Lopez Obrador Protesters Take Mexican TollBooths
Supporters of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took over tollbooths on four Mexican federal highways, part of protests to demand a full recount of last month's vote.
Protesters occupied tollbooths on roads that link Mexico City to Cuernavaca, Queretaro, Toluca and Pachuca, according to images broadcast by Grupo Televisa SA. They let drivers pass through free of charge and traffic was flowing normally.
Lopez Obrador, who finished second to ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon in Mexico's closest presidential election ever, is stepping up protests after a federal court rejected his demand for a full recount that he says would uncover fraud. The court instead ordered a partial recount of the vote, a ruling that analysts say makes it more likely that Calderon will be confirmed the winner.
The tollbooth takeover may foretell the kind of actions Lopez Obrador would seek to carry out against Calderon's administration should the court uphold the vote count, said Christopher Garman, director for Latin America at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group in New York.
``He'll try to use these kind of methods to pressure the Calderon administration and make life more difficult for his government,'' Garman said in a telephone interview. ``Things are going to get worse before they get better over the short run.''
Peso, Bonds
Calderon, a former energy minister under President Vicente Fox who vowed to keep spending and inflation in check, beat Lopez Obrador by 243,934 votes out of 40.9 million valid votes cast, a margin of 0.6 percentage point, according to the Federal Election Institute.
International observers from the Organization of American States and the European Commission said the Mexican election was ``exemplary.''
The electoral court's order for a partial recount on Aug. 5 was the first of several decisions the court must make before settling all challenges to the election by Aug. 31 and declaring a winner by Sept. 6.
Mexico's currency and bonds fell. The peso dropped 0.3 percent to 10.9113 per dollar at 12:25 p.m. New York time. The yield on Mexico's peso-denominated bond due in 2015, which moves inversely to the bond's price, rose 4 basis points, or 0.04 percentage point to 8.37 percent, according to Santander Central Hispano SA.
``The market is pricing in Lopez Obrador's political tone becoming more aggressive,'' said Ernesto Diez, who helps manage about $2.6 billion of assets for the Mexican unit of Bank of Nova Scotia in Mexico City.
`Money and Power'
Speaking to thousands of followers gathered outside the electoral court yesterday, Lopez Obrador vowed to defend Mexico's democracy by transforming the country's institutions, which he said have always been subjugated by ``money and power.'' He urged supporters to keep the acts of civil disobedience he began on July 30 peaceful.
The federal government plans to hold talks with the protestors to get them to abandon the tollbooths, presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said at a news conference.
Regional electoral officials and judges across 25 of Mexico's 31 states and in Mexico City will begin the second hand count of ballots from 11,839 of the more than 130,000 polling and have five days to finish it.
The review probably will narrow Calderon's margin of victory because most of the ballots to be recounted are from states where Calderon won, Jonathan Heath, chief Mexico economist for HSBC Holdings Plc, said in an Aug. 7 report. That would strengthen Lopez Obrador's call for a full recount and lead to an escalation of protests, Heath said.
`Middle Route'
Today's protests, which have not blocked highway traffic, show that Lopez Obrador has chosen to keep up moderate protests following the court's decision, Chappell Lawson, an associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a telephone interview from Cambridge.
``Lopez Obrador has chosen the middle route,'' Lawson said.
Protesters have blocked 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) of the city's main avenue since July 30, which turned the eight-lane boulevard into a tent city. Hotels and businesses in the area are losing about $23 million a day, according to the local chamber of commerce.
Lopez Obrador supporters also plan to hold protests across the nation where Fox speaks, Horacio Duarte, a leader of Lopez Obrador's party, said in an interview yesterday.
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