Mexican bishops organize workshops to boost voter participation

Published: 2005-10-03

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- In anticipation of July elections, Mexico's bishops will organize workshops around the country aimed to boost voter participation, civic culture and political consciousness in a country that had little in the way of democracy for most of the 20th century. "Mexico is lacking in democratic culture," said Father Salvador Lopez Mora, who helped design the workshops, scheduled to begin in October. "So the purpose of these workshops isn't just to get people voting; it's to help construct citizen participation. "So many Mexicans are disenchanted and let down by politics, so the church hopes to step in and help foment democratic culture," he said. Mexico only had its first truly democratic presidential elections in 2000, when Vicente Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive and member of the National Action Party, gave the opposition its first victory in more than seven decades of single-party rule. Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa called Mexico the "perfect dictatorship" during the long rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which stayed in power largely through electoral fraud and vote buying. Mexico maintains a series of anti-clerical laws that restrict religious figures' involvement in politics. Some political parties in recent years have sued priests and bishops for urging voters to support candidates whose positions on issues like abortion are in line with those of the Catholic Church.

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