Marching Against The Desafuero In Mexico City

Sunday saw 1.2 million people, by police estimates, marching through downtown Mexico City to support Governor Andres Manuel López Obrador, in what was almost certainly the largest political demonstration in Mexican history. López Obrador has been removed from his post by criminal proceedings initiated by his right-wing opponents in the federal government, led by President Vicente Fox. The timing of these proceedings may disqualify López Obrador from the 2006 presidential race, in which he is now the favored candidate in all Mexican national opinion polls.

Longtime resident of Oaxaca City – a mid-sized city in the heart of indigenous Mexico, six hours southeast of Mexico City by bus – Nancy Davies has written a unique and beautifully written piece in the Narcosphere on this historic confrontation between power from above and the clamor for democracy coming from below.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/4/26/121818/734

Some excerpts from her observations:

"It's hard to swallow AMLO's affirmation that not even the dirtiest politicians can stain 'the noble role of politic' whereby, as he says, it's the privilege of a person to be permitted to place himself in the service of others, guided by values higher than his own personal aspirations, and to propose a pact with all sectors of society to build together what the country demands.

"There it is again. This guy knows his Zapatistas.

"The PRD avoids the hard-core of the Zapatista message regarding leaders' responsibility to the community, co-opting the Zapatista appeal by speaking of combating poverty and avoiding increasing disparities in wealth. As I recall, just about a month ago AMLO was saying he would go for the presidency with or without the PRD, so some negotiation has occurred. Maybe the PRD knows a winner when they see one.

"In Oaxaca the speeches went on for more than an hour, until the rain threatened. In DF Lopez Obrador spoke for 33 minutes, five off the cuff. He asked for the promise by the people for three points: to continue defending the right of the people to freely choose their government; to avoid provocation and conduct all actions of civil resistance by non-violent means; and to convince more people to achieve the transformation of politics, society, economy and culture 'that we have proposed,' to which the crowd responded with a prolonged 'Yeees!' López Obrador sealed the pact with an amen, but the greatest ovation ratified his decision to go back to work as mayor on Monday morning, confronting the government which says he's fired, instead 'continuing to serve for the good and generous people of México, Distrito Federal.'"

...

"He then went on to list several points where the government must be more attuned to the population, referring to the calls for privatization as bad structural reform. And, he said, there's no reason for anybody to be alarmed! Gosh, does he mean George Bush? The rhetorical style of AMLO in my opinion owes a lot to Subcomandante Marcos, but the politics is Latin American style Socialism. And he believes it's possible.

"What we might keep in mind is that the welfare state as Lopez Obrador expounds it, is written into the Mexican constitution, which unlike many others, such as that of the USA, guarantees health, education, food and housing. "I repeat," he says, 'we are not the ones who are harming Mexico.'"

Read the whole post, at:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/4/26/121818/734

From somewhere in a country called América,

Dan Feder Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com

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