Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Speech at the PRD Demonstration Today (Translation)

eluniversal.com.mx ^ | July 8, 2006 | eluniversal.com.mx ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

Ok, some brief comments from me here.

First of all; this translation falls under the heading of "Know Thy Enemy," as I do not think it particularly worthwhile to spend my time translating some of what Lopez Obrador has to say, except for the fact that we cannot let this guy out of our sight, even for a moment.

Secondly; I do not buy into the 280,000 figure the Mexico City official gives for the numbers in attendance at the demonstration. I saw one report on TV that put the number as "perhaps 150,000" and the two live shots I saw on Fox News did not show any more than that. I also must say that the crowd looked much more demoralized than I had expected. I assumed they would show up fighting mad and in my opinion they looked, well, defeated.

Thirdly; It appears to me that Lopez Obrador used this speech as an attempt to regroup and reorganize for his electoral challenge. Please note that the biggest thing to come out of this demonstration is his call for another demonstration that will be the culmination of a series of marches converging on the capital.

And finally; the fact that he is organizing these marches "from every electoral district" is not nearly so important as his announced intention that they will converge on Mexico City. It is beginning to seem to me that Lopez Obrador really only has one card to play, and that is the control he exercises over the Federal District as its Governor. It's still quite a card, given the temperament of some of his followers, but I didn't see the large numbers of supporters converging on the capital city today that I had expected.

[StJacques]

Ok guys, this is my last Mexican post-election translation for a while. I resume work tomorrow and I will be very busy until at least Wednesday. I will check in at various times during the day and evening to see who has responded and what not, but I think it is unlikely you will see anything from me until Wednesday or possibly Thursday. But I am going to keep my eye on the Mexican web sites through the week and if anything major should emerge, even if I don't have time to do a translation I will likely ping you all from within this or another thread to give you a quick update.

And you can find all of my translated articles on the Mexican election by going to the forum's search option and doing a "keyword" search for the unique keyword -- STJTRANSLATION

[NinoFan]

Thank you for your hard work, STJ. :)

[sageb1]

Again we thank you.

[norton]

Do I take it from words like "demoralized" that you don't expect much in the way of violence or mass protests?

What about isolated 'incidents' on the part of the left?

Personally, I don't trust anything to do with mexico; government or (on and off) citizenry.

[Maynerd]

Thank you for your time and efforts.

[vbmoneyspender]

that is the control he exercises over the Federal District as its Governor

Once a Chilango, always a Chilango.

[StJacques]

Believe it or not -- and you may not -- it was nice to sharpen up my translating skills. About 13 to 14 years ago when I was in grad school in history I worked part-time, to make much-needed extra cash, on a project funded by the National Historical Records and Publications Commission (NHPRC) of the National Archives, translating documents in French, mostly diplomatic exchanges from the years 1914-1921. I actually had to undergo a little training on how to do it right. But it's been over twelve years since I did any legitimate translating and I found that, even though Spanish is my second foreign language -- I speak it a little better than I do French (6 years study in French, I'm from Louisiana) -- my translating skills were a little rusty. There is a method to doing this right and I started off rather sloppily in my first couple of times out. But I got it down to the point where I can really move now and it feels kinda good to shake off some rust. And I much prefer to think that individuals as worthy as my fellow Freepers will be benefiting from my work than many others who read the NHPRC documents I translated and never knew who I was.

BunnySlippers, I'm pinging you here because I remember you asked me if I did this for a living and I neglected to mention that I once did work as a paid translator.

[sageb1]

You are doing fine. I took 5 years of French, then never had a chance to use it. So now I struggle with it.

[conservative in nyc]

Thanks.

Counting casillas where the PAN candidate gained votes and he lost votes? And that's some sort of conspiracy to take votes away from ObraGore? You're right - that doesn't make sense.

[StJacques]

"Do I take it from words like "demoralized" that you don't expect much in the way of violence or mass protests?"

Let me put it this way, what I saw today convinces me that Lopez Obrador's followers are less capable of mounting a serious challenge outside of the law than I thought they were coming into today. It's difficult for me to put my finger on their collective pulse at this great distance and I am trying to be careful to not just run off at the mouth, but I am clearly comfortable in saying this is not a movement I see gaining steam, but rather losing it. And I read into Lopez Obrador's speech that same recognition on his part. So we're going to have to wait and see what happens, but right now Lopez Obrador and the PRD are on their way to defeat unless something big happens to change that outcome.

[norton]

Thanks for what you're doing..and the reply

[StJacques]

"You're right - that doesn't make sense."

And I translated that paragraph very, very carefully conservative in nyc. This is part of the reason why I am reading some demoralization into this whole affair. I do not see Manuel Lopez Obrador very comfortable at all with making the "Tin Hat" technical argument and it seemed to me that when he approached the point where he had to make sense of his case for fraud before his audience, he failed. I think he backed off because, well frankly, he has no case.

[Dane]

I also saw the reports on Fox from Mexico City and I agree the crowd looked smaller than the almost 300,000 reported and that it did seem quite subdued.

JMO, I think that Obragore supporters know the whole world is watching and that Mexico had run one of the most transparent elections ever and that election would make Boss Daley roll in his grave.

As I have heard many times it was the votes from the cemetary districts in Boss Daley's Chicago that put JFK over the top in 1960.

[Dane]

Also thank you very much for your hard work in bringing translations to FR.

[monkeywrench]

Bttt!

[Kimberly GG]

First of all; this translation falls under the heading of "Know Thy Enemy,"

As far as I'm concerned, Calderon is just as much OUR enemy....

CALDERON SAID HE HOPED TO REACH AN ACCORD WITH WASHINGTON LEADING EVENTUALLY TO THE LEGALIZATION OF MILLIONS OF UNDOCUMENTED MEXICANS LIVING IN THE U.S.

[mcvey]

*

[texastoo]

This election has been nothing but hype. The PAN party has done more harm to the US than any other Mexican party, the PRI or the PRD.

[StJacques]

"As far as I'm concerned, Calderon is just as much OUR enemy...."

I couldn't possibly disagree with you more.

Here is a picture of demonstrators supporting Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador outside of the Federal Electoral Institute in Mexico City last Wednesday:

Try to imagine for a moment what will happen in Mexico in the Leftist supporters of Obrador come to power. We all know their economic policies will be a disaster for their country. What will happen after the disaster? Answer: 15 million more Mexicans will immigrate north to this country. On the other hand, try to envision what kinds of changes will have to take place in Mexico to encourage some of those who have come here for work to return there. Clearly there is a much greater chance of that kind of a scenario developing under Calderon's leadership than that of Lopez Obrador. It seems foolish to me not to recognize the obvious interest we all have in promoting Calderon's position within Mexico as a necessary part of any plan that will convince Mexicans here illegally in this country to return.

Now I too have real concerns about a settlement of the immigration issue in this country that would permit every illegal alien now residing in the U.S. to remain, in fact, I could never support such a proposal because it would make a mockery of our laws and I believe in the rule of law. But I think it is absolute insanity for those of us who are bothered by the immigration issue to paint all Mexicans with the same brush just to vent our anger about the depths of the immigration problem we face. A good part of that problem is our own doing. We have failed to police our borders, we have failed to enforce immigration law within our own country, we have failed to identify wage earners not paying taxes because they don't want to reveal their immigration status, we have refused to compel police agencies at every level to assist with the enforcement of immigration law, and much more.

Anyone who wants to see progress on the immigration issue should immediately understand that any prospects for success in that regard are advanced in Calderon's victory and seriously weakened should Lopez Obrador get the presidency.