Posted on 07/08/2006 7:21:08 PM PDT by ARealMothersSonForever
MEXICO CITY (AFP) - A massive crowd, estimated at 280,000 by authorities and 400,000 by organizers, has protested the conservative victory in Mexico's presidential election, which the leftist candidate challenged in court.
"We are requesting a ballot-by-ballot recount," said leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, drawing rousing cheers from the crowd that packed Mexico City's huge downtown Zocalo square and neighboring streets.
"We are certain we triumphed on July 2," he said, claiming widespread irregularities marked the electoral process that gave victory by a razor-thin margin to conservative Felipe Calderon, of the governing National Action Party (PAN.)
He called for nationwide marches that will start Wednesday and converge on the capital, and stressed the protests would remain peaceful.
"There is clear evidence that they took away our votes to favor the right," said Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who advocates the cause of the millions of impoverished Mexicans.
"It was a massive fraud, those right-wingers sure know how to cheat," Angel Farfan, 60, one of his supporters said before joining the rest of the crowd in chanting "Obrador, president."
Lopez Obrador claimed that President Vicente Fox illegally campaigned in favor of Calderon, that the PAN had far exceeded campaign spending limits and that the governing party bought votes.
The lawyers will present their challenge to the Federal Electoral Tribunal on Sunday, and will also file complaints with the Supreme Court, which can issue recommendations to the tribunal, the final arbiter of electoral disputes.
Lopez Obrador lashed out at Calderon, claiming the Harvard-trained conservative served "a very powerful interest group in Mexico that for quite a while has converted the government into a committee at the service of a minority."
"This group not only has no interest in improving the life of millions of Mexicans, but has profound contempt for the poor," Lopez Obrador said at a news conference before the rally.
Asked about foreign leaders, including US President George W. Bush, who congratulated Calderon on his victory, Lopez Obrador insisted "there is no president-elect in Mexico."
The electoral tribunal has until September 6 to render its final verdict on the outcome of the July 2 election.
Calderon, 43, who won with an advantage of just over 244,000 votes, or 0.6 percentage points, dismissed claims of fraud during the electoral process, which a number of international observers called free and fair.
He said that now was the time for Mexicans to put the campaign disputes behind them and work to create a politically stable country attractive to foreign investors.
Speaking to journalists on Friday, Calderon said that battling poverty, which affects half the 103 million population, would be one of his top priorities.
He urged the United States to invest in economically depressed areas of Mexico to create badly-needed jobs.
This he said would be far more effective in halting illegal migration to the United States than a wall the US administration plans to build along the border. Last year, an estimated 400,000 Mexicans crossed the border illegally, often risking their lives trekking along deserts and arid mountains.
The next president will have to deal with a divided Congress, after the PAN got the most votes for the House and the Senate but fell well short of an outright majority.
You know, I keep seeing Americans who want to build empires on FR, and I see all these Mexicans who want to be 'reconquistadors.' When do we finally get to settle this thing?
That sounds familiar. ;)
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| See what Al Gore and his incessant whining started!! |
Yup and if your opponent then wants another recount call him or her a sore loser.
I think about it deeply every day. The opposition has little chance. If the Mexican people at large were REALLY upset, they'd revolt with sticks and rocks. The illegals here would flood across the border to go help them. It's not happening. Thanks anyway.
Even before the votes were counted they were calling for the US to fix Mexico's education system...that's a laugh...and then, ta da! fix their roads, so the superhighway from Mexico through Kansas starts without potholes.
Hmmm...Yea, Like the areas? ....like Detroit, MI and East St. Louis, IL....Cleveland, OH.
I like that pic... :D
This is 2000 all over again, except in Spanish.
The left just don't know when to quit. They should just claim it as a "moral victory" and let the adults get back to work.
Where do you get the idea that Mexico is Marxists? It is corrupt, but not Marxist.
What we see in Mexico is what happens when people like Ken Lay have too much political influence.
The other half wants to take from them the fruit of their labors.
Kinda like that lamb/wolf definition of socialism.
You really don't know much about Mexico, do you?
From the CIA World Factbook:
Mexico has a free market economy that recently entered the trillion dollar class.
"There is clear evidence that they took away our votes to favor the right," said Lopez ObraGORE....
Lopez ObraGORE claimed that President Vicente Fox illegally campaigned in favor of Calderon, that the PAN had far exceeded campaign spending limits and that the governing party bought votes.
And a re-count is going to solve those CLAIMED problems how?
Just another communist SORE LOSERMAN like Gore.
Another graphic that says it all...
  BUT IT VAS GOINK THERE ANYWAY!    |
How do you say GET OUT OF CHENEY'S HOUSE in Spanish?
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