MEXICO CITY – Downtown Mexico City swelled Saturday with the accumulated frustration and rage of the poor, who were stoked into a sign-waving, fist-pumping frenzy by new fraud allegations that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador hopes will overturn the results of Mexico’s presidential election.
Lopez Obrador ignited the smoldering emotions of his followers Saturday morning, alleging for the first time that Mexico’s electoral commission had rigged its computers before the July 2 election to ensure Felipe Calderon’s half-percentage-point victory. In a news conference before the rally, Lopez Obrador called Calderon “an employee” of Mexico’s powerful upper classes and said a victory by his conservative opponent would be “morally impossible.”
Lopez Obrador added a new layer of complexity to the crisis by saying he would not only challenge the results in the country’s special elections court, but would also attempt to have the election declared illegal by Mexico’s Supreme Court. That strategy makes a constitutional confrontation likely because according to many legal experts the special elections court is the only body that can hear election challenges.
Calderon was declared the winner Thursday and has begun publicly presenting his plans for Mexico, even though Lopez Obrador has refused to concede. European Union election observers have said they found no significant irregularities in the vote, and many Mexicans appeared to accept Calderon as their next president.
Lopez Obrador’s approach pairs legal maneuvers with mass public pressure. On Saturday, he gave a mega-display of street power, drawing tens of thousands of people into the center of Mexico City on a humid, drizzly afternoon.
The crowd chanted, “Strong, strong!” when Lopez Obrador stepped to the microphone. The former Mexico City mayor then declared that the electoral commission had “played with the hopes” of millions of Mexicans by allegedly rigging the vote total. Thousands chanted back: “You are not alone!”
Lopez Obrador also told the crowd that he was organizing a march to the capital Wednesday from all over Mexico, including states hundreds of miles distant.
“This is, and will continue to be, a peaceful movement,” he said.
Associated Press
Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks at a rally Saturday in Mexico City.
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