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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Non-Violent Resistance Planned
 Fabiola Cancino & Silvia Otero - El Universal
| | Capital Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador supporters listen to his speech on Thursday in the Zócalo, the capital's main plaza. (Photo: AP) |
Mexico City - Before a crowd of more than 100,000 in the capital's central square, Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday called for his supporters to use non-violent resistance to protest proceedings that could bar him from the 2006 presidential race.
"No violence, (we cannot) be lured by provocation," he said. "This movement is peaceful. If we do not behave peacefully, we will be falling into the trap of our adversaries and we cannot allow this."
"Now more than ever we have to form a great social movement," López Obrador said. He called for greater respect for the rule of law and new ways of thinking about politics and the national economy. He called on his followers to act with "intelligence and decisiveness" without violence.
López Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), outlined a civil disobedience plan consisting of demonstrations, coordination with independent rights organizations, a public relations campaign and support for his party in other elections this year. The activities will be directed by a fivemember national board and coordinated by citizen committees in different states across the nation. A massive protest is planned for Sunday, April 24, in the capital.
He called on supporters not to block streets or highways or take over government buildings.
The mayor also announced he would formally seek candidacy from his party to run for president, and reiterated accusations that the proceedings against him were a plot by President Vicente and former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
López Obrador made his speech in the morning before the Congress voted to strip him of his political immunity from prosecution a process known as the desafuero .
"I reiterate that I have committed no crime and I have not violated a single law," he said.
Officials from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) disagree.
During the legislative proceedings to decide whether to strip López Obrador of his political immunity, Carlos Javier Vega Memije, who heads the PGR's federal crimes unit, said in reference to the planned protests that justice officials "would not cede to ... threats of unrest, because that would be choosing a Mexico of violence."
Vega Memije said by stripping López Obrador of his immunity, lawmakers would be acting "against impunity" and "allowing him to face the courts." Fox and other federal officials say the desafuero is an issue of enforcing the law, while López Obrador and his supporters claim the efforts are a selective application of the law designed to remove the most popular candidate from the presidential contest. |
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