Political unrest tough to tame as Mexico boils

Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau
Sept. 6, 2006 12:00 AM

MEXICO CITY - Conservative Felipe Calderón could be in for months, perhaps years, of political unrest even after a court on Tuesday upheld his razor-thin victory in Mexico's July 2 presidential election.

The election has exposed seething discontent in this country of 103 million people. Many Mexicans are exasperated by Mexico's persistent poverty, feel ignored by the government and are convinced that Calderón used fraud to beat leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

"There is a real danger of a deterioration of the entire political system," said William Ackroyd, an expert on Mexican politics at Arizona State University. "There is a hard core of people that are really alienated."

The drawn-out election and court process are unprecedented in Mexico, where for decades one party picked presidents in back rooms, dissent was squashed and the biggest worry was whether the peso would devaluate as the old leader left office.

This time, the new president will face serious resistance from both average citizens and a powerful political opposition.