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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2008 
TV Ad Comparing Leftist Leader to Dictators Stirs Anger in Mexico
 Canadian Press
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| | A television spot comparing a leftist leader to Adolph Hitler over a blockade of Congress has infuriated his followers, who condemned the ad on Saturday and demanded it be withdrawn. | | |
Mexico City — A television spot comparing a leftist leader to Adolph Hitler over a blockade of Congress has infuriated his followers, who condemned the ad on Saturday and demanded it be withdrawn.
The spot that ran on Mexican television on Friday denounced Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose followers took over the chambers of both houses of Congress on April 10 to block action on government proposals to ease restrictions on private participation in the country's state oil industry.
"What kind of people close down congresses?" asks a narrator. "Adolph Hitler in 1933."
It also includes stock footage of Lopez Obrador, along with Hitler's fascist ally Benito Mussolini of Italy and the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
"Our democracy is in danger. Our peace is at risk," continues the spot, which was sponsored by a conservative civic group called Better Society, Better Government.
Officials of Lopez Obador's Democratic Revolution Party said they would file a complaint with federal electoral officials.
They allege the spot violates a 2007 law that bans individuals and groups from buying televised attack ads on political parties - a measure meant to prevent privately financed end-runs around party campaign spending limits.
On its Internet site, the spot's sponsor said it had launched the campaign "to demand the freedom of the legislative branch be restored."
"They have to withdraw these videos immediately," said Jesus Ortega, a Democratic Revolution leader, on Saturday. "They polarize things and create an atmosphere of conflict that doesn't help debate."
President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party issued a statement that "energetically condemned" the ads and called for their withdrawal.
Lopez Obrador claims that Calderon's energy proposals amount to a privatization of the oil sector, which was nationalized in 1938. His followers insist on a summer-long nationwide debate over the bill.
The president's backers have accepted only a 50-day debate period.
Lopez Obrador has refused to accept official rulings that he narrowly lost the 2006 presidential race to Calderon.
During that campaign, Calderon ran attack ads comparing the leftist to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. |
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