Saturday, September 02, 2006
Protest Keeps Fox From Giving State of the Union Speech
September 2, 2006
Protest Keeps Fox From Giving State of the Union Speech
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 1 — Leftist lawmakers who have charged that fraud marred the presidential election in July staged a protest inside Congress that prevented President Vicente Fox from making his final state of the union speech to lawmakers on Friday, ending a tense day of political brinksmanship here.
Federal riot police officers and soldiers with water cannons had sealed off the Mexican Congress with miles of steel fence to protect Mr. Fox from thousands of leftist protesters camped out in the city’s center.
The president had vowed he would give his last state of the union message, despite threats from the leftist candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his followers to stop him.
At the last minute, however, Mr. López Obrador backed down. In front of at least 5,000 supporters in the capital’s central square, Mr. López Obrador, the former mayor of this sprawling city, told his followers it would be a mistake to confront the barricades and the police surrounding Congress. He said the “fascist” government of Mr. Fox would seize on any clashes between the police and the protesters to justify the brutal repression of his movement.
“We are not going to fall into any trap, we are not going to fall into any provocation,” he told the crowd, which had waited through a rainstorm to hear him speak. “Only those who are not in the right resort to force and violence, and we are in the right.”
Still, lawmakers from Mr. López Obrador’s Democratic Revolution Party protested inside the Chamber of Deputies, taking over the podium just before President Fox was to speak at 7 p.m. Several waved Mexican flags and signs calling Mr. Fox “a traitor to democracy.” The president of the chamber, Deputy Jorge Zermiño, was forced to call a recess.
Mr. Fox arrived 15 minutes later. As he entered the chamber, wearing the traditional red, white and green presidential sash, leaders of his party said it would be impossible for him to speak. He dropped off his yearly report, turned on his heel and left.
At 9 p.m., the government broadcast a recorded version of the president’s speech, complete with pictures of happy citizens to illustrate the gains his government has made in housing, education and health care.
Mr. Fox staunchly defended the balance of powers and the government institutions Mr. López Obrador claims are corrupt, notably the Federal Election Institute and the electoral tribunal. He also stressed that the rule of law was the basis of democracy and he took a veiled shot at Mr. López Obrador, saying “no one should try to corral democracy through intransigence and violence.”
“Whoever attacks our laws and institutions, attacks our history, attacks Mexico,” he said.
Mr. López Obrador claims he won the election, even though an official count, vetted by the country’s highest electoral tribunal, showed that the candidate from Mr. Fox’s National Action Party, Felipe Calderón, eked out a razor-thin victory.
Rather than concede, Mr. López Obrador has promised to convene his own national assembly and set up a parallel government this month. He has said that he will never recognize Mr. Calderón’s victory and has declared that Mr. Fox violated Mexican election law by campaigning for Mr. Calderón, as did various business leaders who spent millions on attack ads against Mr. López Obrador in the last days of the campaign.
He also claimed that his opponents stuffed ballot boxes with votes for Mr. Calderón and disposed of votes for him in some states, a charge Mr. Calderón’s aides called absurd.
On Friday, at least 6,000 police officers in riot gear ringed the congressional building with steel barricades and blocked nearby subway stations to discourage demonstrations. Before the lawmakers’ protest, the only demonstration occurred just before 6 p.m., when a small group from the Francisco Villa Popular Front, a militant group allied with Mr. López Obrador, painted antigovernment slogans on the fence and threw rocks at the wall and at the police, who ignored them.
For more than a month, thousands of Mr. López Obrador’s supporters have blocked the major avenue running through the city, Paseo de la Reforma, and camped out in the main square, Plaza de la Constitution.
Newly elected lawmakers from Mr. López Obrador’s party arrived en masse at the legislative building about 1 p.m., broke through one of the barricades, marched into the chamber and denounced the presence of the president’s federal police.
“This is unforgivable,” announced Senator Carlos Navarette. “The chambers should not be invaded by the federal police. This is the house of the deputies, not of the president.”
Mr. Navarette later led the protest among the lawmakers, denouncing the ring of police officers outside as an infringement on Mexicans’ right to protest as his partisans rushed the dais and occupied it.
Earlier this week, an electoral tribunal charged with ratifying the election and resolving challenges threw out most of Mr. López Obrador’s arguments that there was widespread fraud. The court still must rule on his request to annul the election on grounds that the president and private businesses interfered too much in the campaign.
Aides to Mr. López Obrador said he had acknowledged privately that the court would probably name Mr. Calderón president-elect next week.
What form Mr. López Obrador’s protest movement will now take remains unclear, but it is certain to keep him in the public eye for the next six years and make it hard for Mr. Calderón to govern.
