I am the President and you are the Tyrant because I say so
As the strength of Andres Manuel’s movement seems to be fading away, his words and his attitude seem to be getting bolder every day. Is this a way to “keep the fire burning” for the next six years or has he gone too far with his words? In any case, his latest rant that was captured in an interview with Le Monde, is that his Democratic Convention that he is calling for September 16th will elect him as a president. He says that millions of his followers will assemble at Mexico City’s Zócalo on Independence Day and that they are empowered by the constitution to elect him as the next president of the country.
Of course, the statements have prompted a wide array of opinions, ranging from people that are thinking that AMLO has now lost his head to people that are taking the call by him to heart. In my opinion, Andrés Manuel seems to have got into an alley with no much opportunities to exit, but wants to confront the President and other authorities to pull him out of there. The constant attempts by the PRD members to go out and try to force a collision with the federal forces seem to be focused on one thing only: try to make President Fox look like an authoritarian. The rationale is that if the President is authoritarian, then the theory of a fraud to impose a President is feasible.
Honestly, I don’t understand how they are trying to showcase the President as an authoritarian by taking authoritarian actions themselves. After all, the public opinion view on Fox was not build last week. If anything, Fox has been seen as a pretty moderate President and not a particularly heavy handed one. AMLO himself should have learned this lesson when his infamous “cállate chachalaca” statement backfired on him. The one that ended up being hurt by that was him and not Fox.
In any case, AMLO and several of his aides, such as the current Mexico City Mayor, seems to be selling the theory that the people at the blockade will be dispersed by the force out of Zocalo and Reforma to make room for the Independence celebrations. This places the President on a very tight spot. The September 15th Grito Ceremony and the September 16th are the top national celebrations. They are always held at the Zócalo as they are truly for all of Mexicans and not only for a group of them. The forceful exit doesn’t seem to be plausible, but it is likely that AMLO will not back away an inch on his attempt to make Fox look like a dictator.
In the mean time, trying to call the President a tyrant by signaling a self-proclamation as a president doesn’t seem like the wisest thing to do. Doesn’t AMLO realize that he can still play a major role transforming the country without being the President? His status as the undisputed leader of the Mexican left is worth a lot… if he wants to use it. And he doesn't need to take any unilateral actions that hurt everybody to play that role.
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