Andrés Manuel López Obrador

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[[Image:Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.jpg|20IOUPUIUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU relieve him of his duties. Later, using his constitutional powers, Fox fired Ebrard, while Ramon Martin Huerta, a member of Fox' cabinet, received a reprimand, and continued to hold the Secretary of Public Safety until his death in an helicopter accident. López Obrador later appointed Ebrard as Secretary of Social Development, and supported his candidacy in the PRD primaries to run for the government of Mexico City.

The opposition claims that the aging metro system was neglected (see Mexico City Metro). Funds assigned to its maintenance were diverted to the construction of the new upper levels of major routes in the city. In lieu of the planned subway line along Avenida Insurgentes, López Obrador's government deployed a lower cost solution, the Metrobús, with lower capacity than an underground line would have had. The Metrobus has also been criticized because it uses up a dedicated lane an underground would not have used. However, due to the narrowing of lanes and central area the available lanes for automobiles remain the same. Small buses called colectivos aren't allowed to transit there anymore, so that some traffic problems could be solved.

Desafuero

Main article: Desafuero

] All elected government officials in Mexico, from mayors to the President, and all legislators, local and federal, have an official immunity called fuero that prevents criminal charges to be presented against them. If a person protected by fuero commits a crime, there has to be a process to remove the immunity so the person can be presented with such charges.

In 2001 a landowner sued the government of Mexico City for having expropriated a strip of land. The expropriation took place before López Obrador was elected Head of Government of the Federal District. The strip of land had been expropriated to fulfill a contract in which the government of Mexico City had to give access to a high level hospital in an upscale part of town. López Obrador had to decide whether to comply with the court order regarding the potential lawsuit over the strip of land or fulfilling the contract with the hospital. His administration chose the latter.

The matter was kept quiet until in 2004 the Attorney General's Office asked Congress to strip López Obrador of his immunity under charges of a misdemeanor (ignoring a court order). Under federal law, any person with criminal charges during the electoral process would not be eligible to contest in a presidential election. Because of the general slowness of the judicial system, it was very likely that a process started in 2004 would continue until the presidential campaigns of 2006, and so the process of bringing López Obrador to court would have ended his ambitions of running for the presidency in 2006.

López Obrador used the moment to advance his popularity, and even put himself in a position where he was about to set foot on jail, only to be bailed out by political opponents who claimed López Obrador should follow the same judicial process as anyone else. One of the largest public marches ever seen was organized in support of López Obrador against the desafuero.

Some analysts agree that the desafuero process was politically motivated by the high approval ratings shown by López Obrador. Likewise, some newspaper editorial boards throughout the world charged that the desafuero was politically motivated, and that it should be stopped, and that excluding Obrador from the upcoming elections would delegitimize the eventual winner. Still, some analysts believed that López Obrador should have faced the force of the law, and thus becoming the first and only public official in Mexican history to be prosecuted (after a long tradition of impunity in government which still continues).

After congress voted in favor of removing López Obrador from immunity, López Obrador resigned his post for a few days. President Vicente Fox, wanting to avoid a political cataclysm, and knowing that the decision made by the congress was against the will of millions of people , appeared on national TV in April 2005, indicating that the issue would not be pursued any longer. The whole deal ended up closed on a technicality, and López Obrador, though without immunity, was not prosecuted (and thus remained eligible to compete in the presidential election). A few weeks later, Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha resigned.

Presidential campaign

In September 2005, López Obrador was nominated as presidential pre-candidate for the PRD for the 2006 general election after the "moral leader" of the party, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, declined to participate in the internal elections when polls showed López Obrador had 90% party support.

Until March 2006 he was considered the presidential front runner by the majority of polls, however polls in late April show a steady decline in López Obrador's numbers. Many polls at the time showed López Obrador to have fallen to second place. In others he continued at his top position. López Obrador discredited the first polls, indicating foul play coming from Los Pinos.

López Obrador has been severely criticized by left wing politicians and analysts for including in his close staff many former members of the PRI who actively fought against his party in the 1980s and 1990s, most notably Arturo Nunez(one of the FOBAPROA's author),Manuel Camacho Solís and Marcelo Ebrard. Also the guerrilla leader of the EZLN, Subcommander Marcos, openly declared López Obrador to be a false left-wing candidate, arguing that he is a centrist candidate. The "moral leader" and founder of the PRD, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, has not participated in any campaign events but has stated that he would still vote for his party, the PRD.

