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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2005 
Lopez Obrador Attacks Fox on Economy
 Sergio Chapa - The Brownsville Herald
| | Presidential front-runner, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, campaigns in Matamoros. |
Matamoros — Corruption and economic inequality have emptied entire villages in southern Mexico as the poor migrate to the United States in search of jobs they can’t find at home, Mexican presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in a Sunday evening campaign stop here.
The former Mexico City mayor and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) presidential candidate spent Sunday on a tour of the northeastern Mexican border starting in Nuevo Laredo and then making stops in Reynosa, Rio Bravo and Matamoros.
In his Matamoros stop, Lopez-Obrador, who supporters have nicknamed either “AMLO” or “Peje” wore a white, long-sleeved guayabera and used common speech as he painted himself as both a political outsider and a “common man”.
The populist candidate delivered a fiery speech to a crowd of 2,500 to 3,000 criticizing the values and “corruption” of the administration of current president Vicente Fox and his National Action Party (PAN).
Lopez-Obrador said Fox’s economic policy has pushed desperate people out of their villages to the border and into the United States in search of work.
“With the exception of a few spots, there is no economic growth in this country,” Lopez-Obrador said.
The PRD candidate also addressed the drug-related violence that has plagued Tamaulipas and other border states over the last year.
“In order to stop the violence we have to reach the hearts and minds of the young people,” Lopez-Obrador said. “We need education and jobs not more police or stricter laws.”
According to political observers, the former Mexico City mayor is expected to easily secure his party’s nomination in December and become the leading contender in Mexico’s July 2006 presidential elections.
Lopez-Obrador is expected to leave for Mexico City from the Matamoros airport this morning, but numerous supporters said they came from Brownsville and as far away as Fort Worth and San Antonio to hear his Sunday evening speech.
For the first time in Mexican history, Mexican citizens living abroad will be allowed to vote for their president by mail but Mexican laws prohibit any candidate or party from campaigning outside of Mexico.
Fort Worth resident David Miranda with the Red Ciudadana or People’s Network said his group supports Lopez-Obrador and brought many supporters from across to Texas to hear the speech.
Miranda said Lopez-Obrador leads in several polls of Mexican nationals living in the United States, getting 60 percent to 70 percent of the vote.
“The assignment we have at the Red Ciudadana is to inform the people about their right to vote,” Miranda said of the group’s voter registration drive.
Jorge de la Rosa with the Red Ciudadana of Brownsville said voter registration for Mexican nationals living in the United States started Saturday and that forms are available through any Mexican consulate or the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) Web site. |
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