Posted on 11/20/2006 1:25:20 PM PST by Uncledave
Mexico leftist to swear in as "legitimate president"
By Kieran Murray Mon Nov 20, 1:19 PM ET
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's leftist opposition leader was to swear in as "legitimate president" on Monday to revive his flagging campaign against a July election he says was rigged and to prevent his conservative rival from running the country.
Tens of thousands of supporters were expected to cram into Mexico City's vast Zocalo square to see Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador take an oath of office in a ceremony that has no legal weight but could mark the start of new street protests.
Ruling party conservative Felipe Calderon won the July 2 election by a razor-thin margin and Mexico's top election court threw out Lopez Obrador's claims of massive fraud,
The leftist crippled central Mexico City for several weeks after the election by setting up protests camps, but his campaign has since faded.
At his swearing-in ceremony on the anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Lopez Obrador will detail his plans to run a parallel government and may call for new protests against Calderon.
Lawmakers from his Party of the Democratic Revolution have vowed to prevent Calderon from taking office in the Chamber of Deputies on December 1, and Lopez Obrador says his rival cannot rest easy.
"He knows that he didn't win, that he is the product of an electoral fraud. That can not give him peace of mind. No matter how cynical he is, he can not feel secure," Lopez Obrador said in an interview in the La Jornada newspaper on Monday. "Calderon is the lowly servant of the white-collar criminals."
Federal police have already set up barricades around the Chamber of Deputies to prevent Lopez Obrador's supporters from setting up new protest camps there in coming days.
CLASS DIVIDE
The election highlighted a deep class divide in Mexico.
Lopez Obrador campaigned for president on promises to attack poverty, end two decades of free-market reforms and create jobs with ambitious public works programs.
While he drew strong support from the poor, many business leaders and middle-class Mexicans feared he would put the country in debt and scare off investment.
Washington was concerned Lopez Obrador would put Mexico in an anti-U.S. group of Latin American nations led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
In contrast, Calderon plans to continue the pro-business policies of outgoing President Vicente Fox and is likely to be a firm ally of the United States.
In the weeks after the July election, about a third of Mexicans believed Lopez Obrador was robbed of victory, but that number has apparently declined in recent months.
A poll in the Reforma newspaper on Monday showed that 56 percent of those questioned oppose his decision to name himself "legitimate president" while just 19 percent back him.
"He is a clown. He lost and it's time he recognized it," office worker Veronica Bernal said as she ate breakfast at a cafe in an affluent Mexico City neighborhood.
Lopez Obrador's backers insist they will not give up.
"He was a hope for a lot of people. That's why they committed fraud," said Victor Saavedra, a construction worker who planned to attend Lopez Obrador's swearing-in ceremony even though he believes Calderon will be able to take office. "I don't think it will change, but what they did is not right."
We don't? Why not?
Puro pedo
Do you want a Chavez backed commie on our southern border??? Do you want China and Russia in our back yard? I thought not.
I don't want him there. But there are a lot of things about our Mexico I don't like, unfortunately I don't get to decide. Remember, Mexico is our boss, and we have to do what they say.
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