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Mexico Swears In New Leader, Quickly - New York Times

Mexico Swears In New Leader, Quickly - New York Times

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 1 — It was not pretty, but Felipe Calderón, the new president of Mexico, managed to take the oath of office in Congress today, while leftist lawmakers whistled and catcalled and the losing leftist candidate staged a huge protest march down the central avenue of the capital.

Mr. Calderón and members of his conservative National Action Party defeated attempts by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party to block the entries to the Congress. With his own partisans crowding the dais, the new president and his predecessor, Vicente Fox, were spirited in by bodyguards through a door near the front of the chamber at 9:50 a.m.

Mr. Calderón quickly took the oath of office, and Mr. Fox handed over the traditional presidential sash and left the chamber. The entire ceremony lasted four minutes.

All the while, opposition politicians blew whistles and held up banners suggesting Mr. Calderón was “a traitor to democracy.”

Earlier in the day, fisticuffs and pushing matches broke out between right-wing and left-wing lawmakers as they jockeyed for position in the chamber, with leftists trying to obstruct the entranceways and the conservatives ringing the dais and podium.

Never before in modern Mexican history has a president been sworn under such chaotic and divisive conditions.

The courts determined Mr. Calderón, 44 years old, won the election last July 2 by about 240,000 votes out of 41 million ballots cast. But his principal rival, Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, has insisted that the official results are tainted and has never conceded defeat.

Mr. Calderón’s term of office began at midnight, and for legal reasons the incoming Mexican president is usually sworn in privately at the presidential residence at that time, with the oath later taken again at a public ceremony at the Congress. This year, the outgoing Fox administration took the unprecedented step of broadcasting the private midnight swearing-in live. Shortly afterward, Mr. Calderón spoke on national television, urging lawmakers to “respect the consititution” and let the public ceremony go forward without disruption.

“I don’t ignore the complexity of the political moment we are living, nor our differences,” he said. “But I am convinced that today we should put an end to our disagreements and, from now on, start a new chapter that has as its only objective to put the national interest above our differences.”

His call went unheeded. Just before the public swearing-in this morning, Mr. Lopéz Obrador held a mass rally in the city’s historic central square, the Constitutional Plaza, attracting more than 100,000 supporters. Then he led a march down Paseo de la Reforma toward the National Auditorium, where President Calderón was to speak today at noon (1 p.m. Eastern time).

Speaking to his supporters, Mr. Lopéz Obrador charged once again that the election was fraudulent and that Mr. Calderón’s victory was engineered by a “neofascist oligarchy.” He claimed the “imposition” of Mr. Calderón as president amounted to a “coup d’etat.”

“We are not rebels without a cause,” he said. “Sometimes they forget the heart of the matter, which is that they robbed us of the election.”

He also hinted darkly that he and his party might resort to violent protests in their efforts to “defend democracy.”

Gee, leftist cry babies trying to steal the election because they don't like the results. Sound familiar? How come when they win they elections are clean, but when they lose it's a setup? I'm a Libertarian, but after 2000, I hate the Democrats I vote Republican. That, and I don't feel like converting to islam.

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