LOPEZ OBRADOR: “I DIDN’T BREAK THE LAW, THERE WAS NO COMISSION OF A CRIME” 
May 5, 2005 

MEXICO CITY.  Andrés Manuel López Obrador has gone from accused to accuser, recently mobilizing more than a million people—according to stats of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD)—to come out in protest against his impeachment as head of government for Mexico City.

 “Who is it that’s trying to keep you from making it to the presidency?  Is it President Vicente Fox?” I asked him a few days ago in an interview. “Yes,” he shot back, “I do believe it is the President; all of this was hatched and carefully planned from within the Los Pinos National Palace…It’s a plot, a conspiracy with Salinas (de Gortari).”

            The possible assassination or an attempt against the life  of yet another presidential candidate in Mexico gives him pause and is something  he prefers to avoid,  but the questions had to be asked:

             “If someone is trying to neutralize you politically,” I asked him, “would  they go so far  as to consider killing you? Are you afraid you may be killed?” 

             “I’m only human, of course, and we all have our fears,” said López Obrador, a 51-year-old widower and father of three. “But a coward I’m not, and I don’t intend giving a thought to  that… I’m hoping it won’t come to that.”

            Despite Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s 40 percent voter-intent lead in the polls, his legal worries are far from being resolved. However, with the resignation of the Attorney General in charge of the prosecution of his case,  the way has been opened for working out a political resolution with President Fox that would permit him to pursue his candidacy outside jail. 

            Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s secret is being able to sense better than anyone else the opinions and yearnings of millions of Mexicans.  His popularity is based on the ingeniousness with which  he managed to  boomerang the accusations against him back onto the government, thus gaining the support of Mexico’s poorest and most disenfranchised, and putting key political players against the wall.

            His detractors see him as a hybrid between political boss and a Mexican version of Robin Hood; for his friends, on the other hand, he is an honest, brave man who is not about to allow the presidency to be snatched away, as was done to another PRD candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, in the fraudulent elections of 1988. Let there be no doubt – he is the true rising star in the firmament of Mexican politics. 

          President Vicente Fox has said that López Obrador’s impeachment was an exercise in  the rule of law in Mexico.  “That’s not true, I didn’t break the law, there was no commission of a crime,” was his adamant retort.  “Listen, in a 16-thousand-page case file there is not a single shred of evidence against me;  I didn’t sign a single document.”

            I reminded him, nevertheless, of the outstanding accusation of ignoring on several occasions a judge’s order to cease construction of a hospital access road across private property.

            “City government receives around a hundred matters for resolution in any given day and that was just one of many,” he explained. “Personally attending to every one of those hundreds of daily cases would leave me with no time for anything else and I wouldn’t be able to run the government…I don’t sign anything that has  to do with those matters.”

            “So,” I went on, “you stand on your complete innocence?” 

            “Completely -- this fabrication was a means to set me aside for the 2006 election.”

López Obrador’s opponents claim that his tactic of confrontation with the administration and the old political guard have diverted the Mexican populace’s attention from the accusations of corruption leveled against two of his closest associates, Gustavo Ponce, his Finance Secretary, who was caught on tape in a Las Vegas casino betting far more money than he earns, and René Bejarano, his party’s coordinator, who was captured on film receiving a suitcase full of money and jamming wads of bills into his pockets.

Even if López Obrador knew nothing about any of this, he could still be accused of negligence; and if he was aware of it, he could be mired as an accessory to the fact.  What does he have to say? 

            “I was unaware of either of those cases,” he answered unwaveringly. “I have gone over that on numerous occasions… I didn’t know.  I have abetted  no one.”

“These videos,” I said, “have obviously had an effect affect on your image of austerity.” “No, they have not,” he countered defiantly. “They have had no effect, because  they were actually an acid test;  the idea was that they would be able destroy me once and for all with this scandal, but, fortunately the people have given me a vote of confidence.” 

             “Do you lead a frugal life?”      

             “I live frugally, and wish for no more money than what is necessary to live on, to care for my family’s needs.”

             “How much money do you have?”

             “Well, right now I probably have about 35,000 Pesos in cash (about $3,500).  I own the apartment where I live in the city and a house in Tabasco.  Basically that’s all I possess.”

             “It is not a lot. But besides that,  it’s not my ambition to make a lot of money, that’s just not my goal in life; not the desire for money or for power for power’s sake. I don’t plan on making it to the presidency by leaving my dignity in tatters by the wayside.” 

             “(On the Internet) there are several articles linking you to the death of your younger brother, José Ramón, with a 22-caliber pistol.  Can you explain to me what happened that day, on May 14^th?”

             “Well, this was an accident my brother had,” he told me with utmost gravity. “Very unfortunate.  We were at a store that belonged to my parents, he (age 13, one year younger) was playing around with a gun, and he shot himself.”

             “You must never have gotten over that...” I said to him.

             “We were all there. We saw it happen.  That was really rough, terribly sad, really hard to take… It’s something that for us, my family, is such a sad thing, so personal. I don’t want to talk about it.  

            We brought the interview to its conclusion not with a discussion of his plans for the country but with something far more homespun: His nickname.

             “Your nickname is “Peje.”  How did that come to be?”

             “Well, in the lowlands of Mexico, in Tabasco, there is a species known as “pejelagarto,” half fish and half gator, what I mean is it has a body like a fish and a  head like a gator… And, well, because of my being from Tabasco.”