Mexico is waiting to see what will happen in the desafuero struggle. A report from Oaxaca - it seems muy tranquilo, but is it?
The desafuero of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seems suspended in space like a cloud over the country. Fox offered a rather pitiful bone, saying maybe he could “pardon” AMLO. I bet he’s scared shitless, at the dual possibility of massive protests and withdrawal of foreign investment monies. At the end of the month the Mexican AG will rule on what’s to be done- the most gracious out at this moment being that the court disallows the desafuero.
The desafuero of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seems suspended in space like a cloud over the country. Fox offered a rather pitiful bone, saying maybe he could “pardon” AMLO. I bet he’s scared shitless, at the dual possibility of massive protests and withdrawal of foreign investment monies. At the end of the month the Mexican AG will rule on what’s to be done- the most gracious out at this moment being that the court disallows the desafuero.
On the other hand, Madrazo, the PRI candidate, is more on the side of ultimate solutions, or what they call around here the “Colosio solution”, referring to the candidate Donaldo Colosio, who was murdered. April 24 is the national march against the desafuero, and people will be watching the numbers. We’ll hope for accurate reporting from La Jornada or Mexico indymedia, the other non DF marches around the country will naturally be smaller, but this is no small deal.
AMLO has very specifically asked for non-violent, peaceful protests, and went so far as to say he doesn’t want to upset the international investors, he just wants democracy. By which he may mean intervention by the USA, but in my recollection of the USA there was never any real desire for democracy – in fact, if we take either Venezuela or Haiti as examples, what the US wants is non-functioning governments. Think of it like reconstruction in Iraq—do you see any sign that that’s really what the USA wants? Mexico, furthermore, suffers the curse of oil.
Meanwhile, back in Oaxaca, the PRI governor Ruiz is ripping up the zocalo. “By accident” one of the huge India Bay trees fell over –they have a vast canopy and short roots. Presumably the machinery for digging up the paving did the damage. There was a protest watch of about a hundred local people to assault the next cat driver who goes near a tree. The ecologists, better late than never, came out and labeled each remaining tree with a number.
This tiny square could be in Baghdad. I suppose Ruiz, who planned this action in a closet with no consultation about priorities or ecological damage, is doing it so that he can pay cronies to repave and repair it. I asked one of the workers why the old pavement was torn up, but he didn’t know. There will be no change of pipes, tubes, electric lines – nothing that makes sense. There was nothing wrong with it, in fact. I suppose the stones have lasted for a couple of centuries anyway. But, the worker informed me, now it will be all completely done in quarried granite, the famous Oaxaca green granite. The mountain of granite is down to a mound, and they better get what they can while they can. A pretty penny of government money - the local paper ventured to ask why the governor is spending thousands on new paving when he might have done something about the faltering water supply? Given MY paranoia, maybe the excavation is to forestall any meetings or rallies, in the one place where everybody was likely to gather. The zocalo won’t be finished until July, the time of the Guelaguetza, the big tourist attraction.
But just to keep in mind, Ruiz also moved all the government offices out of the zocalo –relocated to places unknown. So much for protests.
We’ve been in Mexico six years. I remember very well how heartened we were by the Zapatista movement, and by the fall of the PRI when Fox came into office. Silly me. Apparently the PAN (Fox) and the PRI (Madrazo) have some kind of accord regarding the presidential succession –one term for me, one for you. Plus a certain number of murders every day out in the countryside where people are protesting the PRI presence.
And as for the Zapatistas, all we can say is, Send money. They are hanging on, but being squeezed brutally by the federal government. The interesting and best thing about the Zapatista situation is that it inspired other indigenous and campesino groups – it’s the hot spark under the coals of South America, which is more and more leaning anti-neoliberal, and the cited inspiration for many peoples around the globe. This is not a Left movement, it is a movement for autonomy and local control. I’m not sure anybody within the “normal” political power-structure understands that. The Zapatistas have turned down offers of government money on the assumption that accepting money is accepting a bribe – sit down and shut up. So they suffer, and try to maintain their integrity.
In Oaxaca, the dual system of politics, the autonomous communities and the political parties, was legalized in 1995 (I think) and the autonomous structure is the local one, which functions differently in different towns, often successfully, sometimes not. Sometimes they exclude women and indigenous altogether. The biggest problems arise when the town meetings have to choose a representative to the state or national legislatures. And of course no funding comes through for any purpose unless there is an appropriate party member in place in the local community.
No surprise if the USA would rather destroy the Mexican government than see it go with Lobrador, who has declared he supports local autonomy, health care, education, potable water, the usual range of populist requests. The CIA mixed into the desafuero? I have no proof. Merely my usual rage…
But lest you think I do nothing but feel bad, we are also enjoying life in the eighth ring of a twelve-ring circus, with bells and whistles and fireworks and music and dancing ponies and trapeze artists swinging up on high. People stop at the gate and call through to me. They might want English lessons, or they don’t exactly want lessons but more likely just a moment to chat with an American. Door to door salespeople ring, if you recall them from the USA forty years ago-books. Plus, here we can purchase amaranto candy or tortillas. In any case, not possible to feel isolated; the loudspeakers cry “gas” and the water vendors cry “agua”, the dogs bark and the music plays –frequently right outside the door in search of a donation.
Yesterday our neighbors asked for help in shifting the position of their grandmother who fell and broke her hip. I myself cannot left as much as tomato, so George, fresh from the shower, went with his hair dripping down his back and his naked belly damp. He lifted the old lady and got her more comfortable. Today the woman who uses my pediatrician for a pediatrician stopped and came into the patio while Ramiro was here for English – why waste the opportunity for a consultation? Her baby has a cold. And then Elsa with her new teeth did not show up, and Alicia with her glued hair did show up, and then the fellow to fix the fence didn’t come, but Isaias stopped by to chat. Sadly, this morning another neighbor fell and broke her hip on the rotten sidewalks (Ruiz fix the sidewalks? Ha Ha!).
One can see how small life and life relationships are, where we are on one street, with two deaths and two broken hips just this year. But it is nice, you know? Like we live in a real place, not some anonymous suburb or city. In other words, local life is autonomous, and not until the shooters come into Callejón Del Carmen will we be dissuaded from our daily concerns. So what’s to be depressed? Hey, not me!
