Leftist Protestors in Mexico City Attempt to Close Major Banks (Translation)

eluniversal.com.mx ^ | August 9, 2006 | Jorge Ramos, Rubelio Fernández & Alejandra Martínez ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

AMLO's sympathizers block access to bank offices

Civil resistance impedes the passage of employees at the offices of the Bancomer¹ Center on Universidad Avenue, Banamex² on Venustiano Carranza Avenue, and HSBC³ on the Paseo de la Reforma Avenue.

The For the Good of All coalition⁴ initiated at 7:00 a.m. today a series of blockages at the central offices of the Banamex, Bancomer, and HSBC banks.

Groups of the followers of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador left their encampments at the Zocalo capital plaza to direct themselves, first to the Banamex bank building, located on the street corner of Isabel La Católica and Venustiano Carranza avenues, in the historial center [of the city].

Gerardo Fernandez, spokesman for the PRD, provided information that other small groups of Lopez Obrador sympathizers have begun to block access to the home offices of Bancomer, on Universidad Avenue, to the south of Mexico City, and at HSBC, on the Paseo de la Reforma Avenue.

By agreement with the PRD leader, the protestors will remain seated, blocking access for several hours and they will not permit entrance to anyone, only exit to those who desire it.

The capital city police have only cut traffic circulation without impeding these protest actions at private offices.

The organizers revealed that more than 600 people participated in the action of civil resistance.

The closure of the avenues impedes the passage of automobile drivers and workers at those bank offices.

Around the Bancomer Center a group of policemen formed a fence surrounding the protestors.

The instruction of this civil resistance is to remain for a few hours at the home offices of these banks to deny entry to the workers and afterwards to retire.

The protestors shouted constantly "vote by vote, precinct by precinct."

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Translator's Notes:

¹Bancomer is part of the Bancomer Grupo Financiero, Mexico's second-largest financial group.

²Banamex, is part of the Grupo Financiero Banamex, Mexico's largest financial group.

³HSBC, is Mexico's fourth-largest banking company.

⁴The "For the Good of All" coalition is the alliance of Lopez Obrador's PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution) Party, the Labor Party, and the Convergence for Democracy (Convergencia) behind Lopez Obrador's presidential candidacy.

[StJacques]

I'm going to make some extended comments in a ping post in just a second.

[VOA]

bump for publicity

[StJacques]

Over the past two days Lopez Obrador's PRD and their allies have been engaging in numerous and varied disruptive acts in and around Mexico City. Yesterday separate groups of about 300 protestors each seized the federal toll booths for the several turnpikes coming into Mexico City from various directions and stopped the taking of tolls. They relinquished that control later in the day, but there was evidently some damage done at several of the toll booths, and investigations into this are supposedly ongoing at the federal level. Small groups of protestors approached the office of the Governmental Secretary (Segob), but did not attempt any blockage, and news reports did say that "federal police agencies" were on hand. And today you can see that they are shutting down access to the major banks from the street, though they are not attempting to shut down the banks themselves, so I think the strategy is one of "harassment and disruption" rather than showing a more destructive intent to bring either governmental or economic activity to a halt.

It seems to me that Lopez Obrador and his supporters are trying to goad the federal government into overreacting and, as of now, Vicente Fox and his administration are not taking the bait. And I think this strategy is paying political dividends because there is real evidence that AMLO's "civil resistance" movement is backfiring upon him. The first thing I want to point out is that the number of active participants supporting AMLO's protest campaign seems to be dwindling steadily, and I must say that I personally overestimated their numbers this past Monday when I posted what would happen when they staged their protest at the Electoral Tribunal. I expected that there would be "tens of thousands" -- I think those were my exact words -- and as it turns out the crowd only numbered in the hundreds according to the news media, I saw one report that put its size at "just under a thousand." It seems to me that AMLO is now down to about ten thousand "hard core" activists, and that number is shrinking as time goes on.

There continues to be serious public denunciation of the Mexico City Federal District Head of Government Alejandro Encinas for his complicity in supporting the protests and refusing to enforce the law. There evidently exists something called the "Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union," which is composed of Senators and Deputies (representatives) from the Mexican Congress, that has the power to hold hearings as a prelude to removing a Governor or Head of Government of a Mexican state. The commission has now acted to receive public petitions and to hear arguments in favor of the removal of Encinas. Since this process will take a while to run its course, I interpret it as a warning to Encinas that the Federal District Government's support of the protests cannot be "open-ended." Eventually the federal government will act and what it will do is to remove him from office.

