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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2005 
Case Against Capital Mayor Dropped
 Wire services
| | Mexico City's Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during an interview at a radio station Wednesday in Mexico City. (AP Photo) |
Mexico City - The attorney general's office formally dropped its case against Mexico City Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday, quietly ending one of the most contentious political dramas in recent Mexican history.
The terse statement announcing the decision brought an anticlimactic end to a crisis that battered President Vicente Fox, threatened the legitimacy of the 2006 presidential election in which López Obrador is considered the favorite, and prompted a protest march of more than 1 million people through the capital 10 days ago.
The move, however, was largely seen as a formality, after a political solution was reached last week by Fox, who accepted the resignation of his attorney general and promised to end the prosecution of López Obrador.
The Attorney General's Office (PGR) alleged that López Obrador ignored a 2001 court order to cease construction of an access road to a hospital. The mayor, a blunt-talking populist with a passionate following among the city's poor, denied the charge and said his political enemies, including Fox, were manipulating the judicial system to keep him off the presidential ballot.
López Obrador has consistently been the most popular presidential candidate in public opinion surveys, and a poll Tuesday in a local newspaper put his approval rating at an astounding 84 percent.
For months, Fox denied the case was political and said it was proof that Mexico's judicial system could impartially prosecute even popular politicians. He pledged that unlike presidents during Mexico's authoritarian past, he would not use his office to influence judicial decisions.
But in the end, facing harsh criticism in Mexico and abroad, Fox intervened: He accepted the resignation of the attorney general, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, and vowed an "exhaustive review" of the case to find a solution "within the law."
The statement from the attorney general's office said López Obrador was "probably responsible" for ignoring the judge's order. But it said he would not be prosecuted because Mexican law was unclear about the penalty. The statement noted that "This decision is 100 percent within the law."
Fox and López Obrador are scheduled to meet Friday. Both men have been conciliatory toward each other since Fox defused the crisis last week. |
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