[Previous entry: "Jermaine O'Neal, Race and Hip Hop"] [Next entry: ""Bitches'" Liberation? Whatever Happened to the Struggle for Women's Liberation?"]

04/18/2005:

"Lopez Obrador, Mexico's Would-Be Mandela, Stares into the Darkness"

by John Ross
Andes Manuel Lopez Obrador looked out upon the sea of brown faces flooding the great Zocalo plaza at the heart of this ancient Aztec city and pleaded for peace. Within hours, Mexico's political bosses would strip him of his immunity from prosecution ("el desafuero"), displace him as the extraordinarily popular mayor of the hemisphere's most teeming megalopolis, and bar him from the 2006 presidential ballot ­ and his supporters were not at all happy about it. "No estas solo! No estas solo!" 300,000 throats roared over and over again,"You are not alone!"

The official police count for the April 7th Zocalo rally was 330,000, perhaps the biggest outpouring of support for a politician here since Lopez Obrador's predecessor as the leader of Mexico's electoral Left, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, was swindled out of the presidency 17 years ago.

To consolidate the parallels between then and now, AMLO as he is universally acronymed, would utilize the moment to announce his candidacy for the presidency of this long-suffering republic in next year's elections no matter what his legal entanglements might be by then. The disclosure was anything but a surprise ­ AMLO has been leading his closest rivals in President Vicente Fox's National Action PAN Party and the long-ruling (71 years) PRI since 2003 mid-terms by margins of 10 to 20 points in the most respected polls.

Mexico's civil society has often responded en masse in the face of myriad injustices perpetrated by the nation's political class but the size of the turnout in defense of "El Peje" (for "Pejelagarto", a gar-like fish native to his home state of Tabasco) was remarkable because it came early in the official mourning for Pope John Paul II in a country that insists it is 93% Catholic (Lopez Obrador is himself a member of an Evangelical church.) Despite papal media saturation, the dead pontiff played second fiddle to El Peje in Mexico April 7th.
Full Article: counterpunch.org

Mexico's Fox Won't Pardon Leftist Mayor
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government has ruled out a pardon for the country's most popular politician in the event he is found guilty in a land dispute case, which would prevent him from running for president next year.

Days after a presidential spokesman floated the idea of a pardon for Mexico City's left-wing mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the government quashed it on Monday.
Full Article: nytimes.com/reuters