Thursday, August 03, 2006

MEXICO: PROTESTERS PLAN TO BLOCK INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE


Despite threats from Mexico's President to disperse protesters in the capital, activists around the country continue their actions demanding a recount in the recent Presidential elections.

Protesters have turned a large slice of central Mexico City into a protest camp as part of an attempt to force a recount of last month's presidential election.

The occupation of the city's main Plaza and about six miles of the Reforma Avenue follows a series of marches that culminated in the biggest demonstration in modern Mexican history on Sunday. Estimates of the number of participants ranged from 350,000 to more than 2 million.

"Defeated" candidate Lopez Obrador has apologized for the disruption, but insisted it was a small price to pay.

Speaking from a stage in the square in Mexico City, one of the world's largest, the former Mexico City mayor said he would decide whether to step up the campaign of civil disobedience after a court decision over a recount, which he expected within days,

"It causes annoyance, anger, we know that, but there is no other choice ... we have to make democracy count in our country," he said while adoring, screaming protesters mobbed him during a tour of their camps.

Meanwhile, President Vicente Fox and the Permanent Congressional Commission urged Mexico City authorities Wednesday to remove the sprawling camps of protesters calling for a vote-by-vote recount in the presidential election, saying they have choked off commerce and tourism in the capital.

Still,demonstrators shut down Mexico's stock market building on Thursday morning. And further actions, including the blockade of the international bridge described below, are in the works.

The following is from El Universal (Mexico)


Tamaulipas activists plan to block bridge

Tamaulipas activists on Wednesday announced plans to block an international bridge in a show of support for the Democratic Revolution Party's demand for a vote-by-vote recount.

Jorge de la Rosa Ramírez, the Tamaulipas coordinator of the National Democracy Movement, said his organization would block the bridge between Matamoros and Brownsville, Texas, on Friday.

De la Rosa said they would block traffic in both directions on the bridge beginning at 5 p.m. The blockade could last up to 24 hours, added de la Rosa.

"We realize we will be violating federal law, but we believe the Interior Secretariat is guilty of a greater crime by allowing fraud in the presidential election," he said.

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