December 05, 2005
Campaign funding in Mexico

Odd campaign and funding alliances in Mexico

Some candidates, like PRD nominee Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, have devised mass telemarketing finance schemes that some people suspect are being used to funnel in untraceable contributions from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Other financing strategies have been contrived by using government officials as intermediaries for laundering campaign contributions, perhaps the most notorious cases being video-scandals in which the PRD leader of the Mexico City Assembly, Rene Bejarano, was taped receiving cash from a city contractor allegedly for party campaigns. Or the Tijuana case, where municipal employee salaries were docked a five percent “PRI contribution” for aid packages donated to victims of Hurricane Wilma, but the money was diverted to the PRI campaign headquarters in Chiapas.

Posted by Dave at December 05, 2005 01:44 PM