 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2006 
Rebel Leader Marcos Claims Election was Rigged
 Reuters
| | The leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), Subcomandante Marcos greets farmers from San Salvador Atenco Mexico during celebrations for Mexico's Independence Day in the town of Atenco, Mexico Saturday Sept. 16, 2006. Marcos demand the release of prisoners of this town who were arrested during clashes with police in May. On May 3, hundreds of members of a radical farm group held six police officers captive for several hours, beating them and cutting them with machetes after officers tried to stop street vendors from setting up stalls. A massive police force retook control of the town the next day after clashing with the protesters. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo) |
Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos stepped into Mexico's election crisis Tuesday by claiming the July 2 presidential vote was rigged against the left-wing opposition candidate.
Marcos has long been a fierce critic of leftist runner-up Andres Manuel López Obrador but, breaking a long silence over the disputed election, he backed López Obrador's allegations that the conservative ruling party stole the vote.
Marcos, who led the Zapatistas in an armed uprising in Chiapas state in 1994, had predicted López Obrador would win the election, which has sharply divided Mexico between left and right.
“We were not wrong. López Obrador won the most votes among those fighting for the presidency. Although it was not with the margin he had forecast, his advantage was clear and resounding,” Marcos said in a statement.
“Where we were wrong was in thinking that resorting to electoral fraud was a thing of the past,” he added.
The ruling party's Felipe Calderón won a razor-thin victory in the July 2 vote and Mexico's top electoral court has declared him president-elect, but López Obrador insists the election was rigged.
His supporters declared him the “legitimate president” at a massive rally in Mexico City on Saturday. He plans to lead a parallel government and hold street protests to harass Calderón when he takes office on Dec. 1.
The election battle has been a tough test of Mexico's young democracy just six years after President Vicente Fox won power, ending seven decades of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which often used fraud to hold on to power.
The Zapatistas emerged from the jungle in the southern state of Chiapas 12 years ago, embarking on a bloody but short-lived armed revolt in which about 150 people were killed. The rebels control dozens of Maya Indian villages across Chiapas.
The Zapatistas have lost much of its influence inside Mexico recent years but they still draw wide support from leftist groups in Europe.
Marcos often rails against Mexico's politicians, including López Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution. He accuses them of betraying indigenous people by blocking reforms to give them more autonomy and control over natural resources. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us