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Lopez Obrador claims constitutional authority, calls "National Democratic Convention" (Translation)
eluniversal.com.mx ^ | August 15, 2006 | Jorge Ramos ( translated by self )

Posted on 08/15/2006 7:40:09 PM PDT by StJacques

AMLO Summons a National Democratic Convention

The PRD member evokes Article 39 of the Constitution to affirm that the people are the only ones who can change the government; he recalls the "Ayala Plan," signed by Emiliano Zapata.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched his call for a "National Democratic Convention For the Good of All," with its basis in Article 39 of the Constitution, to be held the 16th of September in the Zocalo capital square [in Mexico City].

The PRD member read said constitutional precept aloud and recalled that therein it is indicated that national sovereignty resides in the people and that all power emanates from the people as well, therefore they are the ones who can change the government.

The Tabasqueño1 said that the "Ayala Plan" was also initiated thus on the part of Emiliano Zapata.2

In point of fact, he began the signing of said announcement and recalled that which Zapata said at the summons to the "Ayala Plan": "Let he who has no fear pass to sign it."

As members of the organizing commission he designated Jose Agustin Ortiz Pinchetti, the actress Jesusa Rodriguez, PRD member Rafael Hernandez, Deputy [of the lower chamber] Socorro Diaz, Senator-elect of the Convergencia3 Dante Delgado, Labor Party member Gonzalo Yanez, the writer Helena Poniatowska, and businessman Fernando Schute.

"The objective of the convention, he indicated, has as its fundamental proposition to decide with the representation of all the people of Mexico the document they will assume faced with the present circumstances," Lopez Obrador read.

Tomorrow Lopez Obrador will not lead his daily "informative assembly," because he will go to Chiapas to the closing of the campaign of Juan Sabines, [PRD] candidate for the governorship of that state. Dante Delgado will be in his place.

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Translator's Notes:

1Lopez Obrador is from the Mexican state of Tabasco, on the Gulf Coast.

2This evokes the image of Emiliano Zapata and his Plan de Ayala, a radical proposal for land reform in the Mexican Revolution that had deep roots in Anarchist thought.

3The Convergencia refers to the "Convergence for Democracy," one of the leftist parties in alliance with Lopez Obrador's PRD in the "For the Good of All" coalition supporting his presidential candidacy.



TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Mexico; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2006; amlo; calderon; convergencia; election; left; lopezobrador; mexelectrans; mexico; obrador; obragore; pan; prd; radicalleft; stjtranslation; tooclosetocall
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To: StJacques
This man is trying to start a civil war! Good grief!
21 posted on 08/15/2006 8:01:06 PM PDT by burzum (Despair not! I shall inspire you by charging blindly on!--Minsc, BG2)
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To: StJacques
Fah! (I bet there's a few in Mexico who have half a mind to say...) Let the commies re"draft" the Constitution by mob rule. The prosperous, capitalist northern states can then just secede and let the parasites suck each other dry.
22 posted on 08/15/2006 8:01:11 PM PDT by Stultis
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To: StJacques

This is what algore tried to do in 2000. Kerry was PREPARED to do in 2004 AND what the young mobs do in france when they protested a law which actually required them to work.

Mexico is unstable and yet we have no protection on our border.


23 posted on 08/15/2006 8:01:40 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: StJacques

In Mexico it's a way of life. Squatters have always been camped out at the Zocalo, Calle Lopez was shut down by the Trique Tribe of Indians. They had homes in Oaxaca, but wanted a home in Mexico City and a market to sell their weavings. They camped in the street, and got what they demanded. Thousands of people who brought cars into the country demanded that they get 'tags', and gov't has developed a policy of giving oil to the wheels that screeched. Power was never in contracts, agreements, treaties, charters, signed papers or law, it was in the ZAPATA on his horse. AMLO on his lst night likened himself as unto Higaldo. So if the PEOPLE think that they are 'more', no matter what agreements or promises to pay loans, or keep their word, anything can be annulled by the voice of the mob. People in Mexico generally don't trust police. This ball could bounce either way. But to put the glove on AMLO's hand, he was Governor of Mexico City, and not much was seen in terms of stopping corruption. When they paid 7 million dollars for Rudy Gulianti to come to town and talk about ZERO Tolerance, he wasn't allowed to bring in his trainers to teach police to enforce 100% of the law, 100% of the time. Everyone knew that the police didn't make enough in wages to feed their families, and would need to collect some of their own bribes and revenues on the side. The problem didn't start with the election, there is a lot of interest groups that know that if they loose power, they'll loose their source of livelihood.


