Protests force Mexico's Fox to change Independence Day ceremony (Backs Down in Face of Mexican Left)

I see other articles up on this on the Mexican news sites, but I am unfortunately occupied and I do not have the time to do any translating at the moment. I will be posting more on this later this evening with information from the Mexican press.

A ping for you all.

Needless to say, I am very disappointed at this news. Very disappointed.

Fox true to form, always a weakling.

My God that country has no reason to celebrate anything.

I actually thought Vicente had shown some cojones over the past week, but this is just a complete cave-in.

Heh, I'd like to see Howard Dean try to make Bush change the 4th of July --bah!

I'm thinking the same thing. Also, independence from what, exactly? They haven't used their independence very productively.

We might need to start thinking about getting that fence up....

What a wimp-I hope the new pres has a titanium set-that seems to be badly needed.

Mexico is in serious trouble folks, and Fox changing things to avoid the moonbats is not a good sign.

Maybe Mexico should disband and turn their cesspool..er.. county into a wildlife sanctuary.The left would support that im sure. Half their country lives in the SF Gay area anyway.

Ausente Fox strikes again.

Mexico is in serious trouble folks

I'll say. There has to be something more to this than loudmouthed lefties. Smells to me like the military is putting pressure on Fox and he is trying to avert a coup. (Well Fox, you get the govt you deserve, and when you're president you get it sooner than anybody else.)

My reading of the article and those you presented earlier is that the encampments, equipment, etc. must be removed by Saturday, not Friday. So everything may still be on track for Saturday as originally agreed to by Obragores goons. Fox may just be going the extra kilometer to show everyone that he is being reasonable, etc...

But if they do not clear out by Saturday, then it should be a different story.

Analysis of what this means for the future?

"Analysis of what this means for the future?"

I'm thinking that through right now redgolum. I've just begun translating an article from the Mexican press on this and I have some very early thoughts that, because Fox and Calderon's own PAN party opposed the giving of the address in the Zocalo in Mexico City, that there is more going on here than meets the eye.

I'm going to come back to this a little later. I'll ping you when I do. There are a lot of variables at play here, but I have the feeling I'm going to disapprove no matter what I read into the motivations behind this decision.

Thank you.

Here is the text of the El Universal story up at http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/375218.html. And I do wish that El Universal would send some of their journalists writing news copy back to school, because it was very poorly written.

And as a preliminary "translator's note," when Mexicans speak of their "declaration" of independence, they are not referring to a published document such as we have in this country. Mexicans refer to El Grito de la Independencia or "The Shout of Independence," which celebrates the speech shouted out in the public square of the town of Dolores Hidalgo, in the state of Guanajuato, by Catholic Father Miguel Hidalgo, who organized a revolt of Indian mine workers and Mexican peasants in 1810 that continued into the eventual achievement of the independence of Mexico from Spain.

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Fox will give The Shout [of Independence] in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato

The Governmental Secretary, Carlos Abascal, affirms that the President made the decision in order to preserve conditions favorable for harmony and peace.

President Vicente Fox will give the "Shout of Independence" the 15th of September, in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, "after pondering what is best for the nation," the Governmental Secretary Carlos Abascal Carranza announced.

The titular head of SEGOB said that the Chief Executive made this decision in order to preserve conditions favorable for harmony, security, and peace, in the Plaza of the Constitution, as well as in other sites in which it will be celebrated in the republic.

Carlos Abascal formulated a declaration to the news media, after operating through the morning under the instruction of the Chief Executive, of how to take on the organization of the change of venue, and of how Alejandro Encinas, Head of Government of the Federal District, will take on the task the giving of "The Shout" in the Zocalo, from early times the Palace of the Municipal Council.

The official responsible for Interior policy [Abascal] did not take questions from the reporters, which made the confirmation of versions suggesting the Chief Executive is not coming to the Zocalo Friday night impossible, neither [is it possible to know] whether the leader of the For the Good of All coalition, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, would be in the plaza.

Fox's decision, Abascal said, is a demonstration of the "invariable commitment to the safeguarding of institutions." In deciding to go to Dolores Hidalgo, the Chief Executive "assumed his absolute responsibility in the construction of favorable conditions for harmony, security, and the peace of those who are gathering at the Zocalo."

Moreover, it is in the interest of the President of the republic to act in favor of harmonious social coexistence and the fortifying of the democratic values of Mexico.

In his message, the Governmental Secretary emphasized that unity, for which Fox is sacrificing his presence in the National Palace this Friday, "is the superior value which we Mexicans are all called to defend."

He remarked that as head of the Mexican state, Vicente Fox "has been invariably respectful of political, ideological, and opinionated differences, and of the forms of exercising the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution."