López Obrador's proposals, including his 50 commitments, have produced mixed opinions from analysts. The Washington Post ran a news article indicating that López Obrador used Franklin D. Roosevelt as inspiration for his 50 commitments..

On 19 May, Roberto Madrazo, presidential candidate for the PRI, considered by all polls to be in a distant third place, hinted at the possibility of an alliance with López Obrador to prevent Felipe Calderón from winning the election, after both the parties have criticized the government for what, in their opinion, is supposed illegal support by the federal government for the PAN candidate's campaigning. The PRD has said that both parties have entered into an information sharing agreement regarding the issue. This, combined with calls from high ranking PRI member Manuel Bartlett (former interior secretary when 1988 fraud was commited) to vote for López Obrador, aroused media speculation that the PRI and the PRD would indeed ally.

On 28 May, after AMLO had discounted any such alliance because the PRI and PRD political tendencies cannot be conciliated, Roberto Madrazo indicated that his comments were misunderstood, and that he will not step down nor will he endorse another candidate. On 6 July 2006, Felipe Calderón was announced as the winner of the presidential election by a narrow margin of 243,934 votes, though the claim is disputed by López Obrador, who claims there were widespread irregularities in the vote and wants every single vote recounted (A generalized recount is only legal in extreme circumstances according to Mexican Electoral Tribunal Jurisprudence S3ELJ14-2004). On 8 July 2006, López Obrador called for nationwide protests to ask for a recount of all votes, stating that "the government would be responsible for any flare-up of anger after officials rejected his demand for a manual recount of Sunday's extremely close vote."

López Obrador's 50 commitments can be found here .

Post-Election Protests

See also: Mexican general election 2006 controversies

López Obrador announced his victory to his supporters on the night of the election day stating that according to exit polls he had won by 500,000 votes. He did not cite the polls in that speech, but they include Covarrubias and another from IMO. Several days later, the Federal Electoral Institute published its final tally, which had him down by a margin of 0.58%, or approximately 243,000 votes. López Obrador has since initiated legal challenges, claiming election irregularities in 54% of polling stations, and demanded publicly the votes to be recounted "vote by vote" in all polling stations. The case was discussed by the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF).

While the case was discussed in the Electoral Tribunal, the IFE has called for the candidates to refrain from proclaiming themselves as winner, president-elect, or president. Both candidates have disobeyed this call. In an interview by U.S. Spanish-language TV network Univisión, López Obrador referred to himself as "President of Mexico". Likewise, both President Fox and Felipe Calderón have referred to Felipe Calderon as the new president of Mexico.

López Obrador has held several gatherings in downtown Mexico City with hundreds of thousands of people attending, pressuring for a "vote for vote" general recount. On 31 July, in an act of civil disobedience, he organized the blocking 12 kilometers of one of the most important roads in the capital, Paseo de la Reforma, which houses several important hotels, corporate main offices and the Mexico City Stock Market. Business groups have claimed the blockades are costing Mexico City businesses located near the areas of conflict are daily losses of "350,000,000 Mexican pesos" (about US$35 million). In order to compensate, they have asked the Government of Mexico City to exempt them from paying taxes this year.

On Saturday 5 August, the TEPJF met in public session to decide the outcome of the complaints the PRD and its coalition partners' filed alleging irregularities in the tallies in a portion of the polling stations. The seven magistrates voted unanimously to order the recount of 11,839 ballot boxes in 155 districts (9.2% of the total), despite López Obrador's public demand that all votes and ballot boxes be recounted. The TEPJF based its decision of a partial recount on its finding that that, despite publicly demanding a vote-by-vote general recount, López Obrador's party filed legal challenges to 71,000 polling stations (54%). Therefore, by law, the TEPJF found it could order a recount of only those 71,000 polling stations in controversy. The TEPJF ruled that it could not order a recount of the votes not in controversy because "the certainty asked by the Coalition is tied to the respect for the tallies certified by the citizens in the polling stations not in controversy". However, the TEPJF did certify that principles of certainty in elections were grounds for a recount in some of the stations in controversy, since there was evidence of possible irregularities. Nevertheless, the TEPJF discarded most of the proofs presented by the PRD and other independent groups (mostly from public universities) considering them to be "notably improcedent" and without giving more arguments.

López Obrador rejected the resolution as narrow and he and his followers thus intensified the so-called "civil resistance". For about two hours on 9 August, protesters took over the tollbooths on four federal highways. These roads link Mexico City to Cuernavaca, Querétaro, Toluca, and Pachuca. The protesters blocked personnel from charging tolls and allowed vehicles to pass freely. Also, hundreds of López Obrador supporters surrounded four of the main offices of foreign banks, including Citibank's Banamex, BBVA's Bancomer, and the Mexican subsidiary of HSBC, closing them for about four hours, claiming that the foreign banks "ransack the country" and "widen the barrier between rich and poor" and because these banks had participated in the politics of the country supporting the PAN candidate Felipe Calderon.