24 posted on 08/15/2006 8:05:21 PM PDT by rovenstinez
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To: Stultis
"Fah! (I bet there's a few in Mexico who have half a mind to say...) Let the commies re"draft" the Constitution by mob rule. The prosperous, capitalist northern states can then just secede and let the parasites suck each other dry."

Stultis, if you'll read rovenstinez's post #14 above you'll see that there are some in Mexico saying exactly that right now.
25 posted on 08/15/2006 8:06:04 PM PDT by StJacques (Liberty is always unfinished business)
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To: StJacques
I'm trying not to hit the panic button, but this really does look dangerous to me.

It is. No democratically justified constitution can withstand such attacks if they are concerted; not without relying on an authority beyond the will of the people. The internal logic of democracy would be compromised. Said constitution would lose, by denying the authority of the people, its own; which is based on the former.

Because the rule of law is obviously not compatible with the rule of the mob only in a few examples does democracy not lead to ideological revolutionary governments. And because there is no organic solution to the conflict between law and popular will other than one of cultural tradition (though, looking at recent American political trends we can see how week even that is), one of these rules will endeavor to make itself absolute over the other.

26 posted on 08/15/2006 8:07:45 PM PDT by BarbaricGrandeur
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To: rovenstinez
". . . This ball could bounce either way. . . ."

That is not comforting. I'm hoping for the best for you all rovenstinez.
27 posted on 08/15/2006 8:08:11 PM PDT by StJacques (Liberty is always unfinished business)
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To: BarbaricGrandeur
". . . Because the rule of law is obviously not compatible with the rule of the mob only in a few examples does democracy not lead to ideological revolutionary governments. And because there is no organic solution to the conflict between law and popular will other than one of cultural tradition (though, looking at recent American political trends we can see how week even that is), one of these rules will endeavor to make itself absolute over the other."

That is profound BarbaricGrandeur. You should bottle that and save it for a rainy day.
28 posted on 08/15/2006 8:10:24 PM PDT by StJacques (Liberty is always unfinished business)
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To: StJacques

What I want to know, is if Gore reruns for Prez and loses again, will he do this?


29 posted on 08/15/2006 8:10:33 PM PDT by OldArmy52 (China & India: Doing jobs Americans don't want to do (manuf., engineering, accounting, etc))
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To: Brad from Tennessee
Meanwhile, it would seem that now NOBODY is betting on his chances for ultimate victory:
30 posted on 08/15/2006 8:12:14 PM PDT by Shuttle Shucker
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To: StJacques

If it really was time to panic, I do not think we would see the peso getting stronger and the Bolsa (Mexico's stock exchange) rising as it has the past few days. Nor would the numbers of protesters be going down.

I see haggard, unshaven AMLO with spittle flying from his lips, standing in the city square 4 years from now holding a "Vota por Vota" sign and accepting propinas from American Democrats wanting to get their picture taken with him.

At least I can hope.


31 posted on 08/15/2006 8:15:54 PM PDT by ChipShot
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To: OldArmy52

Hillary will. She might have marches in major cities across the country organized on election night to declare the election "fraudulent" and ACORN and other groups would love to start riots on her behalf I am sure.


32 posted on 08/15/2006 8:20:37 PM PDT by GeronL (flogerloon.blogspot.com -------------> Rise of the Hate Party)
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To: Taylor42

Yes. Imagine a million "refugees" coming into the border states.


33 posted on 08/15/2006 8:21:57 PM PDT by GeronL (flogerloon.blogspot.com -------------> Rise of the Hate Party)
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To: ChipShot
I am aware of the strength of the Mexican peso and the Bolsa as well, so there is reason to remain optimistic.

