Posted on 11/21/2006 4:34:44 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
As his critics dismiss it as an act of a loser's desperation, Mexican leftist Lopez Obrador declares himself president
MEXICO CITY Mexico's nearly five-month-old political standoff took a surreal twist Monday when the losing presidential candidate was "sworn in" before tens of thousands of cheering supporters. "I take the oath to fulfill the Constitution of the Republic as the legitimate president of Mexico," declared Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, after donning the "presidential sash," shimmering in the green, white and red of the Mexican flag. His followers chanted "Presidente! Presidente!" Many had traveled hundreds of miles, braving bitter cold to pack into the capital's sprawling central plaza, or Zocalo.
It was a bizarre piece of political theater. For starters, Mexico already has a president Vicente Fox. And his successor and fellow party member, conservative Felipe Calderon, is due to be sworn in on Dec. 1 before Congress. But Lopez Obrador, the former leftist mayor of Mexico City, claims that Fox conspired to rob him of victory. And he and his supporters have vowed to prevent Calderon from taking the oath of office. "Calderon won't last a year. The people won't allow it," threatened Luis Hernandez, a 65-year-old street vendor who attended Monday's ceremony. "He's just the puppet of the United States," said Evodio Muñoz, a farmer who traveled six hours by bus from the southern state of Veracruz. "President Bush put him there, so he could steal all our resources and control the Mexican people. But we won't let him."
Dismissed as desperation
Members of Calderon's National Action Party dismissed Monday's ceremony as a desperate act by a fringe radical. "It's not worth our attention," Jose Espina, the party's secretary-general, told Reforma newspaper. "It's a theatrical montage and no one takes it seriously." Opinion polls show support for Lopez Obrador has plummeted since July, when he lost the elections by a whisker. Since then, he has adopted increasingly radical tactics. Sixty-one percent of Mexicans believe Lopez Obrador's decision to declare himself president hurts the country, according to a poll published Monday in Mexico City's Reforma newspaper. Only 19 percent supported the act, it said. But Lopez Obrador dismisses such surveys as part of the "right-wing conspiracy," in which he says the news media are complicit.
He chose Monday as his swearing-in to coincide with Mexico's annual celebrations of the 1910-1917 Mexican Revolution, when millions of impoverished peasants and liberal reformers fought against the landed elite. Some 1 million people died in the war, which led to agrarian reform and institutionalized labor rights. However, nearly a century later, the country remains split between rich and poor. And if anything, those divisions have grown more pronounced in the six years since the country held its first fully democratic elections. In recent months, an alliance of leftist groups has seized control of the colonial city of Oaxaca, resulting in bloody clashes in which more than a dozen people have died. And earlier this month, leftist guerrillas claimed responsibility for bomb blasts, which damaged the elections tribunal offices and a political party headquarters. "There is no democracy in Mexico," said Antonio Ojeda, a 70-year-old construction worker from Veracruz, who was jostling for space in the Zocalo. "If there were, we wouldn't be here."
Helping the poor
His new government would "defend the rights of the people" against the "rapacious minority," Lopez Obrador vowed. "They don't care about the millions of Mexicans who live in poverty and abandonment," he said, referring to the 40 percent of Mexicans who are poor. In recent days, he has outlined how his "government" will function. Comprised of a 12-person "cabinet" half of whom are women it vows to pressure the Calderon administration into helping the poor. Lopez Obrador himself plans to travel to all of the country's 2,500 municipalities, hearing grievances against Calderon. However, even many supporters say the impact of the parallel government won't be felt quickly. "This is the worst possible scenario," Guadalupe Loaeza, a political columnist and supporter, said of the protest inauguration. But, she added, "there is no other route than this."
Uh it already happened in the US withour illegal immigration, remember Al Gore, but nice try at trying to smear all Mexicans as supporting this nutball, Obragore.
Right now, Al Gore is bashing himself on the forehead and thinking "WHY DIDN'T I THIN OF THIS??"
But the original way I posted works if you say it with a Ricky Ricardo accent.
"...Al Gore..."
Aaron Burr, too.
Reminds me of what John McCain did after he lost the nomination for President. And continues to do to this very day.
When the civil war starts in Mexico will Bush pull the troops out of Iraq to help?
Actually, Obragore and his leftists were inspired by the Dem strategy in the first place, when they challenged an election that was really pretty clear. IIRC, the Dems hinted at establishing a parallel government after they lost, and I remember that Kerry started making "foreign policy" trips and presenting himself as if he were the legitimate rep of the US. I bet the Dems are watching this even more blatant attempt with great interest, although since they're pretty sure they're going to win in 2008, I don't think they feel that much urgency right now.
That said, this is mainly about bogging down and impeding the legitimate government, which is also what the Dems have tried to do in virtually every recent election they have lost.
This is only possible if the economy tanks here and there. .......Hmmmm!
Just a leftist being a leftist. One of the wishes of communism is that revolution comes because of civil unrest, and that the revolution leads to full communism. Notice that Castro still talks about the revolution.
Algore set the dominoes in motion with his sore loser tactics and Obragore is running with that precedent.
Al Gore invented (or at least made popular) this trend of rabidly contesting election losses. Taken a step further, this type of BS leads to civil war, where you have 2 govts proclaiming to be legitimate. When one tries to exert control over the other, the shooting starts. Thanks Al.
/s/
HA HA HA HA! That is just too much.
I'm quite sure he did. Problem was, if he pushed it to a civil war the US military could not have been kept on his side. Meaning, it would have been very hazardous to his health.
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