Mexico moves against Obrador

Meanwhile in un-pope news...

Move Against Leftist Mayor Sets Off Protests in Mexico [NYT]

MEXICO CITY, April 1 - A congressional panel recommended Friday that Mexico City's mayor be stripped of his official immunity from prosecution, spurring angry protests here and raising the chances that he could be barred from running for president.

The four-member panel recommended three to one that Congress lift the official immunity of Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador so that he could stand trial in a minor land dispute. The matter now moves to the lower house of Congress, where a majority vote, which analysts consider likely, would make it official.

For Mayor López, whose public works projects and welfare payments to the elderly have helped make him the most popular politician in the country, the charges could lead to impeachment and jail. Just standing trial would make him at least temporarily unable to run for president, which Mr. López's supporters charge has been the aim of President Vicente Fox and Congress all along.

For Mexico, political observers said, there was more at stake. The inquiry into Mr. López's decision to widen a hospital access road against a court order has polarized this country in much the same way the impeachment hearings of President Clinton divided the United States. Months of backroom dealing over the issue has reinforced the idea that the proceedings against Mayor López are part of a conspiracy, led by President Fox, and that shady deals among the political elite are not a thing of the past here. Newspaper polls have suggested that the overwhelming majority of Mexicans oppose the panel's recommendation. In a country where multi-billion-dollar embezzlement cases go unresolved, most people do not accept the proceedings against Mr. López as a mark of law and order. Anger over the decision could reverberate throughout this fragile democracy.

Hat tip to Freiheit und Wissen.

Comments

[firedoglake]

Who was it who said "poor Mexico -- so far from God and so close to the United States?" To bad we also expoert our worst politics.

[Kevin]

Mexican politics have a well deserved reputation for corruption. However, from what little coverage I've seen on this story nobody including Mayor Obrador disputes the fact that he went ahead with widening the road against a direct and explicit court order. That seems pretty black and white to me. Against that backdrop I would have to conclude that those defending Obrador are at least as guilty of playing politics as they claim President Fox et al are.

[cntodd]

Kevin, What is sad about this situation is that Mayor Lopez was only targeted after it was made clear that he would most like run and win in 2006.

While he did widen the road, he was also protected under Mexico's laws with immunity from presecution. What those who oppose him are doing is, in a sense, taking back the law for him, so that he no longer has the immunity that protected when the actions occured.

[Herbert Browne]

More of history repeating itself... former mayor Cardenas came up against the PRI in a similar situation, and "won" an election, much as Gore did in 2000. For every spasm of democratic populism in Mexico, there's an answer- ever since Obregon went to Chiapas in the '20s and invited the indigenous folks there to participate. They were willing, then; but never heard from, again, until subcomandante Marcos became willing to speak for them. Latin-American oligarchs and their allies continue to have an easy time of it, nearly everywhere. ^..^

[Kevin]

What's the point of having courts if elected politicians don't have to obey them? Imagine how F-ed up our country would be if elected politicians could do whatever the hell they wanted without a shred of judicial accountability.

Whatever the merits of Obrador's candidacy may be, I come down squarely on the side of accountability.

[Justin]

Firedoglake -- that was the dictator Porfirio Diaz who said that.

Kevin -- our country's already pretty f-ed up up. And the things f-ed up about Mexico go far beyond Lopez Obrador's (transparent) widening of a road. We might note neoliberalism, oligarchy, political prisoners and other rights abuses, oppression and repression of indigenous populations...

[Justin]

Editorial note in today's _La Jornada_:

GOLPE CONTRA TODOS

El día de hoy, la bancada panista y la mayoría de la priísta de la Cámara de Diputados erigida en jurado de procedencia para destituir al jefe del Gobierno del Distrito Federal, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, se aprestan a dar un golpe gravísimo de muchas bandas. Si el amañado proceso de desafuero concluye como está previsto por sus organizadores, es decir, con la remoción del cargo del gobernante capitalino, se habrá desvirtuado la voluntad popular que llevó al poder a López Obrador por medio del sufragio libre y democrático.