Obrador Comes To Oaxaca
At the same time that Obama was in Mexico City promising to help Mexico militarize against the drug cartels, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (who ran against President Calderon in the last election as a member of the PRD) was in Oaxaca to protest the murder of a Oaxacan PRD woman activist.
Some Mexicans think that Obrador, who during the election was able to draw a million people to the Zocalo in Mexico City, would never be able to command that following now. Once, the popular mayor of Mexico City, it is said by some that he has managed to side-line himself somewhat by leaving the PRD and apparently switching positions on a number of political issues…therefore losing the ear of many in the middle class who once adored him. A Mexican musician (who is the partner of a friend of mine) who used to worship Obrador, now considers him a “clown.”
On the other hand, the party that Obrador ran for president on (PRD) has been coopted by the PRI and is now considered as corrupt as the PRI, suffering from in-fighting and is virtually dead. So Obrador has dropped the PRD and seems to be running around supporting selected individuals for local elections in whatever party whether it be the PRD, the Workers Party or the Convergencia Party, and speaking out on issues of corruption and whatever is the crisis of the day. So it may be that, come the time for election of another President in four years (Mexico’s presidents may only serve one six-year term) Obrador could ride a tide of popular opinion on some issue.
Coming upon the 100th anniversary of the 1910 revolution, in Oaxaca, Obrador said that “militarizing the country won’t resolve the problem of 27 years of no economic growth.” The big push is on to get the PRI out in the next election, which is in July of this year for congress. 2010 Oaxaca votes for new governor.
A local expat, a woman in her 70’s who carries a cane and limps along faithfully to every march and appearance in Oaxaca reports on Obrador’s visit yesterday:
“The “legitimate president” of Mexico was scheduled to appear in the Alameda de Leon at 4:00. He showed up with a lei of flowers around his neck at 5:45, which made everything quite normal. Waiting for him in the heat were about 3,000 people holding the yellow PRD flags, the orange Convergencia flags, the yellow letters on a red field Workers Party (PT) flags, or the red letters on a yellow field FALP flags.
While we all waited the exhorter-in-chief on the stage alternately told us el licenciado would be there any minute, that we should greet him with enthusiasm, that he was coming right that moment oh boy, but no, and so everyone should keep calm. He did that routine about ten times, that was a bad hour in the heat, I’ll tell you. But right behind me (literally stepping on my skirt, I turned and said in my best Spanish, Please Señora, you’re stepping on my ass!”) was a group of women who had been bussed in by their municipal president, whom I mention at this juncture because he supplied water to all his voters –this guy was PRD . The political parties pay for attending these rallies. I have seen the same game sponsored by the PRI. The big difference seemed to be that these were very nice women behind me, all wearing their aprons, and all speaking Spanish (no monolingual people). I asked for water when it was handed over my head to the ladies behind me, was told by the handler it was just for the people of that municipality, and then when he left a woman offered me a bottle of water of the two she had. Which I very gratefully accepted. I could see a Oaxacan woman standing with her sleeping toddler on her shoulder further out into the crowd, and she must have stood there two hours.
Obrador was ostensibly in Oaxaca because of the murder of the PRD woman activist Beatriz Lopez Leyva, last week. He declared himself against impunity. “After the deaths of so many now we have to say ‘ya basta’ and end with this government…there is no justice, no punishment of any crime…it is necessary for the PGR (federal attorney general’s office) to investigate…Demand justice and the observation of human rights. I am going to demand justice for Beatriz and all the rest. It is not acceptable to accept the way this Oaxaca functions.” I was scribbling as fast as I could. Obrador then cited Benito Juarez, which is obligatory in Oaxaca politics, but then he went on to extol Ricardo Flores Magon and the organization of the magonistas which played a big role in 1906 in the lead-up to the revolution, where many identified themselves as magonistas although by that time RFM was already dead or about to die in Fort Leavenworth, through the kind assistance of the USA.
Then our “legitimate pres” went on to condemn the neoliberal “bandidos taking the wealth of Mexico”, with exorbitant salaries while economic times are very bad for ordinary people. “The usurper president (that’s Calderon) protects only those above, he took out a loan (from the IMF) for 60,000,000,000 (maybe I got that wrong, hearing the numbers I think Obrador said 60 mil milliones), for the wealthy and nothing for the campesinos and small business people. “He is rescuing the grand businesses flagrantly violating the constitution…the money belongs to the people and it is not distributed to the people.”
Sound familiar?
Two final notes of interest to me: one was that the loudest shouting came in opposition to Ulises Ruiz (Governor of Oaxaca.) The other was that we should follow the example of the magonistas and organize. “We are millions” he said in reference to the government’s power. “Don’t lose faith.” And, “militarizing with the USA won’t be tolerated.”
Tags: Mexico, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Obrador
Zoe
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