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 Editorials | September 2006 
Dissidents Going for a "New Republic" in Mexico
 Barnard R. Thompson - MexiData.info
| | Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador delivers a speech to followers in Mexico City's Zocalo Square. (AFP/Luis Acosta) |
On Saturday, September 16 – Mexican Independence Day, Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his Party of the Democratic Revolution-led "For the Good of All" coalition will hold a so-called National Democratic Convention in Mexico City. Part of his by hook or by crook efforts to gain the presidency of Mexico, which might best be described with a past definition by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa: "Real politics … has little to do with ideas, values and imagination … and everything to do with maneuvers, intrigues, plots, paranoias, betrayals, a great deal of calculation, no little cynicism, and every kind of con game."
As for López Obrador, AMLO, who lost the July 2 Mexican election for president, he has the following message for followers about his then and now adversaries: "Let them keep their system of corruption and privileges; let them keep the rottenness and immorality; let them keep their corrupt practices and policies; that’s them."
As for his movement, he said that "(we have decided) to transform Mexico’s public life. We are going to build and establish a new Republic; we are going to govern with one hand and transform with the other." (Proceso, September 13, 2006)
AMLO is justifying his call for the National Democratic Convention and its goals with Article 39 of the Mexican Constitution: "The national sovereignty resides essentially and originally in the people. All public power flows from the people and is instituted for their benefit. The people at all times have the inalienable right to alter or modify their form of government."
On September 11, in a speech to his sit-in faithful who are camped out at the Plaza de la Constitución, Mexico City’s central square (that is popularly known as the Zócalo), AMLO said the "new Republic" would be based on four fundamentals from his presidential campaign platform.
First, he said, the Mexican economy must be changed because current policies are not working. The current model is not bringing about growth nor is it creating jobs, and those jobs that do exist have humiliating salaries, AMLO said, adding that according to official data 85 percent of Mexican workers earn less than four minimum salaries, or less than US$491.00 per month.
Second, there must be a new way of doing politics. This, not just to do away with traditional political practices, but also to open the way for a new honest, austere and ethical generation with a social dimension, he said.
Third, AMLO said that a new social condition must be defined as he complained of the injustice of but a few having everything, and the masses lacking even essentials.
And fourth, answering his own question of "what do we need in a new Republic?" AMLO said, "We need a new legality. It is unacceptable for Mexican justice to only serve to legalize the spoils of the strong, impunity to white-collar criminals is unacceptable, and (so is) punishment of only those who do not have the wherewithal to buy their innocence."
"Furthermore, a new institutional scaffolding must be created (in order) to reform the Constitution to attain a new order that can give sustenance to the new Republic," stated López Obrador.
Regarding constitutional reform, some of AMLO’s cohorts are already talking about a next step national plebiscite.
From the rural sector, campesino organizations have already submitted 13 proposals for discussion at the Independence Day Convention. And their overall goal is to form a "new social pact" – one without government inclusion or involvement. Leaders from a number of farm and campesino organizations insist that the rural crises in Mexico can only be resolved through accords between producers and the people of Mexico.
Other agenda items are being accepted.
AMLO has said that 1 million people will turn out for the National Democratic Convention, a total that La Crónica de Hoy calls inflated. Already, reporters on the street tell the newspaper that those responsible for registering conventioneers are adding nonqualified people and fictitious names to the lists.
Another sign that the 1 million may not be reached, is that organizers are trying to raise last minute funds to advertise the Convention on television and radio in the greater Mexico City area.
And even though it is touted as a National Convention, reports are that political parties and organizations from some 90 countries are being invited. Among the foreign invitees are Nicaragua’s Sandinista National Liberation Front, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front of El Salvador, and the Cuban Communist Party, to name but three entities readers might recognize.
Barnard Thompson, a consultant with nearly 50 years of experience in Latin America, is also editor of MexiData.info. He can be reached via email at mexidata@ix.netcom.com. |
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