Mexico Approaches the Combustion Point by John Ross [View All]

[Annces]

AMLO as demi-god is one motif of this religious pageant being played out at what was once the heart of the Aztec theocracy, the island of Tenochtitlan. The ruins of the twin temples of the fierce Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli and Tlahuac, the god of the rain, are adjacent to the National Palace against which AMLO's stage is set. Lopez Obrador sleeps each night in a tent close by. Many hearts were ripped out smoking on these old stones and fed to such hungry gods before the Crusaders showed up bearing the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

AMLO is accused by right-wing "intellectuals" of entertaining a Messiah complex. Indeed, he is up there every day on the big screen, his craggy features, salt and pepper hair, raspy voice and defiantly jutted jaw bearing more of a passable resemblance to a younger George C. Scott rather than The Crucified One. AMLO's devotees come every evening at seven, shoehorned between the big tents that fill the Zocalo, rain or shine. Last Monday, I stood with a few thousand diehards in a biblical downpour, thunder and lightening shattering the heavens above. "Llueve y llueve y el pueblo no se mueve" they chanted joyously, "it rains and rains and the people do not move."

The evolution of these incantations is fascinating. At first, the standard slogan of "Voto Por Voto, Casilla por Casilla!" was automatically invoked whenever Lopez Obrador stepped to the microphone. "You are not alone!" and "Presidente!" had their moment. "Fraude!" is still popular but in these last days, "No Pasaran!" -- they shall not pass, the cry of the defenders of Madrid as Franco's fascist hordes banged on the doors of Madrid, 1936 -- has flourished. In this context, "No Pasaran!" means "we will not let Felipe Calderon pass to the presidency."

AMLO, who holds out little hope that the TRIFE will decide in his favor, devotes more time now to organizing the resistance to the imposition of Calderon upon the Aztec nation. Article 39 of the Mexican constitution, he reminds partisans, grants the people the right to change their government if that government does not represent them. To this end, he is summoning a million delegates up to the Zocalo for a National Democratic Convention on Mexican
Independence Day September 16, a date usually reserved for a major military parade.

http://www.counterpunch.org/ross08232006.html