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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexico Leftist Loses Key Vote in Presidential Bid |
| 2005-04-02 |
| Mexico City's leftist mayor lost a vote on Friday that could derail his presidential bid in 2006, as a legislative committee recommended Congress strip him of his immunity to face contempt of court charges. The committee voted 3-1 against Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who decried the charges as a politically motivated bid to oust him from the race in which he is the front-runner. Mexico, a major emerging market economy and trade ally of the United States, could face months of political and perhaps financial instability if the country fails to resolve the crisis. The lower house is expected to strip Lopez Obrador's immunity in coming days. If Congress votes against him, the mayor will face legal charges in a Mexico City land expropriation dispute that could force him out of the presidential election. The mayor, Mexico's most popular politician, vowed to organize a massive street protest against what he described as an "unjust, authoritarian and anti-democratic" plan by rivals scared of his populist policies. "That day will mark the beginning of a new era of fighting for the respect of the popular will and civil rights ... of all Mexicans," Lopez Obrador said, accusing conservative President Vicente Fox of masterminding the case against him. The mayor's aides are preparing for months of "civil resistance" protests and the head of the stock market warned this week the political upheaval could hit Mexican markets. Under Mexican law, Lopez Obrador may soon end up in jail, even before a verdict in the case. He has sworn to run for the presidency from behind bars if necessary. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 On the other hand, glorious socialist workers' paradises tend to build their own walls around themselves. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-04-02 6:38:23 PM |
| #5 How could he clam persecution by the US? Anybody catch Orielly last night I was watching Battlestar Gallactica.Man that Blond Beauty is Dangerous. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-04-02 10:27:26 AM |
| #4 Mexico a major emerging parasitic economy. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-04-02 8:28:10 AM |
| #3 Mexico, a major emerging market economy... With millions of illegals pouring across the American border every year as evidence, Mexico is not now, nor anytime in the future going to be an "emerging economy". With a xenophobic constitutional ban on foreign ownership, private or corperate, of property, the Mexican economy is going nowhere. The US economy is primed by huge investments both in property and capital by the English, Dutch, Japanese, etc. Mexico needs to be touched by the revolutionary movements we now witness in the Middle East in order to set its house in order for true economic development. And a way to get that started is by shutting the dumping across the border of its unemployment. |
| Posted by: Cleretle Glick2989 2005-04-02 8:00:09 AM |
| #2 The Minutemen?? Hell, send the National Guard out to the border areas, with all the artillery they can round up. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-02 3:18:46 AM |
| #1 Ooh, boy. If you think Fox is bad, wait until you see the crap this guy wants. Even worse, he can now claim he was "persecuted" by a US-led conspiracy, and the Latin American Idiots will believe it unquestioningly. I don't want a Chavez-ruled nation 60 miles from My house. Crap. I'll have to join the Minutemen, too. |
| Posted by: jackal 2005-04-02 12:56:51 AM |