Monday, August 7, 2006

So-called Civil Resistance Terrorizes Mexico City

By Barnard R. Thompson

For all intents and purposes terrorists have seized Mexico City.

Masked in the guise of democrats seeking a fair deal for their presidential candidate, who is personally claiming victory even though he apparently lost in the closely contested 2006 election, they are justifying extremism and lawlessness behind a cloak of so-called non-violent civil resistance – but there is nothing Gandhi-like about the chaos and hardships they are causing to decent, hardworking and law abiding fellow citizens. 

Gandhi indeed, for the protest movement Andrés Manuel López Obrador has called to the streets in Mexico City is not to gain freedom and independence from oppressive rule as Mexico already broke those bonds through a war of Independence, the Revolution, and a modern day move to truer democracy.

What this is about is stealing an election (which López Obrador just might have won in the first place, although most objective pundits doubt the fact).  And it is about not gambling on the yet-to-come official results of a basically transparent and acknowledged legitimate system.

It is about saying be damned with the will of the Mexican people, and by hook or by crook I will become the next president.  It is about manipulating a yet to be decided legal ruling, through pressure, intimidation and threat, while setting the stage for unending worse acts by duped followers – many being decent and hardworking citizens themselves – if the court judgment does not go his way.  Or, quite possibly even if a ballot-by-ballot recount is ultimately ordered and López Obrador still loses.

Mexico City is in chaos, with social unrest and havoc caused by one man – Andrés Manuel López Obrador.  Sure, there are charges and arguments of irregularities, misdeeds and fraud in the electoral process with a spin justifying his actions, however Mexico is a nation of laws – but López Obrador thinks he can gain the presidency by breaking those very laws, along with condemning the institutions that judge accordingly and a nation that abides by principle.

So he has adopted a virtual terrorist agenda.

His very own plot, against each and every Mexican who constantly plots against him – meaning all those millions of conspirators who voted against him, or who might not support his cause.  What’s more, this he calls democracy.

According to the United Nations, in a 2005 population update, the metropolitan area of Mexico City, with 19,411,000 people, is the second largest in the world, after Tokyo.  And greater Mexico City as of now is paralyzed.

The heart of the city is in staggering gridlock, from the Plaza de la Constitución, or Zócalo, through its Historic Center and up the Paseo de la Reforma well into Chapultepec Park, caused by 47 so-called “protest encampment” blockades.  And of course many other important cross boulevards and adjacent streets are thus frozen in the mother of all traffic jams.

And all of this caused not by millions of followers, but by an estimated 4,000 toady protestors and friends desperate for something else to do – and their charismatic “messiah” is sadly seen as the only hope.

Businesses are suffering horribly, as employees cannot get to their jobs with most mass transit carriers stuck in the traffic, and the city’s Metro subway system is overloaded.  Hotels are losing millions of dollars as business visitors and tourists cancel planned trips.  And many small businesses, along with individuals in the informal economy – some who live hand-to-mouth existences, are starving for business.

Certain sites have been singled out for more specific actions, like the Mexico City Stock Exchange where access was blocked by a sit-in of people whom López Obrador said had gone there “to invest in democracy.”  And there are threats of similar actions at Mexico City’s International Airport, on highways in and out of the megalopolis, and who knows what else or where next.

And while López Obrador has called for active non-violence, it’s hard to believe that fighting or worse is not simmering towards the surface.  Yes things could get worse, especially with López Obrador vowing escalated protests.

And the vast majority of Mexicans are against the growing chaos.

As Felipe Díaz Garza, an editorial writer and columnist for the Reforma newspaper chain puts it: “… I’m against the terror campaign with which Andrés Manuel and his party seek to extort all Mexicans.  We stress.  The blockade and sit-in constitute the medulla of a terrorist campaign with which [López Obrador] is not just threatening the Federal Electoral Tribunal, but rather all citizens of this country.”

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Barnard Thompson, a consultant, is also editor of MexiData.info.  He can be reached via e-mail at mexidata@ix.netcom.com.