 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2006 
Mexico Crowd Vows Loyalty to Runner-Up
 Sam Enriquez - LATimes
| | Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans turned independence day into a protest for losing presidential candidate Obrador in Mexico City on Saturday, while President Vicente Fox and the president-elect celebrated outside the capital citing fears of violence. (AFP/Alfredo Estrella) |
Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans celebrated their Independence Day in a mass rally to denounce the winner of the July 2 presidential election and pledge their allegiance to the losing candidate.
With a show of hands, the huge crowd of delegates to the so-called National Democratic Convention on Saturday agreed to recognize leftist politician Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the country's rightful president and join a campaign of boycotts and civil disobedience under his direction.
"This is the beginning of the road to building a new republic," Lopez Obrador said in an acceptance speech that lashed out at Mexico's rich and politicians who protect them.
Although it was unclear how Lopez Obrador would establish a parallel government, or whether the vote was merely a political threat, the rally was a strong rebuke of National Action Party candidate Felipe Calderon, who defeated Lopez Obrador by slightly more than half a percentage point.
Lopez Obrador's presidency has no legal standing, and federal government officials had no response to the convention late Saturday.
Delegates agreed Lopez Obrador should take office Nov. 20, a national holiday commemorating the start of Mexico's 1910 revolution. They also supported a boycott of major firms, such as Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola, that are among a group of businesses Lopez Obrador accused of illegally supporting Calderon's campaign.
The presidential election divided Mexico between those who believed the country was advancing well enough with expanded trade and investment, and Lopez Obrador supporters, who believed the global market was leaving many people behind.
Lopez Obrador, a charismatic speaker and hard-ball politician, has energized core supporters and alienated many others for failing to accept the election outcome.
International observers said the vote count was legitimate, but Lopez Obrador alleged it was illegally tilted in favor of Calderon.
After Lopez Obrador lost his court battle for a national recount, he began building an opposition movement that he promised would reduce Mexico's poverty, end corruption and expand public social services.
Critics say Lopez Obrador is more like an autocratic politician out of Mexico's past than a progressive democratic leader. The convention appeared mainly a popularity contest with no doubt as to the outcome.
The dozen questions put to a vote by delegates were printed before Saturday's assembly. One asked, for example: "Should Lopez Obrador be recognized as president? Or coordinator of the resistance?"
When the question was put to the multitude, the crowd began to chant, "Presidente, presidente, presidente," and it was quickly approved. When the convention's moderator asked whether anyone was opposed, the crowd jeered.
Delegates, unanimous in their support, appeared to represent a broad economic group.
"Everybody's trying to paint him as some kind of messiah figure, and that his supporters are fanatics," said Alfredo Campos Martinez, 51, who traveled nine hours from Tampico by bus. "But look at me. I'm a lawyer. The seeds of this movement may be among the poor, but it has support among the middle class. We just haven't seen this economic system working very well."
Saturday's rally filled Mexico City's central square, known as the Zocalo, and spilled into surrounding blocks.
Hours earlier, President Vicente Fox presided over the annual Independence Day military parade at the spot, drawing a few hecklers.
Fox had planned to give the traditional shout for independence an echo of Miguel Hidalgo's call for rebellion against Spain 196 years ago from a balcony overlooking the Zocalo on Friday night, as he did last year.
But Lopez Obrador, whose supporters had transformed the square into a protest camp, said he also planned to give the shout there.
Fears of confrontation with Lopez Obrador supporters forced Fox in last-minute negotiations to move his ceremony to Dolores Hidalgo, the site of Hidalgo's original call. The mayor of Mexico City, a Lopez Obrador ally, gave the cry in the Zocalo.
It is the second time this month that Lopez Obrador has faced down Fox.
The losing candidate had promised to block Fox's annual State of the Nation address to a joint session of Congress. Soldiers formed a perimeter around the congressional hall, expecting a wave of street protesters. Instead, congressional members of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party took over the dais and turned Fox away.
Fox, who made history in 2000 by ending seven decades of single-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, leaves Calderon a country divided.
Both men have supported Mexico's decade-long transition to a more open, free-market economy that relies on private investment to create new jobs.
Now Calderon, who takes office Dec. 1, faces the difficult task of persuading Lopez Obrador supporters that he too is serious about Mexico's lackluster job growth, high rate of poverty and the concentration of wealth among a small elite.
Lopez Obrador appears ready to wage a civil resistance campaign that will use both street protests and his party's growing political clout to pressure the incoming administration on behalf of Mexico's poor. Delegates agreed to try to block Calderon's inauguration.
So far, the Fox government has resisted pressure to crack down on demonstrators who blocked streets in the capital for much of the summer.
Elected members of Lopez Obrador's party will also face pressure in the coming weeks as they decide whether to remain loyal to their leader as his movement shifts further left.
Lopez Obrador and his supporters seized the capital's central square and main boulevard July 30. He joined thousands of protesters who lived in tents through summer rain and hailstorms until the camps came down Friday.
sam.enriquez@latimes.com
Carlos Martํnez in The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us