Since narrowly losing Mexico's presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador has led massive protests claiming that fraud robbed him of victory,
begun setting up a parallel government and even named a cabinet.
Former presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
waves after being sworn in as the country's 'legitimate president' in
front of thousands of supporters at the Zocalo plaza in Mexico City,
Mexico, Monday, Nov. 20, 2006. [AP]
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On Monday afternoon (Tuesday
morning Beijing time), the fiery leftist plans to be sworn in as "Mexico's
legitimate president" thumbing his nose at the country's highest electoral
court, which declared conservative Felipe Calderon the presidential election
winner by less than 1 percentage point.
Based in Mexico City, the parallel government will not try to collect taxes
or make laws. It will have one objective to hamper Calderon during his six-year
term that begins on December 1. His supporters have pledged to block Calderon's
swearing-in ceremony before the Mexican Congress, although they have not
announced how they plan to do so.
"We're not going to give the right free rein," Lopez Obrador said in a final
stop in the southeastern state of Veracruz this weekend. "We're going to
confront it."
According to Lopez Obrador's website, the campaign has opened bank accounts
where Mexicans can donate money for his parallel government.
But it remains to be seen whether the man who claims the elections were
tainted to favour the rich can keep up momentum.
Besieged by protests since the disputed July 2 presidential elections, many
Mexicans are tired of political strife.
The upheaval has taken a heavy toll on the country's tourism industry, one of
Mexico's main income generators. According to Mexico Tourism Department, the
number of foreign tourists visiting the country between January and September of
2006 was down 4.3 per cent from the same period in 2005.
The US State Department has urged travellers to exercise caution while
visiting Mexico and to avoid the southern city of Oaxaca, where a leftist
protest not directly related to the presidential dispute has created chaos.
Columnist Rene Aviles called on Calderon to put things in order when he takes
office. Outgoing President Vicente Fox has been criticized for his hands-off
approach to the conflicts.
"If Calderon wants to govern without so many blunders, he should start with a
firm hand," Aviles wrote in the Mexico City newspaper Excelsior on Sunday.
Lopez Obrador also faces a big challenge in uniting his Democratic Revolution
Party. Some within Mexico's main leftist party have started to distance
themselves from his civil resistance campaign, fearing that they will lose
support.
Others say Mexico needs strong action to focus more attention on its millions
of poor and Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, is the man to do that.
Lopez Obrador's platform resonated with many Mexicans, forcing the
business-friendly Calderon from Fox's conservative National Action Party to take
note. He has borrowed heavily from ideas in Lopez Obrador's legislative agenda,
including calling for universal health care.
The leftist's parallel government "could create the organization that is
necessary to steer the country in a new economic direction," columnist Rosa
Albina wrote in the Mexico City newspaper Reforma on Sunday.