From rxpgnews.com
Mock ceremony sees Left Mexican leader as president
By DPA,
Nov 21, 2006 - 5:25:32 PM
Mexico City, Nov 21 (DPA) In a mock ceremony here, failed Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared himself the country's president before hundreds of thousands of supporters.
The left wing former mayor of the city declared Monday that he would defend 'the national assets and sovereignty' of the people in front of an estimated 120,000-strong crowd at the Zocalo, the city's most important and official square.
Social activist Rosario Ibarra draped an imitation of Mexico's presidential band around Obrador, who turned his back on the National Palace, the seat of the federal government.
Obrador, who lost the July election to conservative Felipe Calderon by 0.56 percentage points, has claimed there was fraud and has refused to concede defeat before conservative Calderon.
Calderon's official inauguration as president of Mexico is slated for Dec 1, and his rival's supporters have vowed to prevent the legitimate president from being inaugurated in the hall of Congress - though they emphasise it will be a peaceful action by leftist legislators.
With tension building in advance of the date, soldiers and police have increased security around the Congress San Lazaro and built a 2.5 metre-high security fence around the outside.
Although Obrador had almost equal support in the July elections as Calderon, polls published Monday showed that a majority of Mexican citizens disagree with his fake declaration as president.
Manuel Espino, a leader of Calderon's National Action Party (PAN), dismissed Obrador's actions as a 'joke'.
Obrador swore in the members of his fake cabinet - six men and six women - and said he would fight for the renovation of Mexican institutions and for the country's least fortunate.
The leftist rally was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1910 Mexican Revolution.
The former mayor said his alternate government would remain in the capital till Wednesday and then tour the 2,500 towns in the country for the rest of the week.
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