MEXICO: Mexicans throughout the country celebrate Independence Day with ceremonies and a military parade

Mexicans throughout the country celebrated on Friday (September 15) celebrated the nation's independence, led by outgoing President Vicente Fox. Fox marked Independence Day in his hometown of Guanajuato, located in central Mexico, after thousands of leftists protesting the Mexico City's Zocalo forced him to move the celebration. Leftists had paralysed the Zocalo and main streets in the capital for six weeks to protest what they say was vote-rigging in the July 2 presidential election. However, they temporarily ended the demonstrations on Saturday (September 16) to allow a military parade in the Zocalo. Several thousand people turned out in heavy rain to see Fox, dressed in the presidential sash, ring a bell in the same church in Dolores Hidalgo where priest Miguel Hidalgo began Mexico's fight for independence in 1810. Fox and his wife, Marta Sahagun, returned to the capital to review the parade on Saturday. Some other protests are planned before Calderon takes office, and many believe Lopez Obrador supporters are adamant they will not go quietly. Mexican leftists decrying election fraud will decide on Saturday whether to make their fight with President-elect Felipe Calderon a radical struggle on the streets or to adopt a less confrontational stance. Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will hold an open-air convention in the capital's sprawling Zocalo square to hammer out strategy after losing the July 2 vote by a marginal 234,000 votes. Organizers predict 1 million people will turn out at the event, which could name Lopez Obrador the leader of a civil resistance campaign or the head of an alternative government. Delegates will likely take the second path and symbolically declare Lopez Obrador president, a softer option which means fewer street protests against Calderon, who is set to take office on Dec. 1. A sporadic civil resistance campaign in August that involved preventing highway toll collections and trying to stop access to foreign banks did little to help the left win support for its claims of vote-rigging. A court last week named Calderon winner of the election after throwing out Lopez Obrador's claims of fraud. Lopez Obrador aide Manuel Camacho Solis said leftists were leaning away from street protests and toward challenging Calderon more like a traditional political opposition. The political feud, which has sharply polarized Mexico's left and right, soured the country's most important national fiesta when two opposing leaders hosted rival ceremonies ahead of Independence Day on Saturday.

ITN Source | September 17, 2006

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