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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
Lopez Obrador Backers Slow Mexico City
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
| | Buses and cars move slowly along the streets in Mexico City, Mexico on Monday July 31, 2006. Hanging protest banners from sculptures and pitching tents in the middle of Mexico City's historic Reforma boulevard, supporters of the country's leftist presidential candidate paralyzed the city's financial district Monday and refused to leave until the top electoral court rules on demands for a recount in the disputed race. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo) |
Supporters of Mexico's leftist presidential candidate brought rush-hour traffic to a crawl Monday, causing the stock market to drop and forcing office workers dressed in business suits and high heels to hike for miles to work.
At night, tens of thousands descended on the city's central plaza for a speech by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. An angry mood prevailed with people shouting threats at reporters, alleging they were biased against their candidate.
"The public should understand that if there isn't democracy ... there won't be any justice, or political stability, or peacefulness," Lopez Obrador said in a speech at the protest camp where he spent the night on a cot in a large tent.
"For some people, our protests are an annoyance but without sacrifice, there is no justice or liberty," he said.
He promised to intensify the protests and some supporters said they were prepared for a long haul.
The sprawling tent cities in the financial heart of the Mexican capital were another sign that Lopez Obrador and his supporters won't accept anything less than victory from the top electoral court.
The tribunal is weighing allegations that fraud gave ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon a slight advantage in the July 2 election. It has until Sept. 6 to declare a president-elect or annul the elections.
Lopez Obrador is demanding a vote-for-vote recount, and has vowed to block the city center until the Federal Electoral Tribunal rules on his request.
Mexican stocks closed 0.8 percent lower, in part because the protests made investors nervous.
"We'll stay here for as long as it takes, but we're not going to let them impose a president on us," said farmer Anacleto Garcia Martinez, 53, as he warmed his coffee on a wood-burning brazier set up beneath a tarp strung from the wrought-iron gate leading to Chapultepec Park.
With his broad mustache and a blanket hung over his shoulders, he resembled his ancestors, farmers-turned-soldiers in Mexico's 1910 revolution.
"We've got revolutionary blood," said fellow farmer Angel Campirano, 49, of the city's rural Milpa Alta district. "Farmers are being forced to sell off their land, and we are defending the land."
But modern Mexico — which now depends more on commerce, services and manufacturing than on agriculture — has little patience with such sentiments.
Salesman Alejandro Lara, 33, walked two miles up Mexico City's swank Reforma Avenue, blocked by protesters, before he began shouting.
"I'm either going to have to get up at 5 a.m. every day, or ask for vacations," Lara said angrily. "It's too bad, because I supported Lopez Obrador. But now, after this, I wouldn't want to have him governing us. He scares me."
Lara was among hundreds of office workers who passed protesters blaring salsa music and playing soccer in streets blocked by barrels, scrap wood, ropes and lawn chairs.
Cesar Nava, a spokesman for Calderon, called on Mayor Alejandro Encinas to reopen the streets to traffic. Encinas is a member of Lopez Obrador's leftist Democratic Revolution Party.
"What they're doing is kidnapping Mexico City," Nava told reporters. "We see that as an unacceptable, partisan act and absolutely contemptuous of democracy."
"The mayor up to now has been an accomplice to the flagrant breaking of the law. We hope he changes his behavior and starts acting like a mayor," Nava said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack expressed confidence Mexican authorities would resolve the dispute.
Marches and protest camps are common in Mexico City, a megalopolis of 20 million people. But Sunday's protests were on a scale that has not been seen in recent Mexican history.
Democratic Revolution spokesman Gerardo Fernandez defended the protests, saying: "They are absolutely peaceful and absolutely legal. We are not violating anyone's rights."
Encinas said Monday his government would not forcibly remove the protesters. President Vicente Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said federal authorities also won't step in, unless the city requests their help.
Lopez Obrador is known for his ability to mobilize millions. Last year, he led marches that successfully blocked an attempt to impeach him as Mexico City mayor, a move that would have kept him from running for president.
Calderon, who has an advantage of about 240,000 votes, or 0.6 percent of the official count, argues the election was fair and has condemned the street protests as "senseless." |
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