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Mexico Institute in the News: Phone Tapping Scandal Envelops Mexican Ruling Party Candidate

Eric L. Olson

Josefina Vazquez Mota is defensive after a recording was leaked of supposedly her accusing the government of recording her.

Reuters, March 27, 2012

In what seems to be a conversation between Josefina Vazquez Mota and a campaign official, she blames members of President Felipe Calderon's cabinet for taping her calls, fueling talk of divisions in her party's faltering bid to retain the presidency.

Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN) on Tuesday said the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was behind the tape after the campaign official, Agustin Torres, filed an official complaint about it late on Monday...

...But rather than address the conversation itself, the PAN tried to turn the spotlight onto illegal wire tapping, which it says is an old PRI trick used against political rivals...

..."There was a fair amount of political espionage during the period of one party domination, and it was used as a way to undermine and control the party's enemies,"

said Eric Olsen at Mexico expert at Washington's Woodrow Wilson center.

Read full article here.

About the Author

Eric L. Olson

Eric L. Olson

Global Fellow;
Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives, Seattle International Foundation
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Mexico Institute

The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute.   Read more

Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more