Although it was determined by Mexico’s top election court that Mexico’s ruling party conservative Felipe Calderón won the July 2 election, tens of thousands of loyal supporters still crammed into Mexico City’s Zocalo square to see Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) take the oath of office as Mexico’s “Legitimate President.” November 20, also marks the anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. AMLO’s inauguration can be seen as another blow to President Vicente Fox and the National Action Party (PAN), Mexico’s ruling party, as Fox was forced to cancel Mexico’s traditional Nov. 20 parade commemorating the beginning of the country’s 1910-1917 Revolution.
The hostility between AMLO and Fox and PAN, stems from PAN’s dirty campaign tactics that was responsible for Calderón’s slim victory in the July 2 election. An election tinged with corruption and fraud. And Mexico’s Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary (TEPJF) ruling back in August didn’t help either because the court ruled that López Obrador had failed to provide sufficient evidence that election fraud did take place during the election.
Before the inauguration ceremony, AMLO had toured around Mexico gathering support, appointing members to his Cabinet and asking for contributions to support his government. Although the government will not collect taxes or make laws, they asking asking for donations to help carry out their plans for the parallel government. One of AMLO’s first order of business is to prevent Calderón’s Dec. 1 inauguration ceremony.
“Those neo-fascist reactionaries better not think they’ll have room to manoeuvre,” he told his supporters on Saturday.
His supporters have pledged to block Calderón’s swearing-in ceremony before the Mexican Congress. Plans on how this goal is to be achieved has yet been made public. However, federal police have already set up barricades around the Chamber of Deputies to prevent AMLO’s supporters from setting up new protest camps there in coming days.
It remains to be seen whether the events will undermine Calderón or will help AMLO keep up the momentum. According to the latest poll conducted by Parametría, 50% of respondents do believe there were irregularities during the last presidential election, while 40% disagree. So far, the tourism industry has taken a heavy toll because of Mexico’s recent events. According to Mexico Tourism Department, tourism has significantly dropped between January and September of 2006, down 4.3% from the same period in 2005.
None of this should be blamed on AMLO. Mexico was already plagued with turmoil. A conflict that began nearly six months ago in southern Oaxaca City over teacher wages had rose to the point that the city’s schoolteachers had decided to go on strike, which they later blocked the streets fearing that they would be attacked from Mexico’s military. The condition in Oaxaca was so bad, that a legitimate popular uprising took place where a group called the People of Oaxaca (APPO) had seized portions of the city demanding that removal of Oaxaca’s Governor Ulises Ruiz. Later in October, Indymedia journalist and videoblogger Brad Will was the killed while covering the teacher’s strike in Oaxaca.
This month, Mexico City was rattled when several bombs exploded at the top electoral court, a bank and the former ruling party’s headquarters. A coalition of five leftist guerrilla groups from the State of Oaxaca claimed responsibility.
The bombings across Mexico City caused no injuries but rattled nerves in a country wracked by protests since the polarizing July 2 presidential elections. President Vicente Fox called the attacks “criminal acts aimed at frightening the population.”
Leftist protesters have battled police for control of Oaxaca City since last week, and the guerrilla statement pledged to continue “military” actions until the Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz step down. Protesters accuse Ruiz of rigging the elections that brought him to power and oppressing dissent, but have so far failed in their attempts to oust him.
It was also reported that two grenades exploded at a residential building in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco, hours before President Vicente Fox and President-elect Calderon arrived to the area to participate in a business forum.
Even though there are some Mexican columnist who will try their best to downplay AMLO’s “swearing in” ceremony, one does have to wonder if Evo Morales went through the ridicule when he led the same type of protests that cause President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada to resign from office in 2005.
As long as corruption persists in Mexico, AMLO’s platform will continue to resonate with many of Mexico’s poor.
x-posted over at my new blog location – xicanopwr.com.