The announcement that the President will journey to Dolores Hidalgo to give "The Shout" was revealed at 3:05 p.m., some 10 minutes after the Senate, in plenary session unanimously approved a non-binding resolution presented by the PAN bench; with the end of exhorting the Chief Executive not to give "The Shout" in the Zocalo."

This presidential decision, as Abascal agreed, could guarantee that this September 15 Mexicans "will celebrate together, with happiness, in peace and with love for Mexico," their national festivals.
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Okay; now for a little analysis on my part. And before I begin, all of you should understand that I am having to eat what I just posted yesterday about Fox's success in standing up to Lopez Obrador. That isn't going down well with me, as I hope you will all appreciate. I am at this very moment undergoing a process of reexamination of certain conclusions I have made about the situation over the past few weeks, because I clearly have made some mistakes in overestimating the Fox administration, the PAN party, and more. I've clearly been too optimistic about the prospects for Mexico's political future, which look much darker to me tonight than they did this morning.

Based upon what is in the above article, it appears to me that Fox has bowed to near unanimous pressure from all sides to avoid giving the "Shout of Independence" in the national capital Friday evening. The fact that his own PAN party presented the resolution before the Senate says something about how widespread public fears over a violent reaction from PRD demonstrators is at present. I do not rule out the possibility that Fox may have worked behind the scenes to get the PAN legislators to introduce the resolution to give him an opportunity to "save face" when deciding not to stay in Mexico City, but my best guess is that he wanted to do it, given that I have seen numerous articles over the past few weeks expressing the near-unanimous opinions of leaders from all the political parties that Fox should not give El Grito in the Zocalo.

There are some obvious implications to all of this. One of them is that in the aftermath of the violent actions of some of Lopez Obrador's supporters preventing Vicente Fox from giving his Informe on September 1 (see this post [#25] for more) everyone is coming to recognize that there is nothing "peaceful" about Lopez Obrador's claim to lead a movment of "peaceful civic resistance." Everyone knows the potential for violence among the Mexican Left, but it seems that references to it are only made as passing comments, rather than calling the PRD down for what they are really doing. A second obvious implication is that, despite all of Fox's spin to the contrary, there is a genuine problem of the ingovernability of the country. When the President cannot give his annual national address before the Mexican Congress nor can he perform his traditional ceremonial duty on Mexico's Independence Day, the causes cannot be dismissed as insignificant. And I didn't even mention Oaxaca. Though Mexico is a much more modern society than many understand, its domestic political situation is one of genuine turmoil, there is just no getting around it.

An additional implication, which may not be quite so obvious as those I just listed, but which is sticking in my brain right now, is that the withdrawal of the presidency from Mexico City in the face of Lopez Obrador's intimidation will tend to lend some legitimacy to the aims of his "Democratic National Convention" this Saturday evening in the eyes of some of his supporters. This is where I believe that Fox and the Mexican politicians who have urged him to avoid confrontation are making a serious mistake. If a violent confrontation in the Zocalo were to unfold in the Zocalo this Friday, then it would have been obvious to everyone that Lopez Obrador's "Convention" would have lacked any popular air of legality, given that everyone would have associated it with the events of the previous night. I think that would have been worth something. Instead, it seems that the tact everyone is taking is to simply ignore AMLO and hope that he will eventually go away. I am now prepared to pronounce that strategy as misguided. AMLO's PRD has formed very close ties with Venezuelan, Cuban, and other leftist movements elsewhere in Latin America and they are providing financial assistance as well as ideological guidance. They're not going anywhere, no matter how much responsible Mexican politicians may wish to the contrary.

And as a final comment, I want to try to put this in historical perspective. It is very obvious to me as I view the light-handed treatment with which everyone in Mexico seems to treat the PRD and their allies that the shadow of the Tlatelolco disaster, I think it is unfairly referred to as a "massacre" but that is how it is usually known, of October, 1968 looms large here. Lopez Obrador consistently refers to it in speeches, saying that the Fox government is no different, which is an outrage, but he continues to do it just the same. And I think that the "forces of order" are perhaps frozen in place fearing that if they stand up to the Left, they will have another Tlatelolco on their hands. I am becoming afraid that if they don't stand up to the Left, they may have worse to deal with before this is all over.

I don't know what to think. You certainly have put out a different take on things. Fox seems almost paralyzed. Maybe he's just thinking of his "legacy" because he is a lame duck with less than 90 days left as president. Not that he has one, but probably he doesn't want to be remembered as one who took action against the PRD and Obrador. Just wants to slide for the next several weeks. As you say, however, they aren't going away and Felipe Caldron better have a plan to deal with them.

Fox is on the way out anyway and doesn't want to die the last few days because of the left.

In this case I may not blame him.