Rebecca Black Slammed For Endorsing Mexican Presidential Frontrunner Peña Nieto [VIDEO]
Rebecca Black has made her support for the day Friday quite clear. Now, the 14-year-old YouTube star has made a foray into Mexican politics by officially endorsing presidential front-runner Enrique Peña Nieto.
In a (non-music) video posted by Peña Nieto's supporters on the web Monday, Black encouraged young people to get involved in politics at a press conference in Morelos, Mexico. Black's mother, who is Mexican, translated her comments into Spanish, according to Univision News.
I believe that Peña Nieto is going to do a fantastic job, Black said to a group of his supporters.
Peña Nieto, of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has led in opinion polls for months, according to Reuters. Entertainment reporter Astrid Capon explained in her videoblog on YouTube that Black's uncle, Gustavo Petricioli Morales, is a city council member for the PRI in the city of Cuernavaca. Petricioli Morales' father served as Mexico's Treasury Secretary and Ambassador to the United States before his death in 1998.
I'm so glad to be home because I have so much family and so much support here from my family. I don't have very much in the U.S., Black said in the video.
No stranger to criticism, Black was slammed for the move by social media users. Critics of Peña Nieto call his party corrupt and repressive, and PRI members have been linked to drug money. Former Governor Tomas Yarrington was recently accused by U.S. prosecutors of using corrupt funds to purchase multi-million dollar homes in the United States and Mexico.
But the majority of the Blacklash accused the singer for being a clueless teenager who was doing favors for her family.
Mija, you have nothing to do in Mexico, Facebook user Ma Jime Garcia wrote on Black's Facebook wall, according to Univision. Why do you support Enrique Peña Nieto? ... We don't want him in the government...please shut up!
Capon was also critical of Black's endorsement.
This girl is not Mexican, she is not well informed (on the country's politics) and for the PRI to believe that because she is famous, young people will follow (her views) is almost offensive, Capon said, as translated by Univision.
Only a few seconds of Black's rather vague statement was about the presidential candidate. She mostly talked about the importance of getting involved in politics.
I personally think that he is very important for youth and teens to be so involved in politics, she said. Even though I'm only 14 -- I won't be able to vote in my country for four years -- you don't want to be 18 and not know anything about what you're going to vote about.
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