http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N11217149.htm


Leftists throw bottles at Mexico frontrunner rally
11 May 2006 22:07:52 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Alistair Bell

CARDENAS, Mexico, May 11 (Reuters) - Mexican leftists throwing sticks and plastic water bottles disrupted a rally by conservative presidential front runner Felipe Calderon on Thursday in an increasingly bad-tempered election race.

Supporters of leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador hit a federal deputy from Calderon's National Action Party, or PAN, with a plastic bottle at the rally in the town of Cardenas, in the leftist's home state of Tabasco.

A small group of protesters unfurled Lopez Obrador banners and chanted his name as Calderon, who has replaced the leftist in recent weeks as favorite to win the July 2 election, spoke to some 2,000 followers in a square.

He saw the leftists in the crowd and addressed them.

"Since you're here, I want to give you a message for your candidate. Please take note. We Mexicans are in favor of peaceful and democratic ways to resolve our differences," the former energy minister said to a roar from his followers.

The political temperature rose last week when police firing tear gas battled machete-wielding peasants in a town near Mexico City in a riot where a 14 year-old boy was shot dead.

Opponents of Lopez Obrador, now in second place in the polls, accuse him of links to that violence but have produced no evidence and he strongly denies the accusation.

Police shot dead two people in April when they stormed a steel plant to break a strike in the state of Michoacan.

Thursday's trouble broke out after Calderon had left the stage and witnesses said he was unlikely to have seen it. Local radio reported eggs were thrown.

FOREIGN INVESTORS' FEAR

The election is being closely followed by foreign investors who fear Lopez Obrador might turn out to be an old-style Latin American leftist who would overspend and be cavalier with the rule of law.

Calderon, who promises a strong hand against crime and public disorder if elected, said voters were rejecting Lopez Obrador's sometimes combative manner.

"The more they provoke us and sow violence, the more the Mexicans will turn their backs on them. That's why they are dropping in the polls," he said.

Calderon started to win ground on Lopez Obrador last month when he launched negative television advertisements comparing his rival to populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, is angry at what he says is President Vicente Fox's illegal use of government time and money to aid Calderon's campaign.

Supporters of Fox's PAN party surrounded leftists at Thursday's rally in this oil and farming town and tried to stop them waving banners.

Scuffles broke out after the rally and leftists shouting "Obrador, Obrador," launched sticks and bottles at conservative deputy Lucio Galileo Lastra who ran into a cafe to take refuge.

Activist Freddie Rodriguez Hernandez, of Lopez Obrador's Party of the Democratic Revolution, said the conservatives sparked the trouble by refusing to allow the leftists protest.

"They provoked us and that is not on. If we want a peaceful climate in regards to politics they have to respect the people's right to express themselves," he said.

Lopez Obrador, a former Indian rights official in Tabasco, promises to give priority to Mexico's millions of poor if he becomes president.