Mexican Government Spying on Oppos'n


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Mexicans Feud Over Alleged Government Spying

 5/8/1999 9:37 PM
    By Michael Christie
     MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican government and
opposition feuded bitterly Saturday over alleged official spying
after a pro-ruling party newspaper published images of
opposition figures meeting with striking students.
     In remarks published Saturday, Mexico City Mayor Cuauhtemoc
Cardenas claimed the Interior Ministry constantly spied on him
and other leaders of the leftist Party of the Democratic
Revolution (PRD), in breach of individual freedom and the law.
     "We energetically condemn and reject it," the twice-failed
opposition presidential candidate told La Cronica newspaper.
     Interior Minister Francisco Labastida denied his Center for
Investigation and National Security (CISEN) filmed PRD officials
and student activists in a meeting. Labastida said the video was
the result of "journalism."
     "I suppose it's logical they would say that (we are spying)
but what the newspapers are doing isn't espionage," Labastida
said in comments faxed to Reuters Saturday.
     Labastida previously accused local PRD officials of being in
league with the students, who went on strike over plans to
effectively end free education at Mexico City's UNAM university,
one of Latin America's largest with some 300,000 students.
     The latest spying controversy erupted after Excelsior daily
published prints of the video showing Mexico City PRD officials
and UNAM students at the house of Ricardo Pascoe Pierce,
administrative head of the Benito Juarez district.
     Pascoe and local PRD deputy Marti Bartres pledged to lodge
complaints with human rights bodies and to seek a formal
investigation by judicial authorities into the alleged spying.
     The opposition has frequently accused the government of
clandestine espionage in Mexico, where the Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI) has held unbroken power since 1929 but
faces a stiff test in the 2000 presidential polls.
     National PRD leader Pablo Gomez called on Labastida, who has
declared his desire to be the PRI's presidential candidate in
July 2000 elections, to put a halt to "a campaign" of alleged
harassment.
     "The harassment and spying carried out by the interior
minister are against the law," he told reporters. "We cannot
allow the Mexican state to be converted into a state of
espionage, harassment and intimidation."
     Whether the spying allegations were founded or not, the
influential Universal daily chastised the PRD for its
"childishness" in meeting with student strikers and allowing
itself to be seen as interfering in their walkout.
     But it also said the video was proof the government engaged
in acts running counter to individual rights. "Stop the spying
and childishness," Universal urged in an editorial.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd.  
 
 
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