World Notes Mexico

The uproar caused by blatant voting irregularities in Mexico's largest state, Chihuahua, reached all the way to the Rio Grande last week. A crowd of 5,000 Mexicans staged a 24-hr. protest on the Bridge of the Americas, the heavily traveled border crossing that separates Chihuahua's main city, Ciudad Juarez, from El Paso. They demanded that the official results of the July 6 elections for governor, state legislature and mayoral seats be nullified. The demonstration caused long delays for the estimated 600 semitrailers that cross the bridge daily.

The blockade was the latest outpouring of public rage in Chihuahua, where candidates of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (P.R.I.) were declared victors in 80 out of 82 statewide contests. Supporters of Mexico's conservative opposition group, the National Action Party, claim that the P.R.I., which in 57 years has never lost a gubernatorial or presidential election, engaged in large-scale vote switching and ballot fraud to avoid an embarrassing loss in Chihuahua.