Lopez Obrador is Moving Leftist Protestors to HQ of Mexico's Electoral Tribunal (Translation)

eluniversal.com.mx ^ | August 6, 2006 | eluniversal.com.mx ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

AMLO is moving informative assembly¹ to the TEPJF

The candidate of the For the Good of All coalition² called on his sympathizers to come together tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. at the offices of the Electoral Tribunal to carry out an assembly.

The candidate of the For the Good of All coalition, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, announced that tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. the coalition will carry out an informative assembly in front of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation.

During his fourth informative assembly in the Zocalo capital plaza, Lopez Obrador insisted on the necessity of recounting all the votes of the presidential election of July 2.

The coalition's candidate also told his sympathizers that next Sunday they will reunite for another time in the Zocalo capital plaza to continue with their informative assemblies.

Yesterday the magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal determined to reject the total recount of votes and only to proceed to do so in 11,839 precincts of 149 electoral districts in 26 states.³

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Translator's Notes:

¹Lopez Obrador has consistently given his protest gatherings in Mexico City following the July 2 election the name of "informative assemblies."

²The "For the Good of All" coalition refers to the union of Lopez Obrador's PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution) Party, the Labor Party, and the Convergence for Democracy Party behind his presidential campaign.

³See yesterday's thread for an article with the details of the decision. Briefly; there will be hand recounts of individual ballots in 11,839 out of a total of 130,437 precincts in Mexico, or about 9.07% of all precincts. These precincts are located in states in the south central area of Mexico which were carried by PAN candidate and virtual winner of the election Felipe Calderon. Lopez Obrador is charging that Calderon's numbers were inflated in these states and that his own were deflated. There are a total of 300 electoral districts in Mexico.

[Texan5]

Thank you for the update-this all sounds very dangerous. Is it not possible to fire Encinas for conflict of interests if he will not stand down? He is obviously courting disaster and he will most certainly be blamed if a riot breaks out.

[StJacques]

Texan5;

Encinas can be removed because he was not elected by popular vote but by legislative action (he became Head of Government of the DF after Lopez Obrador stepped down to run for the presidency). I don't know all the particulars of how that process works, but I did post a link to a Spanish article on the Mexican web site El Universal from early last week in which the PRI and PAN were discussing the possibility of removing him. Encinas is actually doing tremendous harm to the very people whose interests he is supposed to protect. It truly is an outrage, but then my comment on that is "when did the left ever really care about anyone"?

I'm not a cynic, but I do have a genuine bias against the left which I admit openly.

[mjolnir]

I agree that the left at its core loves "the people" because they serve as mascots, symbols and martyrs for its various causes, but hates actual human individuals, which it sees as having no use outside of The Cause and as expendable tools for The Cause, whatever form the cause is taking this week.

At the same time, the Left is excellent at public relations coming out of situations like this--- think of the current situation in the Middle East, in which Hezbollah has become in the eyes of media elites little more than a humanitarian non-profit welfare service that arms itself because it has to against the big bad disproportionate Israelis, or the sympathetic portrayal of rioters at the 1968 Democratic Convention.

It seems as though the PRD, AMLO and Encinas are losing the PR war right now, but this move--- forcing the authorities to be forceful-- has worked so many times (at last in the U.S.) that I have to worry it'll work again.

[StJacques]

". . . this move--- forcing the authorities to be forceful-- has worked so many times (at last in the U.S.) that I have to worry it'll work again."

I really do think the question of who started it is extremely important for the PR war. And AMLO and the left just keep pushing.

I also think that the farther along the electoral process goes with decision after decision and result after result going against the PRD, that we get closer and closer to seeing them crack first. Patience . . . patience . . . patience . . .

[SAJ]

Thanks again, Saint!