INDEPENDIENTEMENTE DE LOS NUMEROS

Independientemente de los números de cuanta gente fué a la marcha del silencio, la imágen lo dice todo:



No solo eso, sino que la noticia de la marcha fué de gran importancia en diversos medios internacinales.

Reuters:

Huge Crowds March to Support Mexico City Mayor

By Kieran Murray

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans marched in silence on Sunday against government efforts to put a popular leftist politician on trial in a battle that could knock him out of presidential elections.

Protesters crammed into Mexico City's vast central square and narrow streets of the historic downtown, many waving banners condemning the legal case against Mexico City's mayor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

"Don't let democracy die," read one banner. Others vilified President Vicente Fox as a traitor and dictator.

Elderly men and women stood shoulder to shoulder with young families, middle class professionals and students, a sign of the feisty politician's broad appeal.

A two-hour silent march erupted with cheers and applause when Lopez Obrador took to the stage to attack the government and promise an all-out assault on poverty if he is elected.

"We will continue to fight peacefully. We are sure our cause is just and that it will triumph," he shouted, pledging to use Mexico's oil wealth and other natural resources to improve the lives of its 40 million poor.

The march was one of the largest in Mexican history although city and federal officials predictably clashed over that, too. City police said 1.2 million people turned out, while federal police said there were only 120,000.

Lopez Obrador holds a strong lead in polls for next year's elections, but that will mean nothing unless he can shake off the contempt of court charges in an obscure city land dispute.

The political and legal battle has raised fears of violence and financial turmoil similar to the "tequila crisis" that battered the nation of 100 million people in 1994-95. Mexico's stock market has dropped 14 percent in the last seven weeks.

Lopez Obrador says he did no wrong and is the victim of a plot led by Fox, other political rivals and big business to force him out of the race.

SUPPORTERS BLAME FOX

"They want to get rid of him because he's going to win and he wants to change the country," said Ana Maria Salazar, 51, who walked with her husband and 10 other family members. She said she had never before attended a political rally.

Lopez Obrador would almost certainly be barred from the election if he is convicted and possibly if the trial drags on and he fails meet a January deadline to register as candidate.

Many ordinary Mexicans say the crisis has undermined their young democracy just five years after Fox's historic election victory ended seven decades of authoritarian one-party rule.

"Fox lied to us. He's just like all the others," said Manuel Benitez, a middle-aged store owner. "He doesn't want Lopez Obrador and he's obsessed with getting rid of him."

Fox insists he is simply letting justice run its course and no politician, no matter how popular, can be above the law.

The mayor owes much of his popularity to ambitious public works programs and cash handouts to pensioners and the poor.

Those spending policies, his fiery rhetoric and a combative style worry some business leaders and Wall Street investors, who fear the arrival of a populist government in Mexico, a major oil exporter and U.S. trade partner.

Prosecutors formally charged Lopez Obrador last week, but the judge sent the case back on a technicality because bail was set and paid before an arrest warrant was issued.

They are expected to refile the charges quickly. The mayor wants to fight against the case -- and for the presidency -- from behind bars. The government is eager to keep him out of jail so he can not portray himself as a martyr of democracy.

New York Times

BBC de Londres

Y cantidades de periódicos y agencias de noticias


PERO...

No por eso debemos confiarnos. No hay que bajar los brazos y seguir insistiendo en la resistencia civil. Los ataques al peje no se van a acabar. El PRIAN y Salinas estan tan espantados por perder sus privilegios que van a seguir sacando videoescándalos, acusaciones sin fundamento y demas marrullerías para impedir que la gente haga uso de su derecho al voto.

NO NOS DEMOS POR VENCIDOS NI NOS CONFIEMOS EN QUE YA TODO ESTA GANADO.

Por lo pronto disfrutemos de esta batalla--la cual definitivamente fue a favor de la resistencia civil--y sigamos promoviendo la defensa de la democracia que el PRIAN quiere aplastar.