Mexico City – President Vicente Fox urged Mexico City authorities Wednesday to remove sprawling camps of leftist protesters who want a complete recount of last month’s presidential election, saying they are choking off commerce and tourism in the capital.
Fox, who previously stayed on the sidelines of the dispute over the left’s allegations of vote fraud, said the tent cities that have occupied a five-mile stretch of swank Avenida de la Reforma since Sunday are “putting jobs and economic activity at risk.” In a statement read by his spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, Fox urged the city government to find a legal and peaceful way to end the protest led by leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Aguilar stressed that the federal administration didn’t have the authority to intervene. He put the responsibility on the city government, which is allied with Lopez Obrador.
“The city of Mexico is for everyone,” Aguilar said.
“Democracy should be defended by respecting it.” But Mayor Alejandro Encinas, who succeeded Lopez Obrador and is a member of the candidate’s Democratic Revolution Party, argued the protesters are breaking no laws.
“I am supporting a cause and my own personal convictions,” he added.
Lopez Obrador asked his supporters Sunday to seize Mexico City’s center as part of his battle to win a vote-by-vote recount of all 41 million-plus votes cast July 2.
The official count, which has not been certified by Mexico’s top electoral court, gave the candidate of Fox’s pro-business National Action Party, Felipe Calderon, a lead of less than 240,000 votes, or less than 0.6 percent.
Lopez Obrador, who stepped down as Mexico City mayor a year ago to run for president, claims the election was marred by fraud and dirty campaign practices.
The Federal Electoral Tribunal has until Sept. 6 to declare a president-elect or annul the election.
People in Mexico City often grumble about the protest marches staged by various groups along Reforma from the capital’s main plaza to the presidential residence, Los Pinos. The avenue divides much of the city in half when it is closed down.
But the marches, while frequent, usually take only a few hours.
The tent cities have inconvenienced people for days.
Losses for area hotels, restaurants and stores are adding up to about $23 million a day, according to the city’s Commerce, Services and Tourism Chamber. Some businesses have threatened to stop paying taxes.
With city police protecting the protesters, many people in this megalopolis of 20 million are getting angry.
“There is less tourism, less work, and there are some places we can’t even get to,” complained taxi driver Ramon Sandoval, who was waiting for a fare outside a hotel.
He said his income had fallen by at least 60 percent since the blockades began snarling traffic throughout the city.
“These people should find a way to protest without affecting the rights of others,” he said.
The protests helped drive down Mexico’s stock market and currency Monday and Tuesday, but share prices and the peso both recovered some of their losses Wednesday.
Davide Baroni, 42, a tourist from Milan, Italy, said it took him four hours to return from a 30-mile trip to the pre-Columbian pyramids and other ruins at Teotihuacan, northeast of the capital.
“We asked a policeman, and he said, ‘You can go to the right, or the left, but who knows if you’ll be able to get back,”‘ Baroni said.
Even some of Lopez Obrador’s strongest intellectual and artistic supporters have begun criticizing the protest camps.
“This is a just cause, but it shouldn’t be converted into an attack on the city by blocking streets and affecting so many people,” wrote critic and author Carlos Monsivais, who has publicly backed Lopez Obrador.
Calderon, who considers a vote-by-vote recount both unnecessary and illegal, has accused his rival of having “kidnapped” the capital.
“It’s very clear to me that freedom of expression can’t cancel out the rights of people to travel to their places of work, schools or homes,” Calderon told reporters Wednesday. “I call on all Mexicans to live in peace.”
