At four o’clock in the morning Nicolas Mollinedo Bastar pulls a
beat-up Nissan sedan in front of a nondescript apartment house in
one of Mexico City’s middle-class neighborhoods. Moments later
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 52, the mayor of Mexico City, known
here by his nickname El Peje (“little gar”), settles into the
backseat surrounded by his posse of female bodyguards and sets off
to his daily news conference. Some chauffeurs might complain about
having to get up so early every morning. Not Mr. Bastar who earns
$5,600 a month as the mayor’s driver and “logistics coordinator,” a
princely sum by Mexican standards.
Mr. Bastar, however, may soon find himself out of a very
lucrative job. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors filed felony abuse
of authority charges against Lopez Obrador. Before a warrant could
be issued for the mayor’s arrest, however, two legislators of a
rival party (one the niece of presumed presidential candidate
Santiago Creel) posted the $180 bail. National Action Party (PAN)
deputies Gabriela Cuevas and Jorge Lara told a Mexican newspaper
that they paid the mayor’s bail “in good faith,” adding they did
not wish to see Lopez Obrador become a martyr behind bars.
El Peje’s supporters call these latest developments part of a
politically motivated witch-hunt that only proves that Mexico’s
fledgling democracy is a sham. Washington Post columnist
Marcela Sanchez notes that El Peje “may end up in prison for the
unusual crime of failing to stop construction of a road to a
hospital.” (The charge is ignoring a court order, not “failing to
stop construction of a hospital road,” and a fine, not prison time,
is more likely.) Prosecutors counter that no one should be above
the law, especially not the second most powerful man in Mexico. And
they suggest that the fact that El Peje is being held accountable
for his crimes is proof that Mexico’s democracy is stronger than
ever.
These are the facts: In November 2000, former Mexico City Mayor
Rosario Robles expropriated 13,000 square meters of prime real
estate in the booming Santa Fe section of the city for an access
road for a British-run hospital. In December, as Lopez Obrador was
sworn in as mayor, developers sued the government claiming they
were unable to access the property. The developers won a federal
court order barring further construction. Road construction,
however, continued. Prosecutors say the new mayor committed a minor
criminal offense when he “knowingly and repeatedly” disregarded the
court order. The same court in August 2001, requested that the
federal attorney general force the mayor to comply with the court
injunction. According to Lopez Obrador’s biographer George W.
Grayson, the attorney general subsequently filed several additional
actions against the mayor for crimes against the administration of
justice. Finally, in May 2004, the attorney general requested the
removal of Lopez Obrador’s government immunity from prosecution.
The mayor, in his defense, says he only widened part of the road,
and halted construction when the court order came to his
attention.
This April a commission of four members of the Chamber of
Deputies (Mexico’s Congress) held 3-1 that there was sufficient
cause to suspect a crime had been committed. On April 7, Lopez
Obrador argued his case before the full Chamber of Deputies. After
a long, drawn-out session where the mayor accused President Vicente
Fox and former President Carlos Salinas of conspiring against him
because of his opposition to pro-U.S. economic policies, the
Chamber voted 360-127 to strip Lopez Obrador of his immunity.
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE vote 100,000 supporters gathered in
Mexico City’s Revolution Square to protest the Chamber’s decision.
These were El Peje’s people — university students, the poor, of
course, and union workers, given free booze and the day off and
bused in to swell the crowds. And why shouldn’t they support him?
Since coming to power in 2000, Lopez Obrador has spent money like a
16-year-old girl with her first credit card, undertaking expensive
renovation projects like an $80 million elevated highway, and
building thousands of low-income housing units. He has doled out
$60 a month to senior citizens and the disabled, given away free
school supplies and scholarships to the poor, tax breaks to female
heads of households, and founded the University of Mexico City
which accepts students not because of grades or merit, but by luck
of the draw.
Lopez Obrador might very well scorn wealthy capitalists, but
when he needed millions in cash to renovate his crime-ridden
historic center he did not hesitate to ask Latin America’s richest
man, Carlos Slim, for a handout. Thanks to Slim’s bankroll the
mayor is now able to show off an attractive new shopping and
residential area for tourists and Mexico City’s elite. Meanwhile
the nation’s capital has fallen deeper in debt, and the mayor has
been forced to slash government salaries and sell off public
lands.
KNOWN FOR HIS BEAT-UP sedan, his modest apartment, his much-touted
solitary walks through gang-ridden streets, and his frequent
political theatrics, El Peje has continually fine-tuned his image
as the Common Candidate, El Peje the Populist, and Mexico’s Monk.
