Friday, April 08, 2005

AMLO update

Mexico’s most popular politician and city mayor Andres M. Lopez Obrador has refuted all charges against him after the country’s Congress voted 360 to 127 to strip Obrador's immunity.

According to the federal Attorney General's office, Obrador can now be charged on criminal grounds for contempt of court and abuse of authority. If found guilty, Obrador will be fired from his post as a mayor as well as be banned from the July 2006 elections and stand trial in the coming days.

  Earth Times article

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftwing mayor of Mexico City, formally launched his presidential candidacy yesterday, asking hundreds of thousands of rallying supporters to avoid all violence in their protests.

  Financial Times article


photo courtesy NY Times

photo courtesy San Diego Union Tribune
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets here yesterday as Mexico's Congress voted to begin a process that could disqualify Mexico City's mayor, the leading presidential candidate, from the 2006 presidential race.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, standard bearer of the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party, is accused of violating a judge's order in 2001 to stop construction of a road on contested private land leading to a hospital. Congress voted by a wide margin to strip him of immunity in the case, which Mexican law grants to high-ranking officials. If indicted, Mr. Lopez Obrador would be barred from seeking the presidency.

The vote was held despite fears that disqualifying the popular mayor would lead to months of social and economic unrest.

  Globe & Mail article

In addressing the immense crowd today, the 51-year-old Mr. López called the proceedings against him a "farce" staged from the offices of Vicente Fox, Mexico's first opposition president. He charged that the attempt to knock him out of the race for president would undermine country's fragile democracy, moving Mexico back into a past when the political elite ruled like monarchs.

"The move to prosecute me," he said, "returns Mexico to authoritarian times when Los Pinos decided who would or would not become president." Los Pinos is Mexico's presidential mansion.

Mr. López added that President Fox's National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ran this country for seven consecutive decades, had forged an unlikely alliance to cripple his left-wing movement and maintain the status quo.

"Whichever of them wins, things remain the same," he said. "They maintain a corrupt and privileged regime, and will continue devouring the country."

  NY Times article

"Now more than ever we have to form a great social movement," López Obrador said. He called for greater respect for the rule of law and new ways of thinking about politics and the national economy. He called on his followers to act with "intelligence and decisiveness" without violence.

López Obrador, of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), outlined a civil disobedience plan consisting of demonstrations, coordination with independent rights organizations, a public relations campaign and support for his party in other elections this year. The activities will be directed by a fivemember national board and coordinated by citizen committees in different states across the nation. A massive protest is planned for Sunday, April 24, in the capital.

He called on supporters not to block streets or highways or take over government buildings.

The mayor also announced he would formally seek candidacy from his party to run for president, and reiterated accusations that the proceedings against him were a plot by President Vicente and former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

  El Universal article

The next few weeks promise to be tumultuous as both López Obrador and his rivals look for ways to capitalize on the legal proceedings, analysts said.

López Obrador wants to be jailed "because his sympathizers will see him as more of a victim," said political analyst José Antonio Crespo. "But his rivals don't want him to set foot in jail, so they are looking for someone to pay the bail."

Now that López Obrador no longer has immunity, Fox's party may be looking for new charges that would tie him up in court long after the filing date for presidential candidates, Crespo said.

But if they fail to make the charges stick, their own political careers are at risk, he said.

"They are playing Russian roulette with four bullets," Crespo said. "People are saying that even if they don't want to vote for López Obrador, the majority should decide. Even if we don't like it, that's democracy."

  Sign on San Diego article

Latin Americans understand the meaning of the word "democracy".

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