missions, since this category requires compliance with the regulations, register and profess impartiality,” they indicate in their letter, signed by Argentine senator Lucila Crexell.
Christian Democracy also sends its own mission
As counterpart of the Puebla Group, the Christian Democratic Organization of America -made up of right-wing parties and currently chaired by PAN legislator Mariana Gómez del Campo- also announced the sending of an observation mission to the elections this June 2.
The mission invited by the PAN consists of more than one hundred people, coming not only from ODCA countries, but also from the Christian Democratic International, such as Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Spain, Cuba, Romania, Colombia and Costa Rica.
In its statement announcing its mission, the ODCA criticizes the conditions under which the current electoral process is being carried out.
“Given the imminent state election and the violence that has been unleashed in this electoral process, this Electoral Observation Mission aims to strengthen transparency, legitimacy and trust in the process, with the aim of ensuring that it is carried out in accordance with the highest democratic standards, which is why it will be present during the opening, the course of the day and the closing of the voting booths in various parts of the country,” the document states.
