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 Editorials | Opinions | November 2006 
Time To Move On
 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Sore loser. Thorn to democracy. Mexico's biggest embarrassment.
Take your pick - each of those phrases would aptly describe Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-leaning politico who lost Mexico's presidential election back in July by a slight margin but refuses to accept defeat.
Last week, in fact, Lopez Obrador swore himself in as Mexico's 'legitimate' president, vowing to disrupt this Friday's inauguration of Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party and to run a parallel government for the next six years.
Lopez Obrador, a member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party and Mexico City's former mayor, has charged that voter fraud and corrupt institutions were to blame for his defeat.
Letting Lopez Obrador and his supporters let off steam for a few days back in the summer seemed like a good idea. Then Mexicans began tiring of street protests and encampments on major thoroughfares in Mexico City that strangled an already commuter-challenged metropolis.
Since then, Lopez Obrador has continued to lose support from not only his own party but, most important, from Mexico's poor - the social and economic underclass that Lopez Obrador purports to help. In rallies across Mexico City this past month, fewer and fewer supporters have shown up for his blah, blah, blah.
But that did not stop Lopez Obrador from inaugurating himself as el presidente. His parallel government will be run by a 12-member Cabinet. It wants a new constitution that will limit the reach of corporations and the news media and that opposes the U.S. construction of border fences.
This parallel government can't levy taxes, but it will seek donations from the public so that Lopez Obrador can travel around the country to criticize the Calderon government and to create a grassroots organization.
Buena suerte!
As the world has watched Lopez Obrador's circus, in the background, Calderon and his transition team have been working with the administration of Vicente Fox for the change in government and to move the country forward. Calderon has met with President Bush to discuss bilateral issues, particularly narcotics interdiction efforts, immigration and the border fence.
Ironically, Lopez Obrador has talked about how undemocratic Mexico continues to be.
We disagree. His antics have shown that - fortunately for him and the rest of Mexico - democracy, political plurality and tolerance are gaining ground in a country long mired in corruption and patronage.
In another political era, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador simply would have been made to disappear - long ago. |
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