While the media sleeps, history is being made in Mexico. Millions of Mexicans are thronging the streets to demand that Democracy be preserved, and that Mexico City Mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador not be denied the presidency by the crookedest of judicial and political maneuvers that would make Karl Rove blush:
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans marched in silence on Sunday against a government campaign to put a popular leftist politician on trial in a battle that could knock him out of presidential elections.
Protesters crammed into Mexico City's vast central square and narrow streets in the historic downtown, many waving banners condemning the legal case against Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
"Don't let democracy die," read one banner. Others vilified President Vicente Fox as a traitor and dictator.
Elderly men and women stood shoulder to shoulder with young families, middle class professionals and students, a sign of the feisty politician's broad appeal.
A two-hour silent march erupted with cheers and applause when Lopez Obrador took to the stage to attack political enemies and promise an all-out assault on poverty if he is elected.
"We are going to continue fight peacefully. We are sure our cause is just and that it will triumph," he shouted, pledging to use Mexico's oil wealth to improve the lives of its 40 million poor.
The march was one of the largest in Mexican history.
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According to Friday'sFinancial Times
According to the most recent poll for the El Universal newspaper, 72 per cent of Mexicans believe Mr López Obrador was impeached to remove a political rival, rather than as part of a legal proceeding. Two-thirds said they would be prepared to take part in acts of civil disobedience to support him.
2/3rds! This complicated story has been bungled in the media. Only the indispensable Al Giordano of Narconews and the Narcosphere explains the story here:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/4/7/204047/5504
scroll to Desafuero: A Farce of A Case
One day before López Obrador became governor in December 2000, a lawsuit was filed against the city by someone - his name is Federico Escobedo - claiming to own the 200 square meter parcel slated for the access road.
As I reported here on February 24th, Escobedo's ownership of the plot of land is one of the issues in contention:
Fox's calls for law and order, however, were further belied this week by the unearthing of more hard data on the case of the hospital road in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Mexico City that would be the pretext for the desafuero. To repeat the basic facts: All of this tumult extends from an administrative dispute, in which the supposed "owner" of a piece of land named "El Encino" that the Mexico City government took to widen a road to a hospital claimed that the City had violated his rights, and the law, in the eminent domain procedures.
It turns out that the "owner," according to El Universal, is not the only person claiming title to the land, and that he has been to prison twice, once for fraud in a governmental position, and a second time for tax evasion.
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Scroll to Desafuero: A Farce of A Case
See the Al Giordano's complete summary here:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/algiordano