Posted on 08/24/2006 4:47:57 PM PDT by StJacques
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: "They are stealing the presidency from me" Which are the elements making it possible to establish that there was fraud at the time of the elections of July 2 in Mexico? For more than three years we were victims of a campaign of all the state apparatus with the active participation of the President of the Republic because we represent an alternative project. Our adversaries wanted to destroy us politically. They tried to discredit me with the help of videos, but it was demonstrated that it was the acting out of a plot of former President Carlos Salinas and the present government. What? In the first place, the candidate of the right did not win. They committed an electoral fraud. I am proud to have won in spite of the state apparatus, the dirty war, the participation of the employer directors and the regrouping of the right, and the understanding of the Governors of the Institutional Revolutionary Party [PRI -- in power during the 71 years up to 2000]. We are witnessing a political recomposition in Mexico with the formation of two blocs, right and left. The PRI, or at least the direction of the PRI, is that it has allied itself with the Party of National Action [PAN -- Right Wing Party, in power], to form what we call the PRIAN, and with the director of the teacher's union, an old woman responsible to the PRI, Elba Esther Gordillo. In spite of all this, they could not win. The day of the elections, they had to stuff the ballot boxes, to remove our votes, to falsify the voting process. It is only in this manner that they could obtain a supposed advantage of 0.58%, a difference of 240,000 votes. This is why from the beginning we have demanded that they clean up the election, that there should be transparency and that we recount the ballots. The tribunal (electoral) accepted doing it in a partial manner, only in 9% of the precincts, and the result of this new partial counting is that they are missing ballots from certain precincts and that there are too many in others. On the whole this partial recount reveals 120,000 ballots either missing or in excess. Where does this figure come from? By word of mouth. Up to this moment, the tribunal still has not said anything. But the [political] parties and a judge participated in the recount within each district. Our adversaries maintain that some citizens kept their ballots in place of putting them in the ballot boxes. But these are thousands of ballots and, to my knowledge, there are not that many ballot collectors in all Mexico. And where there is no other explanation but the stuffing of ballot boxes it is because there are too many ballots. If we were to make a projection for all precincts taken together, it comes to nearly a million ballots either missing or in excess. How do you explain that the international observation missions have validated the elections? They undertook a formal observation. An example: some observers from the European Union passed within the third district of the State of Querétaro. Then in one ballot box they noted that the PAN candidate have 240 excess votes. I have a video which witnesses this. Beyond that the observers often were members of political parties. For example, I was told that the head of the European Union mission is a member of the Popular Party (Spanish), the fraternal party of the PAN. You criticize the Federal Electoral Insitute (IFE), which is internationally recognized for having aided the organization of elections in Iraq and Angola . . . All of that is a farce which shows that we are living in a simulated republic. We are no longer disposed to tolerate the eternal comedy of lies and hypocrisy. The reality is that there is no democracy. They want to impose a simulated democracy, under the control of the powers of Mexico, of a privileged elite who dominate the country. The candidate of the Right is the puppet of these groups who have kidnapped the institutions [of the country]. In Mexico, the institutions are decaying, they no longer fulfill their constitutional mandate and it is evident they do not respond to the public interest. Why have you not denounced abroad the fact that the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD, supporting Lopez Obrador) was not represented within the council of the IFE? That has now begun in earnest. The council of the IFE was put together by Elba Esther Gordillo and Felipe Calderon while he was a PAN Deputy. We did not think that they would go to these extremes. We thought that in spite of all that we were going to win and that the dirty war and the base maneuvers were going to come to an end July 2nd and that on the day of the elections they were going to respect the popular vote. You did not expect fraud the day of the elections? No, I did not imagine it. I knew that the dice were loaded. The day of the elections, they committed a series of evident irregularities. But even under these conditions we won. We are awaiting the decision of the tribunal, and if the tribunal validates electoral fraud, we will not recognize an illegitimate President. How do you explain that your coalition did not have delegates in nearly 30% of the precincts? Some of them could not make it, others missed their appointment or were intimidated. But in a democratic country, that should not be necessary. Moreover, neither the PAN nor the PRI covered all the precincts. Elba Esther Gordillo, yes, and she controlled a number of