Mexico's 'Parallel' Gov't in Question

By LISA J. ADAMS
Associated Press Writer
AP Photo/ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Now that Mexican leftists have acclaimed defeated candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador president of a parallel government, the question is will they settle into the role of a normal democratic opposition or try to press their agenda through more militant resistance.

Lopez Obrador, who lost the July 2 presidential election by 234,000 votes to conservative Felipe Calderon, led a massive protest for seven weeks with followers camped out in the center of Mexico City clogging the heart of the capital to demand a full vote recount.

The protest culminated in a self-styled convention of delegates who packed central Zocalo plaza Saturday night and voted by a show of hands to form a parallel government with a Cabinet and plans to swear in Lopez Obrador as president on Nov. 20.

Lopez Obrador, who championed the rights of the poor during his campaign, said Saturday the parallel government will work on proposals to rewrite Mexico's constitution to guarantee the right to food, work, health care, education and housing while overhauling "corrupt" public institutions.

Saturday's mass convention held back from vowing to pay taxes to the parallel government or break existing laws. But it pledged to wage a campaign of peaceful resistance to undermine Calderon at every turn during the single six-year term allowed by Mexico's constitution.