Warrant issued for mayor of Mexico City’s arrest

[emad]

By John Authers in Mexico City
Published: April 21 2005 12:34 | Last updated: April 21 2005 12:34

Mexico's attorney-general on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftwing mayor of Mexico City, in a move that intensified the political battle in the country over the decision by Congress to impeach him earlier this month.

A Mexico City judge must now decide whether to accept the warrant. If he does, Mr López Obrador, who faces charges that he committed contempt of court during a planning dispute four years ago, must surrender himself to the authorities.

He has said that he would refuse to pay bail or make an appeal, as a political protest, so that he would be imprisoned. Such a move might help cement his status as a political martyr. “They want to rub me off the ballot,” the mayor told a rally yesterday in Tabasco state.

But the offence would not normally require imprisonment, and two members of the Mexico City legislature for President Vicente Fox's National Action Party announced that they had already paid his bail.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/bfbe008c-b258-11d9-bcc6-00000e2511c8.html

[madrchsod]

1. mexico is starting to fall apart

i wonder how all those investments will do if the country goes into political unrest?

[David__77]

2. Mexico needs a revolution.

I hope that the reach of the Bolivarian-allied revolutions extends to the US border. Latin America must develop on its own terms and in its own interests, apart from US subversion.

[murray hill farm]

3. You can be certain that...

this has the handprint of the USA all over it. Mexico will have its presidential election next year...and the smear battles have begun..and financed by those who would like to see Mexicos oil privatized as soon as possible.

[AP]

4. I hope Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch stand up for him.

Of course, Obrador might do better ultimately if they don't speak up for him. However, it seems like this is exactly kind of issue for which Amnesty and HRW exist.