Mexico leftists target foreign banks in protest

[Robbien]

MEXICO CITY, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Thousands of Mexican leftists blockaded the offices of three major foreign-owned banks on Wednesday in a new protest to force a full recount in a July 2 presidential election they claim was rigged.

Protesters surrounded Mexico City offices of U.S.-based Citigroup's <C.N> Mexican unit Banamex, the Bancomer bank owned by Spain's BBVA <BBVA.MC> and the British giant HSBC <HSBA.L> They sat on the ground around the buildings and vowed to block access for several hours.

. . .

All but one of Mexico's major banks are in the hands of foreign companies and the industry's sell-off has been a symbol of free market reforms in Mexico, so there was little surprise over the election protesters' new choice of target. "Now it is the banks' turn," said Gerardo Fernandez, a spokesman for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution.

During the election campaign, Lopez Obrador had promised to reopen the books on a controversial $100 billion bailout of struggling private banks by the government during an economic crisis in the mid-1990s. Most of the big banks that survived the crisis were later sold off to foreign financial giants.

"Banamex is really Citigroup, a foreign bank that ransacks the country," Fernandez said on Wednesday. "It took more than 10 percent of the bank rescue."

http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N09270953

[Vidar]

1. I'm glad they know who the enemy is Viva Obrador..

[Say_What]

2. The US sheeple sure could take some cues from the Latinos n/t

[Virginia Dare]

3. See what happens to a population...

that is not beaten senseless by a complicit media?

[High Plains]

4. They should recount all the votes. Otherwise, civil conflict looms.

The left is not going to roll over in a crooked election like it did in 1988.