MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tens of thousands of mostly opposition supporters protested against Mexico’s president Sunday in the grand colonial-era plaza ahead of June’s presidential election.
Protesters in Mexico City carried signs reading “We are Mexicans,” referring to what they say are attempts by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to divide the country.
Mexico is extremely polarized in the run-up to the June 2 presidential elections. López Obrador regularly rails against reporters, the middle class, businesspeople and people he calls “individualists” and social climbers.
The protest was originally intended to defend independent election agencies that the president wants to reduce or stop funding. But many demonstrators carried banners in support of opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez. Former mayor of Mexico City Claudia Sheinbaum from the president’s Morena party appears to be taking the lead in the battle for the June 2 vote.
Mexican presidents are limited to one six-year term.
Mexico City resident Joel Guerra, 59, carried a sign that read “Reclaim Mexico.”
“The president says that only his supporters are ‘the good people’ of Mexico, and that the rest of us have no rights,” Guerra said. “We are people too.”
Guerra was particularly concerned about a new law López Obrador passed that seizes unclaimed personal retirement accounts to distribute to other retirees.
“Unfortunately, the people who govern us now have completely divided the country,” says businesswoman Alana Leal. “There are two groups of Mexicans, and that’s not fair. It is not fair to create so much hatred because at the end of the day we are all in the same boat and we are all working for the progress of the country.”
López Obrador regularly attacks anyone who disagrees with him as “racist, classist, conservative.” He also favors state-owned enterprises and government programs, and derides the accumulation of personal wealth.
The march took place before the candidates were scheduled to hold their third and final debate late Sunday. Sheinbaum has promised to try to reconcile the Mexicans if she wins, but Leal doubted she would do so.
“I think it will be very difficult to reach a reconciliation between the two groups,” she said, adding: “That is very regrettable.”