“He’s saying to the government, ‘Everything that I am going to do is going to give you trouble,’ ” a close adviser said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Antonio Betancourt and Marc Lacey contributed reporting for this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/world/americas/02mexico.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=americas&pagewanted=print
Protest Keeps Fox From Giving State of the Union Speech
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 1 — Leftist lawmakers who have charged that fraud marred the presidential election in July staged a protest inside Congress that prevented President Vicente Fox from making his final state of the union speech to lawmakers on Friday, ending a tense day of political brinksmanship here.
Federal riot police officers and soldiers with water cannons had sealed off the Mexican Congress with miles of steel fence to protect Mr. Fox from thousands of leftist protesters camped out in the city’s center.
The president had vowed he would give his last state of the union message, despite threats from the leftist candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his followers to stop him.
At the last minute, however, Mr. López Obrador backed down. In front of at least 5,000 supporters in the capital’s central square, Mr. López Obrador, the former mayor of this sprawling city, told his followers it would be a mistake to confront the barricades and the police surrounding Congress. He said the “fascist” government of Mr. Fox would seize on any clashes between the police and the protesters to justify the brutal repression of his movement.
“We are not going to fall into any trap, we are not going to fall into any provocation,” he told the crowd, which had waited through a rainstorm to hear him speak. “Only those who are not in the right resort to force and violence, and we are in the right.”
Still, lawmakers from Mr. López Obrador’s Democratic Revolution Party protested inside the Chamber of Deputies, taking over the podium just before President Fox was to speak at 7 p.m. Several waved Mexican flags and signs calling Mr. Fox “a traitor to democracy.” The president of the chamber, Deputy Jorge Zermiño, was forced to call a recess.
Mr. Fox arrived 15 minutes later. As he entered the chamber, wearing the traditional red, white and green presidential sash, leaders of his party said it would be impossible for him to speak. He dropped off his yearly report, turned on his heel and left.
At 9 p.m., the government broadcast a recorded version of the president’s speech, complete with pictures of happy citizens to illustrate the gains his government has made in housing, education and health care.
Mr. Fox staunchly defended the balance of powers and the government institutions Mr. López Obrador claims are corrupt, notably the Federal Election Institute and the electoral tribunal. He also stressed that the rule of law was the basis of democracy and he took a veiled shot at Mr. López Obrador, saying “no one should try to corral democracy through intransigence and violence.”
“Whoever attacks our laws and institutions, attacks our history, attacks Mexico,” he said.
Mr. López Obrador claims he won the election, even though an official count, vetted by the country’s highest electoral tribunal, showed that the candidate from Mr. Fox’s National Action Party, Felipe Calderón, eked out a razor-thin victory.
Rather than concede, Mr. López Obrador has promised to convene his own national assembly and set up a parallel government this month. He has said that he will never recognize Mr. Calderón’s victory and has declared that Mr. Fox violated Mexican election law by campaigning for Mr. Calderón, as did various business leaders who spent millions on attack ads against Mr. López Obrador in the last days of the campaign.
He also claimed that his opponents stuffed ballot boxes with votes for Mr. Calderón and disposed of votes for him in some states, a charge Mr. Calderón’s aides called absurd.
On Friday, at least 6,000 police officers in riot gear ringed the congressional building with steel barricades and blocked nearby subway stations to discourage demonstrations. Before the lawmakers’ protest, the only demonstration occurred just before 6 p.m., when a small group from the Francisco Villa Popular Front, a militant group allied with Mr. López Obrador, painted antigovernment slogans on the fence and threw rocks at the wall and at the police, who ignored them.
For more than a month, thousands of Mr. López Obrador’s supporters have blocked the major avenue running through the city, Paseo de la Reforma, and camped out in the main square, Plaza de la Constitution.
Newly elected lawmakers from Mr. López Obrador’s party arrived en masse at the legislative building about 1 p.m., broke through one of the barricades, marched into the chamber and denounced the presence of the president’s federal police.
“This is unforgivable,” announced Senator Carlos Navarette. “The chambers should not be invaded by the federal police. This is the house of the deputies, not of the president.”
Mr. Navarette later led the protest among the lawmakers, denouncing the ring of police officers outside as an infringement on Mexicans’ right to protest as his partisans rushed the dais and occupied it.
Earlier this week, an electoral tribunal charged with ratifying the election and resolving challenges threw out most of Mr. López Obrador’s arguments that there was widespread fraud. The court still must rule on his request to annul the election on grounds that the president and private businesses interfered too much in the campaign.
Aides to Mr. López Obrador said he had acknowledged privately that the court would probably name Mr. Calderón president-elect next week.
What form Mr. López Obrador’s protest movement will now take remains unclear, but it is certain to keep him in the public eye for the next six years and make it hard for Mr. Calderón to govern.
“He’s saying to the government, ‘Everything that I am going to do is going to give you trouble,’ ” a close adviser said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Antonio Betancourt and Marc Lacey contributed reporting for this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/world/americas/02mexico.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=americas&pagewanted=print
# posted by Nancy T. @ 8:49 AM 
