Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon defied leftist protesters on Thursday by vowing to hold his inauguration in Congress, risking clashes with lawmakers who claim he stole the July election with fraud.
Calderon, a conservative, refused to back down to his opponents, who are planning rowdy demonstrations to disrupt the swearing-in ceremony on Friday and have told him to go somewhere else to avoid trouble.
"On taking power, I will go to Congress, not on a whim or because of political strategy, but simply because the constitution demands it," he told reporters.
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"I don't see how they can have a ceremony like the ones they have announced, unless they drag us out of here with a crane or by force," said Javier Gonzalez Garza, who leads the PRD in the lower house Chamber of Deputies.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30206702.htmRival legislators have camped out in an effort to block the platform where Felipe Calderón intends to be sworn in as president tomorrow.