WHICH WAY MEXICO?

The good people of central Mexico have spoken...not in the right (government) way.

Mexican Voters Come Out Strongly for Restoration of Death Penalty

Highlights...

Voters in the central state of Mexico overwhelmingly approved a referendum in support of executing kidnappers, armed robbers and murderers — sparking a national outcry Monday in a country long opposed to capital punishment.

President Vicente Fox condemned the result, saying he was against the death penalty under any circumstances. "I believe that democratic countries that believe in human beings, in people, in the dignity of people don't believe in the death penalty," he said Sunday after the referendum.

...Facing frustration over rising crime, officials invited the state's 8 million voters to voice their opinion on whether state lawmakers should allow the death penalty. Some 800,000 people voted by telephone, on the Internet and at nearly 600 polling places throughout Mexico state, a sprawling region of suburbs and shantytowns surrounding Mexico City.

Isidro Pastor, head of the Institutional Revolution Party's Mexico state branch, said final returns showed that 85.4 percent of voters thought capital punishment would slow skyrocketing crime and kidnapping rates that have plagued Mexico state and the rest of the country.

....Lizeth Vega, a 29-year-old surgeon in the state capital of Toluca, said she voted in favor of the referendum. "It would be good to really stop the rapists and murders we have here," she said. "Something has to be done."