Lopez Obrador brings together half a million Mexicans
10 Jul 2006
Saturday was a big day in Mexico City. As promised, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the “defeated” candidate for the presidency of the Mexican republic is anything but defeated as he managed to organize half a million Mexicans in the city’s main plaza, el Zócalo, to support the cause of refuting the results of the recent elections.
Once again, Mexican author Elena Poniatowska documents the event first hand in an editorial for Mexican daily La Jornada, reflecting on AMLO’s power to make everyone present feel as if they were visiting with a friend:
“El Zócalo is Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s living room. He asks, of more than 500,000 men and women of every age, “How about Wednesday at six?” and they respond “yes”, raise one hand in unison and shake it in the air. “Here, here I am. It’s me, look at me.” They feel recognized. The intimacy with AMLO covers the whole plaza.
The public conversation becomes private. Each man, each woman is his personal conversation partner. Andrés Manuel consults with them again: “Sunday the 16th, is that okay? Is it alright if we start out at the National Anthropology Museum?” “YES!” The “yes” makes waves through everyone’s body and the Mexican flags sustain it in the air. “Yes!” He asks again: “At 4:00 pm?”
Mane, my son, who feels directly involved responds to him aloud from 100 meters away: “No, I can’t make that time, I already have plans,” and others laugh. Andrés Manuel López Obrador has turned el Zócalo in his living room. He receives us and sits down for a chat. We feel at home in his home. No matter that it’s raining and that umbrellas are opening, the hours of waiting don’t matter, feeling uncomfortable or squished doesn’t matter, the people are alive. A woman has brought her canaries, another her rooster, and covered them up well. Small children aren’t afraid of the multitude either. No one is afraid, in this plaza the word “danger” is unknown. Here, no Mexican is a danger to the other. “Órale, okay, don’t push,” and order is re-established, as well as humor.
Peace, AMLO insists on peace, everything will be done in peace. When AMLO says that we’re not going to take over the highways, a woman responds as if he were talking to her: “But, why not?”
I remember the rocks that the campesinos placed on the highway in La Paz, Bolivia, in 2001, at Titicaca lake and then later removed so that we could pass. Surely they were followers of Evo Morales.
“We’re going to do everything the peaceful way, no violence,” and AMLO gets the word of mouth going, casts out the nets (“Bring 10 more people”), an immense popular movement has been born. “Here no one gives up,” says one woman to another who is crying. “I’m crying out of happiness to see so many people.” A man with a white moustache warns “2006 is not 1988.” Start up the car, put it in first gear, the popular movement is based on consensus: “First things first, do you all approve that we start off like this? Are we are all in agreement on doing this to start off? What do you think if we make a commitment that everyone here bring at least 10 people more on Sunday, July 16th? What do you think? Is that okay?”
- Elena Poniatowska
The Mexican elections may be officially over, but the story is far from over.
Related: Check out an amazing image from this event on Cybergus’ Flickr page.
Via / La Jornada
Photo via elpais.es
- Tags: amlo, elena poniatowska, mexican elections
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5 Responses to Lopez Obrador brings together half a million Mexicans
The Gossiper
July 10th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Juan Gabriel has apparently joined in and wants a recount. I find it difficult to take him seriously, so instead of bashing him or his actions I’ll ask you. Any thoughts on this?
Jennifer Woodard Maderazo
July 10th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Hmm…harnessing his star power seems like a good idea, but the fact that he doesn’t have the cleanest hands per his tax evasion incidents makes me think he’s not the best spokesperson for “transparency”.
edgardo
July 10th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Pfft! This article fails to mention the stupid claims Lopez Obrador made at his meeting in el Zócalo. He said that the P.R.I. handed Felipe Calderon the presidency. Insisting that like in 1988, there was electoral fraud.
