Reply #7: is this the article [View All]

[cosmicdot]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/09/MNGCQJS7U51.DTL&hw=Robert+Collier&sn=001&sc=1000

Runner-up has history of taking protest to the streets

Advocate for poor, indigenous rose to be Mexico City mayor

Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, July 9, 2006


(07-09) 04:00 PDT Mexico City -- He started his political career by leading blockades of highways and sit-ins at oil wells, and now all of Mexico is waiting to see whether he backs up his demands for an election recount with more of the same.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who according to the official count came in second in last Sunday's presidential voting behind conservative Felipe Calderon, has shown that he can summon tens of thousands of supporters into the streets on short notice when his backers feel cheated.

Lopez Obrador and his Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, have long believed that part of grassroots democracy is the use of street power -- what supporters call civil disobedience and opponents term extortion. Saturday's demonstration in downtown Mexico City was a prime example.

Whatever one thinks of Lopez Obrador, he is not a typical presidential contender.

He drives a simple white 2004 Nissan sedan and lives in a modest apartment. When it rains at outdoor rallies, he turns aside his aides' umbrellas and allows himself to get sopping wet. He took 14 years to graduate from college and doesn't speak English.

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