Mexico divided.

• Author: DiNovella, Elizabeth
• Position: Elections

The cast of characters in Mexico's disputed presidential election comes straight out of a telenovela. There's Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), who, with his spectacles, graying hair, and wonkish manner, lacks the spirited energy of his rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador, of the leftwing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), plays the populist underdog, a role he relishes. The traitor is none other than the sitting president, Vicente Fox, a man who even fellow PAN members say failed them.

There's Calderon's inconvenient brother-in-law, Diego Hildebrando Zavala, who secured government contracts for organizing the electoral roll, a list that the PAN had managed to connect with recipients of government assistance programs for possible targeted political work. Zavala, who amassed a fortune through government contracts while Calderon was energy minister, owns the company that wrote the vote-counting software used by the government. A common sign at PRD events read: "Felipe, don't give me a job. Make me your brother-in-law."

There's even a femme fatale, Elba Esther Gordillo, the powerful leader of the national teachers' union, who was booted out of the PRI (Party of the Institutional Revolution) after the PRD released tape-recorded phone calls of her trying to wheel and deal with other parties on election day. Gordillo says she was acting as a private citizen when she made those calls. Her only interest, she says, is the education of Mexico's children.

And then there's the Greek chorus known as "the people." As in "the people" want a recount of the votes. "The people" want political stability. Why doesn't Lopez Obrador just concede the election, for the good of "the people"? "The people" are tired of fraud. "The people," 60 percent of which, according to the conservative newspaper La Reforma, think the votes were counted correctly the first time, when Calderon was apparently the winner by a slim margin.

"For me, it's like Florida in 2000," says Juan Ugalde Cochea. Ugalde and his neighbors had gathered outside the twelfth federal voting district office in central Mexico City. It was July 5, three days after the elections. The final vote tally was not yet in and already people were talking about fraud. The Federal Electoral Institute, known by its Spanish acronym IFE, and its citizen electoral workers began collecting the voter tally sheets that morning. "The IFE better understand that fraud can't be committed," said this Ugalde, who noted he was from "the clean Ugaldes," so I wouldn't think he was related to the...