Mexico City – President Vicente Fox decided that this year’s observance of the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution will be held outside his official residence rather than in this capital’s main square.
It is in that square, known as the Zocalo, where the leftist who refuses to recognize his own defeat in the July presidential ballot plans to be proclaimed as the country’s “legitimate president” in a ceremony, like the anniversary of the revolution, also set for Nov. 20.
Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar announced Tuesday that the outgoing president intends to “involve himself fully in the festival, give it a new character and turn it into a civic act that allows a reassessment of its historical meaning.”
The commemoration instead will be held on the grounds of Los Pinos, the residence of Mexican presidents, and will be “absolutely open to the public,” said Aguilar.
Fox also intends to direct a message to the country on the 96th anniversary of the revolution.
“The relevance of this date merits a celebration that attaches itself to the democratic times being experienced in the country,” said Aguilar, who justified the change in venue because the celebration “had come to be exhausted.”
On Sept. 15, Fox had to give the traditional “Grito” (cry) of independence in the city of Dolores Hidalgo after having vowed earlier to do it in Mexico City’s emblematic central plaza.
Thousands of supporters of defeated leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had been expected to jam the Zocalo after having been camped out in much of the capital’s financial district for the past six weeks protesting what they claimed – and still claim – was fraud in the July 2 elections.
Aguilar said that the change in the ceremony for the anniversary of the revolution “has nothing to do” with the fact that on Nov. 20, Lopez Obrador intends to proclaim himself the country’s “legitimate” president.
“We are establishing a new type of much more civic celebration with a political reflection of this fundamental historical deed,” the presidential spokesman emphasized.
Lopez Obrador accuses Fox of having rigged the elections in favor of his fellow conservative Felipe Calderon, who obtained some 233,000 votes more than the leftist leader and will assume the presidency on Dec. 1. EFE
