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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2006 
Obrador Supporters Try to Shut Capital in Vote Battle
 Kieran Murray & Tomas Sarmiento - Reuters
| | Supporters of Andrés Manuel López Obrador marched down Mexico City's Reforma boulevard yesterday to demand a full recount of ballots in the July 2 presidential election. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) |
Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, fighting to overturn a tight presidential election he said was plagued with fraud, will try to shut down the capital's main business district on Monday to push for a vote-by-vote recount.
Thousands of Obrador's supporters seized control of the imposing Zocalo square in Mexico City on Sunday night as well as a long stretch of the elegant Reforma boulevard which runs through the center of the capital.
As police looked on, the protesters set up tents and tarpaulin covers in the middle of the wide boulevard and said they would block it to all traffic on Monday.
That could cut off Mexico's stock market, luxury hotels, government offices, the U.S. Embassy and the headquarters of major corporations.
"They wanted to steal the elections from us but we are not giving in," said Magdalena Salazar, a middle-aged woman who danced with her daughter in the Zocalo as a salsa band called "Minimum Wage" played into the early hours of Monday.
"If they don't pay attention to us, we'll shut the city down," she said. Nearby, hundreds of other Lopez Obrador supporters from around the country tried to grab some sleep on the ground, curling up on blankets and strips of cardboard.
Fully in control of the capital's historic center, other small groups danced, sang and played soccer on major roads.
In a surprise move that raised the stakes in Mexico's political crisis following the July 2 election, Lopez Obrador called on his followers to seize downtown Mexico City at the end of a massive protest rally on Sunday afternoon.
HEART OF AZTEC EMPIRE
He led hundreds of thousands of supporters through the city to the Zocalo, the heart of both the Aztec empire and modern Mexico, where he said he had no doubt he won the election.
"They couldn't beat us with votes and that's why they refuse to open the ballot boxes and do a recount," he said.
Felipe Calderon, a conservative lawyer of the ruling National Action Party, beat Lopez Obrador by just 244,000 votes, or less than 0.6 percentage points.
But his leftist rival, who promised to put government at the service of the poor, claims the returns were tampered with at more than half the nation's polling stations.
The result now lies with Mexico's electoral court. Lopez Obrador says he will only accept the result if a full recount is ordered while Calderon insists his victory be recognized.
"I had powerful, very charismatic adversaries. But I won cleanly," Calderon told the court's judges on Sunday.
The seven judges have to decide whether or not to reopen some or all of the ballot boxes by August 31. That means Lopez Obrador's occupation of the capital could last for weeks.
Local police could in theory break up the protests but it is unlikely as the city and its police force are run by Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution. He was himself mayor until he stepped down last year to run for president.
European Union observers said they found no evidence of fraud on July 2. But the fight has split Mexico just six years after President Vicente Fox took power, ending seven decades of rule by a single party that often used corruption and election fraud to keep its grip on power.
Polls show that while slightly more than half the country thinks Calderon won cleanly, more than a third believe there was fraud and about half want a recount just to be sure.
(Additional reporting by Pablo Garibian) |
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