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 Editorials | September 2006 
Lopez Obrador's Continuing Fight Frustrates Many
 Tracey Eaton - Houston Chronicle
| | Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, gesturing from his tent in Mexico City's Zocalo plaza, promises to set up a shadow government. (Marco Ugarte/AP |
The fabled Mexican revolution that began in 1910 but was never quite finished will have to stay undone a little longer.
In winning the Mexican presidency officially on Tuesday, conservative Felipe Calderon defeated a leftist rival who vowed to bring radical change to the country.
But Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is continuing his quest for revolution and promises to set up a shadow government aimed at toppling Calderon.
Whether Emiliano Zapata and other historic Mexican revolutionaries would be sharing afterlife tequila shots in the leftist's honor — or spinning in their graves — is uncertain.
"Dangerous times," is how Homero Aridjis puts it.
"Lopez Obrador is destabilizing the country," the Mexican writer said. "Mexico is on the verge of a nervous breakdown."
Lopez Obrador's tactics — which include plopping tent cities, full of his supporters, in the middle of Mexico City's clogged thoroughfares — have won him at least as many enemies as friends. As long as the tenacious former mayor of Mexico City is around, many Mexicans are convinced, Calderon is virtually ensured of a messy, miserable term.
Unapologetic
Lopez Obrador, nicknamed El Peje after a gar-like fish found in his native Tabasco state, is unapologetic, saying Mexico needs "a radical transformation."
Most Mexicans live in extreme poverty despite the country's immense natural resources, he told his followers this week. And it's urgent that they establish a "new republic," he said.
"We don't want more of the same," said El Peje, who sleeps alongside loyalists in tents in the Zocalo, the massive Mexico City square built atop the ruins of an ancient Aztec capital.
His followers include university students, street vendors, farmers, union leaders and even some U.S. residents, who traveled to Mexico City to support his cause.
Houston resident Gisela Piña said she hopes Lopez Obrador will help reduce Mexico's rampant unemployment, which she blames on free trade and globalization.
"People don't have jobs," she said. "That's why they leave."
Piña has lived for the last several weeks among El Peje supporters camping on Avenida Madero, near the Zocalo.
"This is my penthouse," she joked.
But many Mexico City residents wish the tent dwellers would go home.
"They're bums," taxi driver Armando Leon grumbled. "They get paid to sit there and block traffic."
Threatening to remain
The tent people seized Avenida Madero and other downtown streets on July 30. Many threaten to remain while Lopez Obrador continues to challenge Calderon.
Their foes claim they're mercenaries, that El Peje pays them 250 pesos per day, about $23.
Piña retorted, "They say we're getting paid 250 pesos. Please tell me where. I could use it."
Joining her along Avenida Madero was Maria Garcia, an immigrant-rights advocate from Chicago.
Sitting at a table in her makeshift abode, she said she supports the Lopez Obrador "revolution" because her relatives tell her he helped the poor as mayor of Mexico City.
"If we had such help, we might not have emigrated," she said.
But Carlos Chavez, another Chicago resident watching the Lopez Obrador rebellion unfold, said he's deeply disillusioned.
"When I came here three days ago, I wanted to cry," said Chavez. "There's no respect in Mexican politics," he said, just insults, low blows and profanity.
Chavez, 45, pointed to the tent cities, where El Peje's supporters display cartoons of Calderon made to resemble piles of excrement, and where metal poles hold aloft baked pig heads labeled "Fox — Traitor to Democracy," referring to President Vicente Fox.
"In the United States, there are a lot of people who don't like George Bush. But he's still the president of the United States," Chavez said. "In Mexico, the concept of 'let's agree to disagree' doesn't exist yet."
Others complain about Lopez Obrador's apparent disregard for motorists and merchants who must endure his movement's tactics. Businesses this week sued the Mexico City government, claiming that the tent cities had cost them tens of millions of dollars.
Tent city resident Teodoro Loza scoffed at the claim.
"Rich people in this country have made millions and millions of pesos for many lifetimes. Now they're crying about losing a few little pesos," the Cancun resident said.
'This is a milestone'
New York native John Ross said he admires Lopez Obrador's pluck.
"This is a milestone," said Ross, sitting in his usual spot at La Blanca Café in Mexico City.
An author, poet and social activist, he traveled to the capital in 1985 to write about the devastating earthquake that killed at least 12,000 people.
He said he checked into the Isabel Hotel and has lived there ever since.
And over the years, he said, he's watched Mexican leftists fight to give a voice to the poor, starting with victims of the 1985 quake.
He followed Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, the son of Lázaro Cárdenas, the nation's last leftist president, as he faced Carlos Salinas in the 1988 election.
The electoral computers crashed while the vote was being counted. Ten days later, Salinas was declared the winner in what many Mexicans see as a stolen election. Lopez Obrador was also cheated, Ross contends.
"The only difference between 1988 and 2006 is that the computers are better," he said.
tracey.eaton@chron.com |
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