Mexican Vows 'Resistance' in Recount Push

By MARK STEVENSON Associated Press Writer
AP Photo/DARIO LOPEZ-MILLS

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a vast crowd of supporters Sunday to wage a campaign of "civil resistance" to push for a manual recount of the election that he claims his conservative opponent won by fraud.

Lopez Obrador did not say what the campaign should entail, but the term "civil resistance" in Mexico often has meant protest camps and street blockades.

A crowd of more than 300,000 jammed the capital's central plaza, spilling down the city's main avenue for at least 1.5 miles and chanting "Vote by vote!" - the slogan of the recount campaign.

A recount is needed "for the economic, political and financial stability of the country," a stern-faced Lopez Obrador said, casting the coming days as "decisive days, days in which all will be tested."

"To defend democracy, we are going to be beginning peaceful civil resistance," he said.