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 Editorials | Opinions | May 2005 
Wakeup World, A Left-Winger Is Running In Mexico
 Nancy Conroy - The Herald Mexico
| | If you haven’t heard too much about this in the U.S. news, it is because virtually everybody, including the press, wishes that this guy would just go away. |
For those of you who are not up to speed about the upcoming Mexican presidential elections, it is time to wake up and realize what is unfolding. An extreme leftwing candidate is on the rise, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and he is scaring the bejesus out of the Establishment.
His popularity is gaining fast, he is a great speaker, his followers love him, and we regret to inform you that his politics and policies put him squarely in the same league as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. The guy is currently the leftist third-party — Democratic Revolution Party — mayor of Mexico City, and opinion polls show him to be the leading candidate for the July 2006 presidential elections.
The Establishment is quaking in their boots with terror. The “Establishment” includes all of the following: President Vicente Fox; both major Mexican political parties — the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN); the U.S. Government; the banking and financial markets; U.S. investors; the international oil industry; many in the Mexican media; and just about anyone else with a stake in the current system.
What are they so afraid of? For starters, a recent demonstration in Lopez Obrador’s favor in the main plaza in Mexico City attracted 1.2 million people, which included 300 organizations and 40 unions. The dude is a flat-out populist, and there are plenty of disenchanted poor people in this country who are fed up with everything. The guy is charismatic, he mobilizes people at the drop of a hat, and this kind of thing could destabilize Mexico.
Worse, this cat thoroughly understands that world politics these days are all about oil. Mexico’s number one industry is Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, and Lopez Obrador has all types of big plans about just what should be done with this resource.
Furthermore, a few years back he led a mob of demonstrators that seized control of Pemex oilfields in the south of Mexico. And anyone with a track record of seizing control of oilfields can be expected to pull off any number of other stunts as well.
For Americans, the biggest fear is that he might expropriate foreign investments. Given Lopez Obrador’s hostile attitude towards the U.S., this is not such a farfetched worry.
The bigwigs in Mexico City are currently scrambling to do anything and everything they can to prevent him from running for president. So, they are trying to prosecute him for a past act of corruption, on charges that indeed are probably legitimate. But since he is the elected mayor of Mexico City he has immunity from criminal prosecution.
Just recently the Mexican Congress voted to strip the mayor of his immunity, so that he can be prosecuted. Of course the real motivation is to throw him in jail to prevent him from running for president.
The problem is that this strategy is blowing up in their face. Unfortunately, all this gives the appearance that the government is inventing bogus criminal charges against a potential presidential candidate — even thought the accusations are probably true. Instead of stopping him, the prosecution is making him even more popular. The massive demonstration in Mexico City was largely because his followers think corrupt authorities who oppose democracy are framing him.
If you haven’t heard too much about this in the U.S. news, it is because virtually everybody, including the press, wishes that this guy would just go away. Responsible people in power are trying to downplay the problem in order to avoid fueling his popularity.
On the day the 1.2 million people filled the downtown square in Mexico City, President Fox talked about the Pope and said nothing at all about the demonstration. The message was clear: ignore the guy and we’ll quietly get rid of him behind the scenes.
Even the world press seems to agree with this strategy. A million man march on Mexico City was not even the lead story in many Mexican news outlets, and the Los Angeles Times gave the story one paragraph in its international “In Brief” section.
Neither Mexico nor the U.S. really wants the world to know that a Fidel Castro type is gaining popularity in this country. Everyone is politely looking the other way, while they hope for Lopez Obrador to be eliminated, somehow someway, before anyone finds out about him.
Whatever — if they don’t get rid of him or even if they do — the 2006 election year in Mexico promises to be a doozy.
Nancy Conroy is the publisher of northern Baja California’s biweekly Gringo Gazette North. She can be reached via email at nancy@gringogazettenorth.com. |
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