Chula Vista Home Raises Questions About Residency
Jul 13, 2007
Amy Isackson

A candidate's Chula Vista home is the latest grounds for controversy in Tijuana's mayoral election. The candidate's political rivals say he's violating the residency requirements to run for Tijuana mayor. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

For 18 years, Fernando del Monte anchored the news on Tijuana's highest rated newscast.

Earlier this week, the PRI party chose him as a quick replacement for their other mayoral candidate.

Mexico's federal election tribunal barred the former candidate from running because he was born in Los Angeles and didn't file proper Mexican citizenship papers.

Now, del Monte's opposition says he should be disqualified, too, because he hasn't lived in Tijuana long enough.

Victor Espinoza is an investigator with Tijuana's COLEF think tank. He doubts the complaint will derail del Monte. Instead, Espinoza thinks it's a bit of a desperate move by the PRD party.

He says its hard for the small parties to compete with the two big ones. So if the PRD can knock a candidate out, its odds increase.

PRI candidate Fernando del Monte says he splits his time between Chula Vista and Tijuana.

Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/local;id=8994

This is not exacltly on point for the subject matter of this thread. I just thought it was so interesting that anyone would actually RUN for mayor of Tiajuana. I would have thought the mayor would have been SENTENCED to serve the term.