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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2005 
López Obrador to Offer Funds from Campaign
 Wire services
| | Former Mexico City Mayor and presidential candidate of the Democratic Revolution Party, Manuel Lopez Obrador, center, poses for photos with his new advisory board, which is made up of public figures who will advise him on subjects ranging from law and order, to culture and the economy in Mexico City. (AP Photo/ Claudio Cruz) |
The former mayor of Mexico City and front-runner ahead of next summer's presidential race said Thursday he planned to donate 10 percent of his campaign war chest to victims of flooding in southern and central Mexico, and hoped other candidates will do the same.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at a news conference that his Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) would donate a tenth of its campaign funds to victims of heavy rains associated with Hurricane Stan that triggered mudslides and killed more than 40 people in five states.
"This signifies a reduction for all parties, for us, the candidates," López Obrador said. "But I think those of us who hope to govern the country can't be campaigning while there are shortages, while people are suffering because of these floods."
The constitution bars President Vicente Fox from seeking a second, six-year term and most public opinion polls show López Obrador ahead in the race to replace him.
López Obrador, who stepped down as mayor July 31 to campaign full-time, said he would formally petition the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) to make the donation in coming days.
He said he hoped presidential hopefuls from other major parties, including President Vicente Fox's National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico from 1929 until 2000, would follow his lead.
López Obrador said his party plans to spend 1.4 billion pesos (US136 million) on the presidential campaign, and that he would donate 140 million pesos (US13.6 million) to Hurricane Stan victims.
In Mexico, the election commission dolls out campaign funds for each party and any request to spend part of that money on activities other than seeking elected office has to be approved by electoral officials.
López Obrador said that if the commission refuses to allow him to make the donation, he will instruct national PRD leaders to offer 10 percent of their operating budgets to the governments of hard-hit states.
"I can't campaign and be seeing the scenes I'm seeing on television," López Obrador said. "I don't care if they criticize me, or how they are going to take this. I have to make decisions and I'm making them."
Late Thursday, PAN leader Manuel Espino said he thought López Obrador's plan "was not a bad proposal," but added that "I hope it's not just campaign rhetoric."
"I concur with Andrés Manuel's sentiments totally," Espino said. "But they should be truthful, not a simulation or campaign promise."
Authorities estimate that heavy rains triggered flooding and mudslides that destroyed more than 173,000 homes in Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Puebla and Hidalgo states. Of the more than 40 people killed, 29 of the victims were from Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala.
Hurricane Stan came ashore in Veracruz on Oct. 4 and moved over Chiapas and Oaxaca before weakening.
Some 90,000 people remain in government shelters, and federal officials have estimated the damage at between 20 and 25 million pesos (US1.8 and 2.3 million). |
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