Guadalajara -
MORENA leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador yesterday called on members of his ultra left party to carry out acts of protest and civil disobedience against pending energy and tax reforms, upon which the Institutional Revolutionary Party government of president Enrique Peña Nieto has bet considerable political capital in the administration's first year in office.
López Obrador's words will be cause for yet more concern in the nation's Federal District, which has been hard hit in recent weeks by disruptive protests, marches, sit-ins and encampments by striking teachers, ultra leftists and self-described anarchists. A trade group alleged last week that the capital has suffered a staggering $100 million in economic losses since June 25. Mexico City rioters caused almost $4 million in damages.
To the relief of millions of Mexican City residents and business owners, the often violent Coordinadora Nacional de los Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE), a Oaxaca based union, announced Sunday that it was leaving the capital city where it arrived in force Aug. 19. Radical teachers' syndicate returns to Mexico City streets. But members have given no indication that they intend to return to their classrooms in that state and in neighboring Chiapas, where the new school year never began for more than a million children, many from marginalized families. Continued teacher strikes idle millions.
Two time presidential candidate López Obrador issued his clarion call to battle shortly after president Peña Nieto publicly rejected the fiery leftist's demand that pending constitutional amendments which would open PEMEX, the state owned oil monopoly, to private investment be submitted to a national referendum. "The fix is in" on energy reform, says AMLO: new laws "designed for foreign business."
AMLO urged supporters to march on congress, as CNTE members did last month, to boycott retail businesses throughout the nation and to refuse to pay utility bills and lawful tax obligations, among other actions.
But he also told them to avoid outright acts of violence. Hinting that the administration's patience may be running thin if not out, López Obrador said, "What the oligarchical government most fears is not a confrontation with its soldiers, but that people will wake up, organize and realize the importance of protecting constitutional rights."
AMLO's/MORENA's plan of public protest over energy and tax reforms includes the following tactics:
- A march on Mexico's senate while it debates the proposed amendments to articles 27 and 28 of the federal constitution.
- A march on the lower chamber, the house of deputies, if and when the proposals clear the senate.
- Marches on all 31 state legislative assemblies, which also must consider and vote on the reforms since they are constitutional in nature.
- A national march on Oct. 27 in Mexico City's largest plaza, the Zócalo. CNTE activists occupied the same area from Aug. 19 until Sept. 13, at times all but shutting down the normal legislative agenda of the federal congress. Secret Service locks down Mexico City's Zócalo.
- A boycott of the huge Televisa network, which anti-Peña Nieto forces perennially complain is in bed with the PRI president.
- A boycott of Mexico's second largest (or largest, according to some sources) retailer, Soriana. López Obrador continues to insist that the mega grocer allowed itself to be used by Peña Nieto's campaign team during last year's presidential contest by selling him debit cards with prepaid credits, which were then distributed to buy votes in the final weeks before the July 1, 2012 election. (Soriana targeted by bombers; Soriana blasts AMLO, accusing him of inciting violence against mega grocer).
- A refusal to pay utility bills and new taxes which will be imposed if the pending reforms become law.
- Sending letters to foreign oil companies - Shell, Chevron and Exxon were three mentioned by name - warning them that even if the energy reforms are passed, any contracts they enter into with Mexico to participate in oil and gas exploration and development will have "no legal validity."
- The publication of a "roll of infamy" with the names of those representatives who vote in favor of the "immoral" energy reforms.
One again, López Obrador told MORENA loyalists that president Peña Nieto "made a deal outside of the country with foreign oil companies." That's the same claim others in Mexico's multiparty left wing have made in recent days, and it is at the epicenter of the hotly debated constitutional amendments. Energy reform debate opens in Mexican Senate, with grave warnings of "foreign takeover."
Oct. 8 - PRD and its former Mexico City governor, Marcelo Ebrard, reject call for civil disobedience.
MORENA has an ongoing recruitment campaign in Guadalajara and many other cities, in an effort to sign up enough members to get its name on the ballot in political races ahead. Clip is from Sept. 25.
Oct. 22 - Reforma energética requiere reflexión adecuada: Shell
Oct. 3 - Anarchists in Mexico City, October 2, 2013
Oct. 2 - Mexico City police attacked by self-proclaimed anarchists; the Red Banner in Guadalajara
Sept. 25 - "Peña Nieto completely under the control of Obama," says MORENA official
Sept. 21 - Andrés Manuel's vision for Mexico
Sept. 20 - Without energy reform, Mexico will need more than half a century to reach U.S. output
Sept. 19 - Opinion: Mexico's Left determined to shackle the nation to the past
Sept. 14 - Opinion: Elena Poniatowska, entirely out to lunch in New York
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
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