Corrupt government has beset Mexico for so many years, it is surprising to see that democracy -- true in-the-streets, in-your-face democracy -- is now more vibrant there than it is in the United States.Huge crowds chanting "You are not alone," cheered Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, runner-up in the July 2 election by a fraction, on a march through the capital to the Zocalo square.Damn. That's how to do it.
The size of the protest, bigger than a similar demonstration last week, gave Lopez Obrador a lift in his attempt to persuade an election court to declare him winner.
"We are going to start peaceful civil resistance to defend democracy," Lopez Obrador told supporters, some of whom walked, traveled on battered old buses or even rode on horseback to the capital from around the country.
By the way, our news agencies are at it again. Reuters refers to the crowd pictured above as "thousands." I think we are safe in presuming hundreds of thousands. Fortunately, pictures speak louder than lies.
9 comments:
The BBC is more accurate
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5186036.stm
thanks, joe; i was hoping you'd post something on this. perhaps these brave souls in mexico will infect us here in the US with some of that democracy. hopefully.
for great coverage of all this, greg palast has been all over it for weeks, exposing the fact that our government actually hired choicepoint (remember from FL 2000?) to supposedly catalogue potential terrorists in latin countries. he flew down there right after the election, and has a terrific piece on it that aired on democracynow! along with his interview with amy.
http://www.gregpalast.com/florida-con-salsa
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/12/146201
he says in his interview that the scuttlebutt in the political arena there suggests strongly that the results will be annulled and there will be another election. he also pointed out that, ironically enough, in bush's rush to galvanize the perception that calderon has won, he embarrassed the PAN candidate, forcing him to agree to some selective recount. those tiny recounts showed an incredible increase in votes for obrador, which if extended over the full number of precincts, would give him a very solid win over calderon.
the piece is so damn reminiscent of the OH nightmare, with academic statisticians showing the statistical impossibility, films of ballot box stuffing, ballots found in trash bins, the whole nine yards. with all the lawsuits in states and now rfk, jr's in the federal courts, things should get very interesting in the next few months.
so it goes.
p.s.
forgot to mention: palast said the march in mexico city last wednesday was easily 100,000, and they projected from counting those coming from all directions in the country (mostly south) that today would reach half a mill.
sounds more like what it looks like.
My hat's off to Mexicans!
May we learn from our less fortunate brothers!
oops!
I should have said our more enlightened brothres!
thanx for the post Joe . yes , see the Greg Palast video it is very very good , dare i say a must watch . thanx .
Radio news this morning is calling it at a million demonstrators.
What an embarrassment for Bush if Obrador gets re-counted in! W has done more for leftist-socialism in five years than the USSR did in five decades.
democracynow! just interviewed a reporter in mexico city who says the head count is closer to between a mill and a mill and a half. and there's another protest scheduled in two weeks that promises to be even bigger.
heh heh; who says the US can't export democracy?
snark.
So that's how it's done, huh?
Pencil in October 5 for a national day
of resistance and repudiation.
http://www.worldcantwait.net/
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