Obrador Comes To Oaxaca
Saturday, April 18th, 2009At 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. [read on]
Zoe