But there are some very strong factors tending to disorder as well. The state of Oaxaca has become "ungovernable" for all intents and purposes, following the dissolution of order that began with a teacher's strike in May and their ensuing insistence that the blatantly corrupt PRI Governor of the state step down. Chiapas has continued to exhibit instances of violent reprisal against some of the truly landless rural poor and it's only in slightly better shape than Oaxaca. And then there are the petroleum and electricity workers unions who fear the reforms Calderon and PAN intend to bring to modernize those industries and end their "job factory" relevance to the Mexican economy. If you put all of those together and couple it with the fact that Lopez Obrador's PRD has control over the Federal District Government in Mexico City, whose Governor today warned of conflict with the federal government over the exercise of police power in Mexico City, you will see that there are good reasons to fear what AMLO may do.

But make no mistake about it, I hope you're right.
34 posted on 08/15/2006 8:36:23 PM PDT by StJacques (Liberty is always unfinished business)
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To: StJacques

Loserman Lopez, like most socialists, has trouble listening to the voice of the people when it disagrees with what he thinks it should say.


35 posted on 08/15/2006 8:38:52 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: StJacques

Yes, it does look dangerous. Hopefully it will seal his doom as well. I can't believe that either Fox or Calderon will let this go on much beyond beyond the finalization of the election results. Rioting and unrest seem likely, but it looks like the government is safe and that the vast majority of Mexicans will be happy to see this guy crushed when the time comes. He got thirty-some percent in the election. I'm guessing (from your posts) that his support is much weaker now. The real question is whether the PRD, and the Mexican hard-left, can survive this debacle.


36 posted on 08/15/2006 9:10:35 PM PDT by Reverend Bob (That which does not kill us makes us bitter.)
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To: BunnySlippers

They won't be happy till we have to invade Mexico again.


37 posted on 08/15/2006 9:12:40 PM PDT by Maelstorm (The peace of slow poison offers no comfort to those who are left burying the dead.)
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To: expatpat
Loserman Lopez, like most socialists, has trouble listening to the voice of the people when it disagrees with what he thinks it should say.

Interesting that there is potentially a major personality quirk that is common between post modern leftist totalitarians and Islamic fascists (other then their obvious reactionary responses to modern progress). Neither groups will admit or accept defeat easily. We have Hezbollha fascists who: lost control of their own airspace; lost control of South Lebanon; lost most of there structures to air raids; lost some of their leaders; caused the destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure; and yet they still deny being defeated and have claimed victory. Same psychological condition applies to leftist politicians in the west (Gore, Obrador) and east (Russian Chekist). As a matter of fact the US leftist democrats even think they can run the congress and senate while their are minorities.

So we have a common mental dysfunction between both halves of the Unholy Alliance.

38 posted on 08/15/2006 9:22:46 PM PDT by justa-hairyape
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To: StJacques

Any of the usuall sign of police/Army mobilization?


39 posted on 08/15/2006 9:24:43 PM PDT by ASOC (The phrase "What if" or "If only" are for children.)
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To: ASOC
As best as I can see ASOC, the Mexican federal government is trying to play the entire Lopez Obrador protest movement down, but this particular challenge is quite new -- it was just put up at 8:19 p.m. Central Time -- and there has been no official response as of yet. The Federal Preventive Police have come out in force to keep the protestors off the grounds of the national legislature, where they have planned to disrupt Vicente Fox's scheduled September 1 address to the Mexican people, which is something similar to the "State of the Union" address our President gives every year. But I do expect to see some kind of commentary from President Fox in this regard, as well as an extension to many of the prominent political players in Mexico.

I'll keep an eye on it and notify the board when I see anything significant.

And by the way, September 16 is Mexico's El Grito de la Independencia, Mexico's true "Independence Day," though they also celebrate Cinco de Mayo in a similar fashion. Basically the 16th of September is the celebration of their independence from Spain and Cinco de Mayo celebrates their great victory over the French in 1862. Lopez Obrador is obviously "working the calendar" to select a day when there will be lots of people in Mexico City to boost attendance at his planned "convention."
40 posted on 08/15/2006 9:49:04 PM PDT by StJacques (Liberty is always unfinished business)
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