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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Mayor States His Conditions
 Wire services
| | López Obrador followers listens to him during a rally in Revolution Square in Villahermosa in Tabasco on Wednesday. (Photo: AP) |
Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador told thousands of supporters in Guadalajara on Thursday, that he was willing to reach an agreement with the federal government if the charges against him are dropped and he is allowed to run in the 2006 election.
He said the charges that he ignored a court order were "false accusations."
Earlier Thursday, he met with a judge to demand that he revoke the bail political rivals paid to keep him out of jail while facing charges in an obscure land-use case.
In a petition to Judge Juan Olvera, López Obrador said he had not given permission to anyone to post bail and, therefore, it should not be allowed.
Since the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) first announced last year that it would file charges against the mayor, López Obrador has pledged to defend himself without a lawyer and launch a bid for the presidency next year from a jail cell.
"I demand the revocation of the bail, obtained through trickery," the mayor said as he left the Eastern Penitentiary in Mexico City where, a day before, federal prosecutors submitted a request to the same judge to put López Obrador on trial.
The judge has 10 days to decide whether to put López Obrador on trial or dismiss it.
On Wednesday, Carlos Javier Vega Memije, who is heading the case, announced that his department was moving ahead with charges against López Obrador. But he said prosecutors would not seek an arrest warrant to detain him during the trial, because two Mexico City legislators from President Vicente Fox's conservative National Action Party (PAN) had posted a 2,000-peso (US180) bail.
López Obrador, a member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), called the action "deceitful" and unacceptable.
The mayor says Fox's administration is pursuing the charges to keep him out of the 2006 election, a race he currently leads in public opinion polls.
López Obrador said the administration is now trying to prevent him from going to jail to save itself from political embarrassment. Fox denies the accusations.
Opponents say the mayor's insistence on going to jail is a transparent bid to ramp up public sympathy for him as he prepares to announce his candidacy.
President Vicente Fox's spokesman, Rubén Aguilar, on Thursday called López Obrador a defendant who is "trying to convert himself into the accuser, and demand apologies."
Also on Thursday, Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said the administration is launching a public relations campaign internationally to counteract widespread criticism that the proceedings against the capital mayor are a blow to democracy.
"It is very important to let the international community know that there is a legal process going on, and this is crucial to conserving the institutions of our nations," Derbez said in a press conference. "It is important to make it clear that this is not an attempt at persecution but rather the application of laws and regulations." |
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