But critics see Lopez Obrador’s asceticism as a cynical though
effective ploy to win votes, much like his frequent anti-American
harangues.
It has not always been thus. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was
born in the small town of Tepetitan in the swampy, oil-rich Gulf
Coast state of Tabasco. His father, a hotel restaurateur in
Chiapas, sent his son to the National Autonomous University of
Mexico City where he graduated with a degree in political science.
Lopez Obrador quickly joined the ruling PRI party, but after PRI
was accused of stealing the 1988 election, Lopez Obrador left to
help found the leftist party, the Democratic Revolution Party
(PRD).
In the 1994 elections for state governor, Lopez Obrador won 40
percent of the vote — despite being vastly outspent by his PRI
opponent. He was elected mayor of Mexico City in July 2000. El
Peje’s rise is seen as indicative of the power of the new left in
Latin America, and he is now often compared to Hugo Chavez in
Venezuela, Nestor Kirchner in Argentina, Luis Inacio “Lula” da
Silva in Brazil and Tabare Vazquez in Uruguay.
Thus far Lopez Obrador’s rhetoric about putting the poor first
has paid big dividends in a country where there is widespread
poverty. And despite his legal difficulties (or because of them)
Lopez Obrador continues to lead presidential preferential polls by
as much as 15 percent. Opponents like President Fox are concerned
about El Peje’s tendency to “put people first,” particularly over
the rule of law. Lopez Obrador has repeatedly shown his disregard
for Mexican law and institutions, once leading a group of farmers
— who claimed their lands had been contaminated — to illegally
close several oil ducts in an attempt to pressure the national oil
company to pay off the farmers. On that occasion Lopez Obrador
managed to avoid prosecution.
Others in El Peje’s administration have not been so fortunate.
His finance secretary Gustavo Ponce reportedly made dozens of trips
to Las Vegas in 2003-04 where he squandered city funds on gambling,
hookers, booze and expensive hotel rooms. Three million in city
funds are still unaccounted for. At first the mayor called the
scandal part of a conspiracy by his political enemies, even
suggesting the missing Ponce had been murdered. Ponce eventually
turned up and now sits in a Mexican cell.
Shortly after that the mayor’s personal secretary Rene Bejarano
was nabbed stuffing his pockets with $32,000 in cash. Bejarano
claimed the payoffs given to him by businessman Carlos Ahumada was
a contribution for the political campaign of a city borough mayor.
The mayor blamed a conspiracy by Ahumada (now doing time for fraud)
and his political opponents. Ahumada claimed he felt threatened by
Bejarano’s cash demands and videotaped the encounters for his own
security, and only released the tapes after his contracts with the
city government were canceled. Bejarano has since joined Mr. Ponce
in the slammer.
LIKE MANY SOCIALIST leaders, Lopez Obrador fancies himself a
latter-day messiah, one who believes he can save his country with
simple solutions to complex problems, mostly involving the
redistribution of cash and property. Part messiah, part moral
crusader, he has also called for public officials to stop keeping
mistresses.
Now add to this image that of martyr — one taken down by a vast
right-wing conspiracy of politicians and international business
interests uneasy about a socialist coming to power. “The mantle of
political martyr is one that sits well on Lopez Obrador’s
shoulders,” writes Laura Carlsen, of the left-leaning International
Relations Center. “From prison, his case could burgeon into a
symbol of all that’s wrong with Mexico today, greatly enhancing his
popularity and his prospects for the presidency.” Grayson too notes
that “the populist Lopez Obrador has played the role of victim like
Olivier portrayed Hamlet.”
ON WEDNESDAY, EL PEJE’S people were back in Revolution Square, this
time some 10,000, waving yellow flags and shouting, “You are not
alone!” Lopez Obrador, a populist demagogue in his element, made
the most of the opportunity, denouncing the PAN deputies as cowards
and swindlers and President Fox as a traitor to democracy. Needless
to say, the people loved it.
El Peje’s supporters are planning a march and mass demonstration
in Mexico City on Sunday. Police anticipate this weekend’s protests
may turn violent. Meanwhile experts say El Peje could renounce the
bail and insist on going to jail, which would doubtless increase
his media coverage as well as his ratings in the polls. The mayor
will have until January 15, 2006, to be cleared of all charges in
order to be eligible to run for the presidency. A judge’s decision
is expected within the next 10 days whether to dismiss the charges
or to allow the case to go to trial. A decision to go ahead with
the trial would almost certainly put an end to El Peje’s
presidential campaign, at least for the 2006 election.