electoral officials. What role has Elba Esther Gordillo played? An important role. But there are a series of factors; the PRI Governors, the PAN, Elba Esther, the use of money and social programs of the federal government. But the true electoral misconduct, which we call mapaches in Mexico, was operated by the Governors and Elba Esther. Your adversaries say that you are most responsible for your defeat, in refusing, for example, to participate in the first debate and by showing a triumphant attitude . . . Some errors were committed, but this is not that which is fundamental. We won but it is difficult to overcome a mafia, a powerful group who acts without moral scruples. In politics one always makes mistakes. But here, they made the decision to prevent me from being elected by all means. Fox and the others condemned me because they did not want things to truly change in this country. What will happen if the electoral tribunal proclaims the victory of Felipe Calderon? We have already summoned a national democratic convention for the 16th of September. There is an article of the Constitution, which comes from French legislation, and which stipulates that power emanates from the people. This article 39 appends to the people, at all times, the inalienable right of changing the form of their government. It is by virtue of this article that we have summoned the national democratic convention which is going to make decisions which could go in different directions. But one thing is clear: we are not going to recognize the government. Will it act as a sort of constituent assembly? Yes. It will also be able to decide the naming of a legitimate president, a head of government or a coordination of civil resistance. That will depend on what the delegates will decide, they will be those who will decide the direction of the movement. It will act as a passage from the simulated republic to the restoration of the [true] republic. Will it be able to proclaim AMLO President? It is the delegates who will decide that. Will Mexico possibly have two Presidents the 17th of September? That is a possibility which depends on the vote of the convention. Who will participate in this convention? Delegates have come from all corners of Mexico. We are waiting for more than a million delegates, elected by assemblies throughout Mexico. Why are you only contesting the results of the presidential election and not those of the legislature? We did not buy the vote, we did not falsify the verbal process, we did not stuff the ballot boxes. Our Deputies and our Senators were elected in a legitimate manner. The fraud was concentrated in the presidential election. Are the elected officials of the PRD going to be in session? It is the Deputies and Senators who will decide that. How are you going to articulate the actions of elected officials and those which the convention may decide to take? They are two distinct things. The convention and what can emerge from it are independent of the parties of the [For the Good of All] coalition and the attitude of the Deputies, the Senators, and the local PRD governments. The government is different from the parties, the executive from the legislative and the local governments from the federal government. Have emissaries of Felipe Calderon endeavored to engage in negotiations with elected officials of the PRD? They are used to this kind of practice. Co-optation has always been practiced here. But the circumstances are different. We are not traditional politicians. We are not going to negotiate our principles for public sector jobs or for payoffs. There will not be an arrangement because negotiating an agreement with an illegitimate government would legalize the democratic simulation and this country would never change. Democracy is not only a system of government or a political system. In a country like ours with such economic and social inequality, democracy is a matter of survival, it is the only way for the poor to have a government which occupies itself with them. If one annuls the democratic vote and if we legalize simulated democracy, we will have annulled the future of millions of Mexicans. It's the acting out of a basic problem. The problem is not whether I arrive at the presidency or not. I am not a crude ambitious man, it's the acting out of a problem of principle, of ideals and conviction. The important thing for us is to save democracy. Why did the offer of mediation of Robert Pastor (of the Carter Center) fail? I did not speak with them. Someone told me that there would be an offer of mediation. I said that our principal demand would be that we count all the ballots. I said it in a letter which I sent to the PAN candidate. I said to him "accept the recount and we will commit to accept the result and to end the protest." But they did not accept and that is the clearest proof that they did not win, because those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. We accepted a new recount in the recent election in Chiapas. In Costa Rica, when they asked for a new recount from Arias, he accepted. The recount confirmed his victory and everyone rested peacefully. Do you fear the repression of the protest movement? We are a peaceful movement and we are going to continue being one but authoritarianism is present. We are not going to fall for some provocation and we are not going to give a pretext for provocation. We are facing a very reactionary right wing, and even if this seems hard to say, fascist if things are called by their