Mexico left takes election protest back to streets

[cal04]

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the left-winger who claims he was robbed of victory in Mexico's contested presidential election, will lead a massive protest rally on Sunday to press for a vote-by-vote recount.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to join the march across Mexico City to its central Zocalo, one of the world's largest squares, where Lopez Obrador will announce details of a civil disobedience campaign to push his cause.

Mexico has been thrust into a political crisis by the election, which saw Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, beaten by ruling party conservative Felipe Calderon by just around 244,000 votes out of 41 million cast.

Lopez Obrador, who campaigned on promises to help Mexico's poor with ambitious welfare and infrastructure programs, is challenging the result before Mexico's highest electoral court. He says he will only accept the result if there is a recount.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1105922006

[EFerrari]

1. This is what taking back your election can look like.

:kick:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Great article! Did you notice the subtle shift in the tone the writers

are using in the last couple of days toward A.M.L.O.? They all came out full of vinegar at the first, ALWAYS using "leftist" and ALL kinds of loaded, super-charged (for right-wing idiots) adjectives chosen to undercut his credibility. Many of them took their time, running up column inches day after day after day while they pointed out possible connections to Hugo Chavez, possible implications he is dangerous, that there might be bedlam if he unleashes the fury of the great unwashed, poor who support him.

This article has a more respectful tone. I've seen another one or two this weekend, as well. Spooky, isn't it?

(By the way, do you find it interesting that Dick Morris went to Mexico to work on Calderon's campaign, and James Carville went to Venezuela to work for the opposition on the referendum? Damned strange, isn't it?)

[Selatius]

4. James Carville was never a social democrat or even a democratic socialist

Why would anybody expect him to start supporting social democrats and democratic socialists now? Bill Clinton, for that matter, had economic policies that were more akin to moderate Republicans, if there are still any left.

[rodeodance]

3. good to see this.