 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Mexico Leftist Loses Key Vote in Presidential Bid
 Alistair Bell - Reuters
| | Mexico City's leftist mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, compared his plight to that of U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. |
Mexico City - Mexico City's leftist mayor lost a vote on Friday that could derail his presidential bid in 2006, as a legislative committee recommended Congress strip him of his immunity to face contempt of court charges.
The committee voted 3-1 against Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who decried the charges as a politically motivated bid to oust him from the race in which he is the front-runner.
He vowed to continue his campaign and said he would soon organize a massive street protest against what he described as an "unjust, authoritarian and anti-democratic" plan by rivals scared of his populist policies.
"That day will mark the beginning of a new era of fighting for the respect of the popular will and civil rights ... of all Mexicans," Lopez Obrador said.
The lower house is expected to vote on stripping Lopez Obrador's immunity in coming days. If Congress votes against him, the mayor will face legal charges in a Mexico City land expropriation dispute that could force him out of the presidential election.
Thousands of protesters gathered outside Congress and in Mexico City's vast central square to demand the popular mayor be allowed to run, fueling tensions in a case that has polarized Mexican politics for months.
Dozens of police on horseback guarded the entrance to the legislature.
Lopez Obrador's critics accuse him of pressuring Congress with implicit threats of violence, although he insisted on Friday that the protests should be peaceful.
"This is only just beginning," he said, accusing President Vicente Fox of being the mastermind behind the legal case.
Both Fox's conservative National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, lined up against Lopez Obrador in the congressional committee vote on Friday.
Recent polls have shown Lopez Obrador expanding his lead in the three-way race for 2006 to double digits. Signs supporting the mayor have appeared on highway overpasses and billboards across Mexico City.
He compared his plight to that of U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., saying King suffered similar persecution when he was arrested and sent to jail on speeding charges during the 1960s.
Lopez Obrador has worried some Wall Street investors with vows to overhaul Mexico's economic policies if elected. However, the prospect of widespread street protests if the mayor is unable to run scares some people even more.
"It's better having him run and either win or lose than to have him locked up in jail with all the noise and protests and everything that puts the country at a standstill," said Bret Rosen, assistant vice president for Trust Company of the West, an investment management firm based in Los Angeles.
Trade in Mexico's stock market was subdued on Friday as investors awaited the commission's decision.
"The impeachment process has considerably helped (Lopez Obrador's) popularity," U.S. investment house Merrill Lynch said in a report. "The impeachment case has given him tremendous name recognition across the country."
Fox, who is barred by the constitution from running for re-election, says he is merely allowing Mexico's courts to do their job without political interference.
One PRI deputy who voted against Lopez Obrador said he had done so to protect the rule of law and prevent "chaos, disorder and anarchy."
Additional reporting by Brian Winter and Daniel Aguilar |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us