Now, such a claim could be easily digested by many of his followers. Plenty who never finished the third grade and have little memory of the past. But to those who know better, it is clear that this is not 1988 (there was no IFE in 1988) and also there is the fact that the P.R.I. presently has no freakin’ power to hand over to anybody.
They (the P.R.I.) lost seats in the senate and the house. And their candidate for the presidency had a colossal defeat (FINISHED THIRD PLACE). So how can Lopez Obrador say with a straight face that the P.R.I. handed the presidency to Calderon? Is such a stupid claim!
And for Lopez Obrador to say to the foreign press that this election was the most fraudalent in the PAST 70 YEARS (when the P.R.I. had all the power in Mexico) is just stupid. He should know better than that. Since 1976, Obrador was a member of the P.R.I. political party. He even was president of that party in his home state of Tabasco. And he knows very well that every election held when the P.R.I. was in power, was fraudalent. Every single one! Including the ones where he was elected to anything.
The election held this year in Mexico, was a victory for democracy. But this self proclaimed “messiah of the people” wants to keep his image intact and thus he will never admit that he lost. That way he can remain “pure” and “untouched” by defeat in the eyes of his fanatic admirers and supporters. And perhaps run for office in 2012.
But let me make a prediction. Calderon will become officially the president of Mexico and Lopez Obrador will never accept his defeat.
I can live with that!
Alex
July 11th, 2006 at 10:21 am
I should only refer you to this article : http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article1967.html.
There is definite evidence of fraud. A very small partial recount resulted in a 16% increase for Obrador. If the recount were continued in this fasion, Obrador would be ahead by a million votes.
The government and IFE knows this but it is not in their interest to recount the votes. Why would they do that when they can get away with stopping the recount and let the fraud continue? What incentive do they have? Of course it’s in their interest to let Calderon take power illigetimately. And that’s what they’ll do, hopefuly unless the Mexican people demand a recount loudly enough.
Leah Reynoso
July 11th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Why we should believe anything Lopez Obrador says?
When Obrador was elected Head of Government of the Federal District (D.F.) in 2000. He begun using his position of power to promote his ideas on a national level. He would do that instead of trying to do his job as head of goverment.
What he did is increase the debt of the Federal Distric with unnecessary and totally superfluous constructions. The result was that every inhabitant of the F.D. had a debt of 16 million pesos. But he never informed them of that. So they thought everything was honky-dory. And they were amazed of his ability to modernize the city. And Obrador used that deception to gain face on a national level.
His actions created suspicions in the political arena. Eventually he was then asked by reporters if he was running for president in 2006. He denied it and even said: “I will not run for president!”.
But as we all know, he LIED to everybody. He did run for president. He just didn’t wanted to admit that he started his campain for president since the year 2000. And that he was using moneys of the people to start his campain illegally (you can only use the money the IFE gives you). And that was an UNFAIR advantage that to this day, leftist supporters of Obrador will try to avoid talking about. But sure, they talk about the unfairness of Calderon getting a little promotion by Vicente Fox now and then. Pathetic.
The we have the fact that Lopez Obrador before the election said in several televized interviews, that he would ACCEPT defeat in the elections even if he would lose by a single vote. Well, he lied again. Surprise surprise!
Fact is, in every freaggin’ election there is some type of irregularities. It goes with the territory. No democracy on Earth is free from that. Look at what happened in the US recently.
But in the recent elections in Mexico, such irregularities were kept at a minimum. Even the foreign observers gave the election “thumbs up”. And recently the entire EU congratulated Mexico for their elections. The president of Spain (a leftist!) did the same thing.
During the meeting at el Zocalo, Lopez Obrador called Vicente Fox a “traitor to democracy”. Ain’t it funny? Because it’s actually the other way around. Lopez Obrador, by constantly bashing the IFE (an independant organization made-up of civilians) and insulting the President and the foreing observers, he has become in fact, a traitor to democracy. If he even believe in democracy in the first place if at all.
In actions, Obrador seems more like a frustrated dictator.