[PEN-L] Mexico's Two Presidents and Two Governments

[Alejandro Valle Baeza]

Mexico's Two Presidents and Two Governments Dual Power, Revolution, or Populist Theater? by Dan La Botz The Mexican Electoral Tribunal recognized Felipe Calderon as president-elect, while a massive National Democratic Convention has proclaimed Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to be the "legitimate president of Mexico." AMLO is now creating an alternative government, and says he will call a constituent assembly that will write a new constitution. What is happening here? Is this a radical fight for reforms? A potentially revolutionary movement? Or a spectacular piece of populist theater? More than a million people gathered on September 16, Independence Day, on Mexico City's national Plaza of the Constitution and the surrounding streets for blocks around and-after enduring a drenching cloud burst-proclaimed that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was the legitimate president of Mexico. The massive National Democratic Convention (CND) repudiated the "usurper" Felipe Calderon and called for the end of the existing Mexican government, for the "abolition of the regime of privileges." The CND also called for the organization of a campaign of national civil disobedience with one of its objectives being to prevent Calderon from taking the oath of office. Lopez Obrador has once again demonstrated that he is a brilliant populist politician with a remarkable ability to mobilize the masses and to maintain a posture of defiance toward the government, while avoiding the danger of direct confrontation. In calling the Convention, Lopez Obrador stated that he was operating in the great Mexican revolutionary tradition beginning with Miguel Hidalgo y Castillo and Jose Maria Morelos in the Independence struggle of 1810-1825; Benito Juarez, leader of the Liberals in the Reform Movement and the war against France in the 1850s and 60s; and Francisco Madero and Emiliano Zapata in the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1940. Yet, while claiming the revolutionary inheritance, and adopting a revolutionary rhetoric, Lopez Obrador and his Party of the Democratic Revolution, are hard at work attempting to make the most of the foothold they have in the old order. While proclaiming a position tantamount to revolution, Lopez Obrador and the PRD have continued to work within the existing power structure. The National Democratic Convention authorized the parties which made up Lopez Obrador's For the Good of All Coalition, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Workers Party (PT), and Convergence, to reorganize to create the Broad Progressive Front (FAP) which will work as a bloc in the newly elected Mexican parliament ^ that is, in the parliament of the actually existing Mexican government. The PRD's legislative coordinator, Javier Gonzalez Garza, met with coordinators of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), to create a more efficient and dynamic congress, one that would, according to the PRD's Gonzalez end log-jams in the lower house. The PRD has also agreed to serve with the PAN and the PRI in the collective leadership of the legislature, with Ruth Zavaleta Salgado as vice-president. PRD governors in Baja California Sur, Guerrero, Michoacan, and Zacatecas will also take power within the existing governmental structure. PRD governors have just participated in the National Governors Congress (Conago) with PAN and PRI governors. So, apparently, while repudiating the old regime, the PRD will also continue to work and to serve in leadership positions within it. Just what is happening here? Are we witnessing the emergence of a revolutionary alternative? Or is this an extraordinary and spectacular populist theater intended to project Lopez Obrador into power in the next election? Full article. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=59&ItemID=11118