On 8 August López Obrador sent a message to the press, regarding the blockades, where he explained to the people, "10 reasons" in which he stands to continue the "peaceful civil resistance": 10 razones para resistencia civil.

López Obrador will hold a rally, which he is calling a "democratic convention", on September 16, Independence Day, when a military parade is also held. The "democratic convention" should start after the military parade to avoid injuries.

Since Mexican institutions are linked and protect each other, López Obrador has said that the country's institutions "no longer work" and has called for the creation of new ones. . He was quoted saying "the big changes in Mexico have never been produced through conventional politics, but in the streets". Some have understood this as a call for revolution.

On 1 September, during what was supposed to be President Fox's final State of the Nation address, 126 PRD deputies and senators disrupted proceedings in Congress, preventing the president from delivering his speech. They claimed that the President "had created a police state" in the area around the Congress building and interpreted it as a violation of the Constitution that made it impossible for Congress to be called into session.. The Congress was in session when those allegations were made. The "police state" allegations were in response to heightened Federal Police security around Congress, instituted after the PRD attempted to set up a protest camp in front of the complex.

Some commentators have accused the PRD of hypocrisy, arguing against blocking Congress but defending López Obrador's blocking of Mexico City's main streets. Nevertheless, people are allowed to demonstrate freely (stated in the constitution) but the government is not officially allowed to block streets because of political reasons

Fox entered the lobby of Congress but did not proceed into the Chamber; he then handed over a written copy of his State of the Union, as required by the constitution. Over an hour later, he gave a speech on TV from his official residence.

López Obrador led a rally on the day of the state of the union speech, where sympathizers celebrated the President being prevented from delivering his speech inside congress. He explicitly told his followers not to be lured into violent confrontations, declaring, ""We aren't going to fall into any trap. We aren't going to be provoked.". He also asked his followers to remain in the Zócalo, instead of marching to the legislative palace, the site of the state of the union speech, as had been planned.

The PRD has also stated that what happened on 1 September was only "a taste" of what will come on 1 December, the day when the next president will be sworn in. . Added to this, the PRD-led government of the Federal District has said that they will not be responsible for the President's security during the celebration of Independence Day.

Notes

External links

"Official site of Andrés Manuel López Obrador". Retrieved 2006-07-11. Site in English, It differs greatly from versions in Spanish
Shlaes, Amity (2006). "Blame Mexico, Too, for U.S. Immigration Trouble". Bloomberg.com. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
"Elections Fraud México". blogspot. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
"The front-runner under pressure, With his opinion-poll lead wobbling, Andrés Manuel López Obrador has yet to define precisely what sort of change he stands for". The Economist. 2006. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
Thompson, Ginger (2006). "Leftist Screens Videos He Says Prove Fraud in Mexico Vote". New York Times. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
"Mexico mayor back on track". BBC News. 2005. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
Poniatowska, Elena (2005). "Democracy Now!". Description of Obrador's magnetism. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
Template:Es icon "Official Site". lopezobrador.org. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
Template:Es icon "Official Campaign site". amlo.org. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
Template:Es icon "Unofficial campaign site". Lopez-obrador.com.mx. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
Template:Es icon "El sendero del Peje (Collection of articles, photos and videos around politics in Mexico)". La Jornada, El Universal, Reforma... {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
"Collection of articles from Council on Hemispheric Affairs concerning Mexican politics". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
Template:Es icon "Zapatista leader blasts López Obrador". El Universal. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
Template:Es icon "Redes Ciudadanas Baja California". amlo.org. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
Template:Es icon 2006 Counter Campaign website
Template:Es icon "Los mineros, los muertos, los políticos". www.jornada.unam.mx. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help) Editorial on La Jornada on AMLO and his party, the PRD

Preceded byRosario Robles Berlanga	Head of Government of the Federal District 2000—2005	Succeeded byAlejandro Encinas Rodríguez
Preceded byPorfirio Muñoz Ledo	President of the Party of the Democratic Revolution 1996—1999	Succeeded byPablo Gómez Álvarez
Preceded byCuauhtémoc Cárdenas	Party of the Democratic Revolution Presidential candidate 2006 (lost)	Succeeded byMost recent

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