National Election official of Mexico ridicules Indigenous Peoples – Idle No More

Submitted by Tupac Enrique Acosta

MEXICO CITY, DF – In a private telephone conversation whose audio was uploaded to YouTube, the president of the National Electoral Institute (INE), Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, is overheard to ridicule in racist tones the representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico. President of the INE had recently conducted a session in consultation with Indigenous Peoples regarding the call for the creation of a specific sixth constituency within the national electoral proceedings to allow the Indigenous Peoples to nominate candidates outside of the party structures of the current system.

In the telephone conversation Cordova referred to the consultation on the 23rd of the month. He had called the executive secretary of the electoral body, Edmundo Jacobo, to mock one of the leaders of Original Nations, Hipólito Arriaga Pot from the Otomi Nation.

In translation the voice of Cordova is heard to say: “There was one of them, I am not kidding, I will not lie, I’ll tell you how this bastard spoke,” says Cordova, and then begins to mimic with a deep, mocking voice: “I head Great Chichimeca Nation, come Guanajuato. I say here for deputies, Us not allow your elections. ” Cordova then bursts out laughing.

“I do not know if it true that that bastard talks like that, but I am not kidding,” insists Cordova in laughing fits as he continues in the mockery: “Or maybe he saw too much Lone Ranger with that bastard bull, no kidding. ‘I great Chief Sitting Bull, leader Chichimeca great nation, no kidding, no kidding, it was too much.”

Cordova said that the workshops with the indigenous constituencies are more “dramatic” than the meetings he held with the parents of the 43 normalistas from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, adding that “we should write an INE version of the Martian Chronicles”, referring to the works of science fiction of author Ray Bradbury.

“It is too much, we will either end up in stitches laughing or having to see the psychiatrist, you bastard,” he adds.

Moreover, the INE did not deny the authenticity of the tape. Just today the National Electoral Institute issued a statement in which they announced that a complaint has been filed with the Attorney General (PGR) for “illegal interception of private telephone conversations”.

The INE revealed that the other party in the conversation with Cordova, whose voice was distorted during audio editing, was Jacobo Molina, Secretary General of INE.

“The INE is outraged by such practices and calls on the competent authorities to further investigation,” he said in his newsletter.

Even Cordova regretted that the dissemination of such discussion occurs in a complicated context that does not benefit the electoral institutions within weeks of the election.

Sources:
La Jornada
*******
###
The Red Flags of the Electoral Process in Guerrero, Mexico
**************
Indigenous Peoples Forum on the Impact of the Doctrine of Discovery
MEXICO

“As Indigenous Peoples we have been marginalized and excluded. They have called us ignorant savages without culture. They have imposed ideas, languages and religions and this is why I believe it is important that we elaborate these issues and we shall make our voice be heard. That our ideas be known and that we will not be diminished.”
Message to the O’otham Nations
Virginia Flores Flores, O’dam