What do you do when you believe you have been robbed of victory in a presidential election, and have exhausted all avenues of legal recourse, only to see most of your evidence ignored and your demand for a full recount turned down? We know what Al Gore did in 2000. We also know what Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas did in 1988 - the same as Gore in 2000. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is taking a different route. He isn't giving up, he isn't going away. Yesterday, the
National Democratic Convention (CDN) organized by his supporters elected him Mexico's
legitimate president.
The CDN had been convened by the three parties that integrated AMLO's election coalition, PRD (AMLO's party), PT (labor), and Convergencia. The organizers' goal had been to gather one million delegates from all over Mexico in the capital's
zocalo. There are no official numbers, only those of the organizers and distractors; according to
LaJornada, 1,025,724 delegates signed in;
El Universal puts the number even at 1,200,000:
Organizers said they reached their goal of signing up 1.2 million "delegates" for Saturday´s convention, though no official attendance figures were given. The Zócalo, however, was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people, and adjoining streets were also crowded with delegates following the proceedings on video screens.
The NYT on the other hand:
More than 150,000 supporters of the losing leftist candidate for president flooded into the capital's historic square on Saturday and declared him "the legitimate president" of Mexico.
(Did you know more than five people read the NYT :-)) The LAT has a neat para on who the delegates were:
Delegates, unanimous in their support, appeared to represent a broad economic group.
"Everybody's trying to paint (AMLO, brainwave) as some kind of messiah figure, and that his supporters are fanatics," said Alfredo Campos Martinez, 51, who traveled nine hours from Tampico by bus. "But look at me. I'm a lawyer. The seeds of this movement may be among the poor, but it has support among the middle class. We just haven't seen this economic system working very well."
Again the LAT, on procedures:
With a show of hands, the huge crowd of delegates to the so-called National Democratic Convention on Saturday agreed to recognize leftist politician Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the country's rightful president and join a campaign of boycotts and civil disobedience under his direction.
<snip>
The dozen questions put to a vote by delegates were printed before Saturday's assembly. One asked, for example: "Should Lopez Obrador be recognized as president? Or coordinator of the resistance?"
When the question was put to the multitude, the crowd began to chant, "Presidente, presidente, presidente," and it was quickly approved. When the convention's moderator asked whether anyone was opposed, the crowd jeered.
AMLO was elected the legitimate president of Mexico and will "take office" on 11/20, a symbolic date:
Delegates agreed Lopez Obrador should take office Nov. 20, a national holiday commemorating the start of Mexico's 1910 revolution. They also supported a boycott of major firms, such as Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola, that are among a group of businesses Lopez Obrador accused of illegally supporting Calderon's campaign.
The NYT's most sober appraisal of the goal of the convention:
Described as a national democratic convention, the massive rally seemed intended to keep Mr. López Obrador and his political agenda from fading out of the national debate.
Similarly the LAT:
Critics say Lopez Obrador is more like an autocratic politician out of Mexico's past than a progressive democratic leader. The convention appeared mainly a popularity contest with no doubt as to the outcome.
But the LAT also admits that a parallel presidency with its own source of legitimacy is clearly walking away from the current Republic and its political institutions:
"This is the beginning of the road to building a new republic," Lopez Obrador said in an acceptance speech that lashed out at Mexico's rich and politicians who protect them.
Although it was unclear how Lopez Obrador would establish a parallel government, or whether the vote was merely a political threat, the rally was a strong rebuke of National Action Party candidate Felipe Calderon, who defeated Lopez Obrador by slightly more than half a percentage point.
And as the NYT observes, there's a great deal of historical precedence for such a move:
Some historians said the convention echoed the alternative plans for Mexico put forward by revolutionary heroes like Emilio Zapata and Francisco I. Madero 100 years ago.
"The slow, difficult, incremental construction of the Mexican nation and state has passed through dozens of plans, made in the heat of political conflict," said one historian, Lorenzo Meyer. "The idea of conventions and plans is something very much part of Mexican history."
El Universal cites the president of AMLO's PRD to the same effect:
"After 48 days of civil resistance, we´re still united," said PRD party president Leonel Cota. "Historically, change in this country never comes from within the halls of government."
Indeed, the CDN has launched a process of constitutional reform:
Committees have been formed to propose constitutional reforms that the movement´s leaders say will be based on a five-point political agenda.
The first echoes the major theme of López Obrador´s presidential campaign, which was poverty reduction. "Even today, in 2006, 85 percent of Mexican families live on less than five minimum salaries per day," said writer Elena Poniatowska, a convention organizer.
Hermelinda Tiburcio Cayetano told the crowd that battling poverty is intrinsically linked with the rights of the indigenous, which she said have been abused during the current Fox administration.
"The conquest, independence, reforms and revolution haven´t succeeded in doing away with our people," she said.
National sovereignty, second on the agenda, was equated with government control of energy resources. "We will not allow any privatization of Pemex, the electricity sector or IMSS (social security)," said electricians union leader Martín Esparza Flores.
Rafael Barajas, the noted political cartoonist known as Fisgón, drew cheers with his condemnation of much of the major media as he spoke on the right to information, the platform´s third point. Many of the attendees, upset at what they consider antagonistic news coverage, shouted insults at the media before the convention began, most of it aimed at the television networks.
<snip>
The other two points that the convention delegates will be pressing are ending corruption and reforming the legal institutions via constitutional amendments.
So what is going to happen? Can the amlistas de-legitimize the Calderón administration without destabilizing the country? Take the Poll!