Free TVs in Mexico Are Seen as Having Political Strings Attached

To help Mexico’s poorest citizens keep pace with technology, officials are vowing to give away 10 million free televisions as part of the government’s effort to switch the country to digital television. But the handout has merged with something else: an election campaign. While the government describes the television plan as the way to bring all Mexicans into the digital age, opposition parties on the left and the right call it old-fashioned vote buying.