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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Mayor's Status Remains Fuzzy
 El Universal
| | Andrés Manuel López Obrador faces criminal charges, but is he still Mexico City's mayor? |
Opinions were divided Friday on whether the vote to remove the legal immunity from Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador automatically removes him from City Hall.
The mayor has not gone to work since Thursday's vote in Congress, to avoid potentially breaking the law.
It is not clear if the vote immediately handed over the reins to the city's interior secretary Alejandro Encinas, or if López Obrador stays in his post until he is issued an arrest warrant for allegedly defying a court order in a land dispute.
Furthermore, López Obrador, whom some journalists now call "the ex-mayor," will not be able to hold press conferences or lead marches once the penal process is underway, according to Carlos Vega, deputy prosecutor, in an interview with EL UNIVERSAL.
Before the vote, the Attorney General's Office said it would immediately request a court order for López Obrador's arrest.
If a judge grants the order, the mayor will definitely be removed from office, and probably barred from running in 2006.
Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said the constitution is very clear on the subject and that the vote means López Obrador cannot stay on as mayor, although he did not say at what stage in the process this will happen.
Mexico City government's legal advisor Alvaro Arceo, told EL UNIVERSAL that it will take place only when an arrest warrant has been issued, and until then he remains mayor.
Vega said, the government will probably take up to 10 days to review the 12,000 sheets of paper that hold the evidence against the mayor, before they request a court order.
The judge then has 24 hours from receiving the request to make a decision. If the judge rejects the request then the mayor can return to work, he said.
If he accepts it, the mayor is automatically jailed and the judge has 10 days to decide if he should stay in prison during the process or if he has a right to be released on bail.
But no matter how many days the process takes, President Vicente Fox said at a news conference in Rome Friday it is a shining example to the world of law and order in action in a democracy.
However, in an interview with EL UNIVERSAL, Marcelo Ebrard, former head of Mexico City's police, said the vote was a "world disgrace" driven by "political motives" and "a mistake by Fox's government." |
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