Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

MEXICO: National Democratic Convention Faces Uncertain Future

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Sep 25 2006 (IPS) - The convention recently established by leftist groups in Mexico is not the first time social and political movements in this country have banded together in such a strategy. Similar conventions in 1813 and 1914 significantly altered the country’s course; the third, in 1994, barely created a ripple, and current efforts have raised hopes as well as doubts.

Twelve years ago, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) indigenous guerrilla movement set up a National Democratic Convention (CND) in the southern state of Chiapas, with broad goals and a call to action mirrored by those currently proposed by the left.

Despite a number of heavily publicised conferences in the jungles of Chiapas, attended by many of those present at the latest CND, as well as international figures like filmmaker Oliver Stone and former French first lady Danielle Mitterand, the initiative that emerged in 1994 quickly faded into oblivion.

The earlier efforts, in 1813 and 1914, had very different outcomes. The first, the Congress of Chilpancingo, was largely a gathering of the independence movement, and played a decisive role in Mexico’s emancipation from the Spanish empire.

In 1914, the Convention of Aguascalientes sounded a call to unite revolutionary factions and forces under Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, shaping in part the current State of Mexico.

Historian and political analyst Carlos Tello said that, like the convention organised by the Zapatista guerrillas in the 1990s, the Convention established Sept. 16 may never get off the ground if it is unable to consolidate representative social sectors into a cohesive front.

He pointed out that the history-making Congress of Chilpancingo and the Convention of Aguascalientes, whose leaders defeated the federal army in a revolutionary war, both successfully united the forces that held political control over much of the country at the time – a condition conspicuously lacking in the two contemporary initiatives.

“Statements to the effect that our convention is a farce and will never succeed only serve to undermine democracy. The people who say these things are opposed to the public’s demands for justice and respect,” Rafael Hernández, national coordinator of the Convention, told IPS.

Born of a proposal made by former leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was narrowly defeated in the Jul. 2 elections, the CND met on Sep. 16 in the capital’s main square before a crowd of a million people.

Participants declared López Obrador the “legitimate president,” and passed several resolutions.

The outgoing Vicente Fox administration, the ruling conservative National Action Party (PAN) and a few leftwing leaders have called the CND a farce, saying it represents a minority sector and criticising its resolutions as worthless.

Hernández said that the action was preceded by 10,728 people’s assemblies and 168 debate forums, in which more than 1.5 million people around the country participated. “Sep. 16 was just the first plenary session – which those who portray the Convention as a farce are unwilling to accept,” he said. “We are a peaceful and inclusively democratic movement,” he stressed.

The majority of CND participants are López Obrador supporters and, like him, insist that July’s elections were marred by electoral fraud favouring conservative candidate Felipe Calderón of PAN, declared president-elect by the electoral court on Sep. 5.

Once he exhausted all institutional channels to strip Calderón of his victory, López Obrador and his Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) turned their efforts to the Convention, which will meet every six months.

Through the Convention, they hope to push through institutional changes that would entail a major restructuring of the country, which they charge is currently held hostage by the economic elites and the right.

Also announced is a plebiscite to be held before the end of 2007, in which voters will be asked to decide if a constituent assembly should be established to rewrite the constitution.

The leftist forces – the PRD and the small Convergencia and Trabajo parties – that backed López Obrador’s candidacy in the “Coalition for the Good of All”, renamed themselves the Progressive Broad Front on Sep. 17, and have committed to acting within the institutional framework of the state.

Historian Lorenzo Meyer, of the prestigious Colegio de Mexico, welcomed the creation of the CND and the Front, and believes both will become major drivers behind the construction of a better democracy and more representative institutions.

But the initiatives have come under fire even from some leftist groups.

The Front and the CND are “a dead-end road among what was once a sea of political possibilities (for the left), and they are attempting to cobble together all their incongruencies in top-down, authoritarian agreements,” said Marco Rascón, a former PRD congressman.

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, founder and historic leader of the PRD and the party’s presidential candidate in 1988, 1994 and 2000, said declaring López Obrador in the CND as the “legitimate president” was a serious mistake that will have major repercussions for the left and will do no good for the country.

Cárdenas criticised López Obrador and his team for their “authoritarian” attitude and refusal to accept criticism and defeat. “A confrontational approach that does not respect a constitutional order is not good for the country,” he added.

“We respect the opinions of our colleagues, but the left has come together as a democratic and peaceful movement fighting for principles and against electoral fraud. Cárdenas should be working with this movement – his place is with us,” said the CND coordinator.

The Convention’s preliminary work included ample debate and the presentation of hundreds of detailed proposals that will be processed in the coming months, said Hernández, who is also a PRD party leader and former congressman.

However, he acknowledged that the proposals passed on Sep. 16 were those submitted by López Obrador in August at a public assembly at which, like the first CND session, participants voted in a show of hands, a practice which “no one can deny is also an expression of democracy.”

The coordinator said that CND members will continue to meet and hold debates over the next few months, following a schedule that includes the swearing-in of López Obrador to his symbolic post in November, and the next plenary meeting in March 2007.

“This national democratic movement is going to make history,” he said.

In the Jul. 2 election, 20 percent of the 71.3 million registered voters cast their ballot for López Obrador. However, surveys show his social support has been ebbing over the past few weeks.

Calderón received only slightly more votes – 20.8 percent.