Guest Column
Mexico’s truckload of troubles
- By Kenneth Emmond
- The Herald Mexico/El Universal
August 21, 2006
How would you feel if, one morning, someone parked a big truck at the entrance to your store and left it there all day? Let's say the truck leaves enough room for determined customers to get in, but not without some inconvenience.
Now, suppose the owner leaves it there for three weeks, and your calls to City Hall to have it towed away are ignored because the owner is a friend of the mayor. When you ask him to move it, he says he'll leave it there as long as he wants to.
That's what's facing thousands of Mexico City businesses along Paseo de la Reforma and streets leading up to the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square.
On July 31 the tri-party Coalition for the Good of All, dominated by the the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and led by frustrated presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, closed off vehicular access to those streets by setting up a massive camp-in.
How much economic damage is this "planton," organized to force a total recount of presidential election votes, doing to nearby businesses?
City officials, who, like López Obrador, hail from the PRD, say business is off by, maybe, five percent. Business owners say sales are down by 50 to 70 percent, and this during a peak tourism month. No doubt the truth lies somewhere in between.
We don't know how they do their accounting, but the 32,000 affected businesses estimate that the first 16 days of the plantón cost them 3 billion pesos (US$300 million).
Even people López Obrador claims to represent are affected. The Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS) says more than 800 workers have been dismissed from affected businesses. Owners say that's just for starters; if something isn't done soon, hundreds of businesses will fold.
Joel Ortega, the city's Secretary of Public Security, essentially shrugged his shoulders. He told businessmen they should blame the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE), because it refuses to genuflect to the coalition by ordering a full vote recount. Nor will it genuflect; if there's a recount it will be based on the evidence.
The TRIFE did order recounts at more than 11,000 voting stations. The changes didn't come close to reversing the outcome. Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN) maintains a narrow but clear victory.
López Obrador's camp now proposes annulment of results of 7,500 polling stations where irregularities were found.
That, PRD official Claudia Sheinbaum asserted, would reverse the outcome and López Obrador would win. She didn't add that it would also disenfranchise the thousands of citizens who voted at those stations.
Throwing out votes isn't exactly a step in the direction of "defending democracy," the rallying cry of the coalition leader. It's as circular as U.S. President George W. Bush calling on Americans to give up democratic liberties so that their democratic liberties can be defended.
What's the plantón accomplishing? It's giving López Obrador a platform to broaden his criticisms and question the legitimacy of Mexico's entire political system.
The post-campaign campaign has degenerated into a "López Obrador-for-president-at-any-cost" strategy. Notwithstanding the high-principled rhetoric emanating from its leader, it's prepared to set aside accepted democratic practices to put its man in power.
You can't expect business owners to smilingly accept the collateral damage they're suffering in support of that, even if they voted for López Obrador. In fact, last week there was murmuring about launching class action suits if the plantón isn't ended soon.
Far from ending it, López Obrador is ratcheting up the tension. He's announced that his campers have no plans to leave the Zocalo by Sept. 15. That's Mexico's National Day, when the president traditionally addresses the nation from the Zócalo, with a military parade on the 16th.
Instead, he announced a "National Democratic Convention for the Good of All" in the Zócalo on Sept. 16. Maybe he hasn't heard that other events are scheduled, or maybe he's arranged for the mayor to cancel the parade.
No. The man who hollers "plot!" is plotting to polarize Mexico even more and to maximize confrontation by setting up conflicts with national ceremonies.
As published, his convention agenda is billed as a discussion about the legitimacy of the electoral process, which he calls "a farce," and of Mexico's institutions (a "parody of a republic").
Ominously, it smacks of a new attempt by him to claim the presidency — this time through his interpretation of Article 39 of the Constitution, which says that ultimate sovereignty belongs to "the people." (Remember, you read it here first!)
The camp-out claims to be non-violent, and so it has been. But it's forcing the government to choose between evicting campers, defined as violence, or allowing the coalition to interfere with national events and normal business.
On Aug. 14 we caught a glimpse of what might happen. Federal police forcibly removed coalition supporters from encampments near the Chamber of Deputies compound. Several were injured, including some newly-elected coalition deputies. Cries of "violence!" were heard.
With "peaceful" confrontations like this, it's the government that must move first to remove the obstructions to national events and allow local businesses to function normally.
That truck parked in front of your store is "peaceful" too. Only when you call in a towing service is there a chance of violence.
- Kenneth Emmond is a freelance journalist and economist who has lived in Mexico since 1995. Kemmond00@yahoo.com
- The Miami Herald Mexico Edition/El Universal article at:
- http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=34008&tabla=articulos
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