Self-styled 'legitimate president' to tour Mexico

Mexican leftist politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador will tour Mexico as the country's "legitimate president," to foment a broad progressive movement. On the 96th anniversary of the start of the revolution that promised to bring democracy and social justice to Mexico–still pending debts–López Obrador, who says he was cheated of victory in the July 2 elections, declared himself the "true" representative of the people before tens of thousands of his followers in Mexico City's famous zócalo square on Nov. 20. In the ceremony, he draped a red, green and white presidential sash across his shoulders and reiterated his refusal to recognize the government that will be sworn in on Dec. 1, led by president-elect Felipe Calderón of the governing National Action Party (PAN). According to some analysts, the "proclamation" of a parallel president was a democratic act necessary to bring about change in the country. But others say it was a farce that will mark the definitive decline of López Obrador and the Mexican left. The leading opposition figure, a position that no one is disputing for now, will travel around the country to foment the emergence of a broad social opposition movement, propose legal reforms and lead the opposition to Calderón. The 12 members of his parallel "cabinet"–leaders of López Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and former officials of the Mexico City government that the former presidential candidate headed as a popular mayor between 2001 and 2005–will also tour the country. It will not be a "shadow cabinet," the PRD explained, but will take critical stances, block anti-poor policies and make "viable" proposals for changing a country dominated by vested interests and a factious right represented by the PAN. López Obrador presented an agenda with 20 objectives, including the approval of a new constitution, caps on the rates charged for public and private services, the right to a fair wage, and the creation of a strong welfare state. He said his aim was to rescue the country from the "neofascist oligarchy that has taken over the country's institutions and which has no scruples." The zócalo, which has a capacity for around 200,000 people, was packed on Nov. 20. The criticisms of López Obrador's political strategy that have been voiced within the left in the past few weeks were not heard in that festive atmosphere. Nor did anyone talk about the loss of support that the PRD has suffered since the July elections, according to opinion polls. That decline was reflected in the resounding defeat suffered by López Obrador's candidate for governor of his home state of Tabasco in October. In a national telephone survey published on Nov. 20 by the daily Reforma, 56 percent of respondents disapproved of López Obrador's proclamation of himself as the "legitimate president," 20 percent had no opinion, and 19 percent approved. The survey also showed that 61 percent of those interviewed believed that the decision would hurt the country, 17 percent said it would have no major impact, and 16 percent said it would help the country. "The left has made a high-risk bid with this move, which certainly satisfies its supporters. But time will tell whether it achieves its goal or ends up with a serious loss of credibility and votes," political analyst Aroldo Romero at the National Autonomous University of Mexico told IPS. On July 2, López Obrador took 20 percent of the vote, just half a point less than Calderón–a significant level of support, but insufficient to speak "in the name of the people," as the former candidate claims to do, said Romero. The leftist leader says he will defend the principles of the early 20th century Mexican revolution led by Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, aimed at transforming the country, through a peaceful movement. Some one million people died in Mexico between 1910 and 1920, around one-tenth of the population of the time, as a result of the war that gave rise to 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which was defeated by President Vicente Fox of the PAN in 2000. Colegio de Mexico historian Lorenzo Meyer said the left is today the driving force behind the changes that the country needs in order to achieve full democracy and justice. In his view, the parallel government created by the PRD faces the challenge of channeling the social demands of the sectors that have been hit hardest by the free-market policies followed by successive Mexican governments. Half of the country's population of 103 million lives below the poverty line. Broad social movements have emerged in the last few months, like the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, which has staged a popular uprising in that southern state since June. Trade unions have also announced that they will step up their opposition activity. In addition, small guerrilla groups have reemerged, setting off small explosions without consequences, and handing out pamphlets. For now there are no plans for a coalition between those sectors and López Obrador's movement, although that possibility has not been ruled out. Prior to the declaration of a "parallel government," López Obrador's supporters camped out for more than 40 days in the capital, occupying the zócalo and blocking traffic along the central Reforma avenue between July and September to protest the electoral fraud allegedly committed against their candidate and to demand a vote-by-vote recount. However, the electoral court rejected the demand for a total recount, and upheld Calderón's triumph. Once all institutional channels were exhausted to challenge the election results, López Obrador and the PRD created a National Democratic Convention made up of social forces and followers of the former candidate, which will meet every six months. It was the Convention that decided in September that its leader would be proclaimed "legitimate president" of Mexico. The PRD and the small Trabajo and Convergencia parties, which made up the electoral alliance that backed López Obrador, founded the Progressive Broad Front, and announced that they would back their leader's proposals from their seats in Congress, where they are now the second largest force after the ruling PAN. Their next aim is to attempt to keep Calderón from taking office on Dec. 1.