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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2006 
Mexican Opposition Removes Blockade to Allow Independence Day Celebration
 Xinhua
| | Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waves from his tent in Mexico City's main Zocalo Plaza. (AP/Marco Ugarte) |
Demonstrators who have protested against the results of the July 2 presidential elections began on Wednesday to remove their blockade in the city's main square to allow military parade for Mexico's independence day celebration.
Supporters of the left-wing Coalition for the Good of All began removing camps they have used to blockade three major streets in Mexico City and the city's main square, the Zocalo, to allow a traditional military parade to celebrate Mexico's independence day on Sept. 15-16.
Ricardo Ruiz, Mexico City's deputy mayor, told reporters that the removal came after he reached agreement with the coalition, led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor and a leading presidential candidate in the July 2 elections.
Lopez Obrador's supporters have launched weeks of protests after results showed Felipe Calderon, candidate of the ruling National Action Party (PAN), won the election with a slim margin of 0.56 of a percentage point.
Lopez Obrador refused to concede defeat, alleging massive fraud in the electoral process and calling for a vote-by-vote recount.
However, Mexico's top electoral court, the Electoral Tribunal, declared Calderon president-elect last week, rejecting all the left-winger's allegations.
In response, supporters for the opposition imposed blockade on the road linking the Zocalo to the Petroleos Fountain roundabout and closed the avenues of Juarez, Reforma and Madero in the city center.
It was not yet known if the opposition would reinstall the blockade after Lopez Obrador's planned Sept. 16 National Democratic Convention.
The convention, designed to draw up the coalition's policy, plans to bring together more than a million delegates from Mexico's 32 states.
Lopez Obrador also plans to give his own "Shout of Independence", the traditional beginning of Mexico's independence celebrations, in the Zocalo, while incumbent president, PAN's Vicente Fox, plans to do the same from the presidential balcony in the square. |
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