July 1, rally for the democracy!

Thousands rally for Lopez Obrador

The defeated candidate for president still alleges fraud, a year later. In Mexico City, he warns the victor, Calderon, against tax hikes.

By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer

July 2, 2007

MEXICO CITY — A year after losing Mexico's presidential election, leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador proved he can still draw a crowd, filling the capital's central square Sunday with tens of thousands of supporters eager for his message of relief and justice for the country's poor.

"The people of Mexico have a heart that is collectivist, free and progressive," Lopez Obrador, 53, said to cheering supporters who waited hours for his 1 p.m. arrival at the city's sprawling Zocalo.

"A year after the election fraud we can say with pride that the right and their allies were mistaken," he added.

"We are still here and will continue, convinced more than ever of the need for an alternative path."

But the turnout was smaller and the enthusiasm more restrained than in the weeks after the July 2, 2006, election, when the crowd spilled from the central plaza into nearby streets.

The charismatic former mayor of Mexico City lost the election to conservative Felipe Calderon by less than half a percentage point, a margin that he and supporters allege was the result of electoral fraud by a coalition of conservative ideologues and big businesses.

Outraged Lopez Obrador supporters camped on the city's main boulevard for weeks last summer. Their demand for a full recount of ballots was refused by electoral judges, who declared Calderon the winner. Calderon took office Dec. 1. As many as a third of Mexicans still believe the election was stolen, according to recent polls.

"What can I tell you? It was a fraud," said Candelaria Chavez Mendez, 65, while waiting for Lopez Obrador to take the stage in front of the National Palace. "They declared the wrong man the winner."