name. But there are a series of factors in the country, a correlation of forces who do not permit the use of repression so easily. Would the army participate in the repression? I do not believe so. It is the directors of the right wing; Fox, Calderon, the leading employers who give proof of authoritarianism. The army has a distinct attitude because it is not disposed to assume this type of responsibility, especially after the consequences of its use against the student movement (in 1968). It is not disposed to be used for suppressing the people, to mitigate political incapacity or to hide the corruption of civil governments. The occupation of the Zocalo (principal plaza of the capital) and of Reforma Avenue by the protest encampments has a political cost. How long is it going to last? Yes, there is a cost. It is the price which we must pay. We cannot stop a brutal attack on rights, an authoritarian offensive without showing firmness. If we were not firm, they would have swept us. The people are going to continue to struggle for the transformation of the country. They are not going to return to their homes. They can become fatigued, the movement can know a stage a of wearing down, but there are millions of Mexicans disposed to seeing things really change. Politics is not an exact science. It is made of approximations. We do not know what is going to happen. the important thing is to maintain clear principles. Before the elections, some compared you to Lula or Kirchner, others to Chavez. As a result of the postelectoral crisis, your image has been radicalized and your adversaries present you as a Caudillo thirsting for power and putting democratic institutions at risk . . . It is the vision of our adversaries and of the media which act as intermediaries of this anti-democratic regime. Of the national and foreign media. For example the Washington Post wrote an editorial saying that there was no fraud. I responded to them that the Watergate scandal was a child's game compared to the conspiracy and the fraud of which we are victims in Mexico. I explained the attitude of the Spanish press by the very strong presence in Mexico of Spanish economic groups. They possess banks, printing houses, they have interests in oil. I do not reproach them for anything, everyone defends their interests. They sold the idea that Mexico would become a democratic country after the election of Fox in 2000. This is why they are now selling the idea that I am an ambitious man, a capricious man ready to put democracy in peril to satisfy his ambition. Does the fatigue of the movement and the eventual negotiations imply that the elected officials of the PRD could tame your leadership? All of that could come. But I believe that it is fundamental to [bringing] an end to the simulation and to fight for the basic transformation of this country. It is necessary to save democracy, to combat poverty, to no longer permit the selling of national riches and to guarantee the right to information. The big media are themselves completely closed after the election and they are participating in a campaign against us to validate fraud. They do not understand the word fraud within the media of this country, with only some rare exceptions.
Or to offer him Howard Dean's job...
This guy makes Gore look stable. Scary.
It might be An Inconvenient Truth--Algore probably knows some spanish too.
The man has lost any connection to reality. He is off his meds and has become the first Mexican astronaut.
I can't believe it but this is what leftists all over the world end up with as heroes.
If his "convention" can prevent the value of the Peso from dropping like a stone after it "legally names him President-Elect of Mexico" he might really be on to something.
More like Al Gore on drugs.
I am not a crude ambitious man, it's the acting out of a problem of principle, of ideals and conviction. The important thing for us is to save democracy.
The man has lost his sense of the ironic.
Nutty in a Cynthia McKinney sort of way..
And here I thought Peewee Herman was the only one who could name him Prez.
The tone of the editorial was rather pessimistic, and the writer addded that AMLO's goon tactics may have already been validated to some extent by what has happened down there since the election. The prospect of a year of a headless Mexico is frightening - it would give AMLO's string pullers (think Hugo Chavez) lots of time to consolidate their power and move more pieces into place to bring about a real revolution.
I really would hope that many of those in Mexico who voted for him are feeling now that they have dodged a bullet and are secretly or even openly glad that he was not elected.
As far as his call for a constituent assembly to establish a new government, how would that be possible and what are the chances it will do anything but continue the turmoil?
I have to wonder how many of those "delegates" aren't even Mexican citizens, but are agents of Chavez and Castro, as well as ANSWER-type riff-raff and other assorted useful idiots of the communists.
Let alone ramp up the number of Mexican's trying to cross the border before a possible Cuban or Chavezstyle "revolution" takes place.
AMLO was giving away coupons all expense travel to Cuba to his friends, I heard at my breakfast table first hand account of someone who not only got a trip to Cuba, but got a pad in downtown Mexico City, one of the URBAN complexes for people who work for the gov't.
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