Mexico election unrest reaching U.S. Border

BY MARIA ESPARZA, SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Aug 11, 2006

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. — The protest movement over last month's Mexican presidential election is making its way to this border city, where supporters of a losing candidate say they plan to block the port of entry on Aug. 21, preventing vehicle travel between the two countries.

The blockade is one in a series planned at crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to pressure the government to do a vote-by-vote recount of the results of the July 2 election that show leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador narrowly losing, said Petra Santos, who is heading up the San Luis blockade.

Details about the blockades have not all been worked out, but the date of Aug. 21 has been finalized by leaders of the protest movement, Santos said in a telephone interview from Mexico City, where she was meeting with other officials of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolutionary Party.

Santos said the blockade will be peaceful, but she conceded border residents will not be able to travel between the two countries, among them San Luis Rio Colorado residents who commute to work on the U.S. side.