And most importantly, the recounts of the 11,839 precincts ordered by the Electoral Tribunal have begun. An article in El Universal says that the results will not be known "until the lawsuits relating to the proceeding are resolved," according to a source within the Electoral Tribunal.

[EagleUSA]

I bet Howard Dean is watching this very closely....

[StJacques]

Do you think Dean views this as a "road test" for a public disobedience campaign here in the U.S. in the event the "tin hats" start alleging that elections were "rigged" in this country?

[freedumb2003]

Thanks again for all you do for this important issue.

Interesting news -- this is one of those times that USA's self-preoccupation is keeping it from see what is happing right next door. The MSM should be all over this, but it gets Page 12 if any coverage at all.

[rovenstinez]

StJacques, you stand by your guns! I'm glad you posted this. More and more, whether it's nice to imagine or not, the countries of Mexico, USA and Canada affect each other, and one's problems spill over into another man's backyard. The banks put on pressure and at 2pm, Central Standard, the 3 main banks. Citicorp, the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank of China and Bancomer were back to regular business.
The recounting of 9% of the precincts has begun, with the first precinct finished.. AMLO lost one vote. The second precinct that was accused of fraud came out even. Now AMLO is accusing the Electoral Commission that the boxes were partially opened, and the IFE people said that stacking crates/boxes of votes on top of each other made some boxes partially open.

[GeronL]

Howard Dean is a figurehead.

Hillary, Soros and their Center for American Progress is taking copious notes

[StJacques]

rovenstinez;

You wrote:

"The recounting of 9% of the precincts has begun, with the first precinct finished.. AMLO lost one vote. The second precinct that was accused of fraud came out even."

First of all, thank you very much for posting that valuable information. Where did you get it? El Universal quotes a source at the TEPJF who says no one will know until it's over.

[EagleUSA]

Hillary, Soros and their Center for American Progress is taking copious notes...
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I believe it. That is why no power-mad Marxist, especially a horridly unqualified and disqualified one, like Hitlery, can never be allowed near our White House.

[BunnySlippers]

I checked the news stories on my Bloomberg before I left the office today. Apparently they are finding some problems but the article did not say to what extent or in whose favor.

Also, mentioned that the partial recount should be over soon ... in a day or two.

[Texan5]

Thanks for the update and the good news-Encinas needs to be fired and sent away in disgrace, the sooner the better-what an arrogant prick.

[StJacques]

"I checked the news stories on my Bloomberg before I left the office today. Apparently they are finding some problems but the article did not say to what extent or in whose favor."

Thank you for that BunnySlippers. Maybe I should start checking the Bloomberg web site for more.

[StJacques]

". . . Encinas needs to be fired and sent away in disgrace, the sooner the better-what an arrogant prick."

Well Texan5, why don't you tell us what you really think?

LOL! :)

[BunnySlippers]

Perhaps ... but I don't know how you pull down just Mexico news. On their machine you just type in NI MX and all Mexico news comes up. I don't think the site has very much ...

[StJacques]

Well in that case I hope you continue to keep us posted. Thank you.

[GeronL]

Soros has backed this leftist movement that has taken over the Dem Party. He knows they'll likely get slaughtered in the election and that this will cause them to embrace Hillary..... ouch... for 2008.

If she loses a close election in 2008, before the polls are even closed in most of the country they will have all those leftist groups marching and causing havoc and screaming "stolen election".

I wouldn't doubt riots.

[EagleUSA]

before the polls are even closed in most of the country they will have all those leftist groups marching and causing havoc and screaming "stolen election".
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Not a theory much different than the reality of 2000 when the Florida judges tried to rewrite election law (legislate from the bench) to give the deal to Crazy Al. If the libs think they can leverage a victory by crime, or any other means, they will attempt it. They are sick with hate, and will commit any crime to regain power.

[rovenstinez]

This page or link gives the first recount a MINUS vote for AMLO http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/367672.html

[conservativeharleyguy]

This is a case of the opening "low-intensity conflict" phase of a classic communist insurgency.

It'll get much worse before (and if) it gets better. They'll start to attack other infrastructure soon, trying to force the authorities to crack down on everyone, and escalate the conflict. It's been happening in Chiapas for close to 20 years. It'll spill over.

Historically, Mexico has had one form or another of revolution about every 50-70 years, swinging back and forth between the "ruling Spaniard class", and the "campesino Mestizo people's class". Either way, they've been pretty much Socialist since their last real revolution in the early 20th century. They are about 20-30 years overdue for one now.

If you think it was bad with communist Cuba offshore in the 60's, get ready for a 2,200 mile border with an openly communist Mexico, funded with oil money, and manipulated by Venezuela.

Don't think it can't happen.