(My new American Thinker post)
My wife and I spent much of our lunch today checking videos and messages from friends in Mexico City. Many people marched south of the border rejecting President Lopez-Obrador's changes to the electoral process. This is one of those reports:
Huge crowds gathered across Mexico on Sunday to oppose a government drive to shrink the independent electoral authority, arguing the changes threaten democracy, in what appeared to be the largest protests yet against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration.
Organizers said in Mexico City over 500,000 people attended, with video footage on social media showing a central Zocalo square filled with protesters. One police officer nearby said he had heard the half a million figure, while others gave lower estimates.
I don't have an estimate except that I saw videos of Mexicans marching, waving their flags, and singing their national anthem. The marches also happened in other Mexican cities as well as worldwide. I don't remember anything like this in Mexico before. At the same time, we have not seen the likes of AMLO before.
According to AMLO's critics, he wants to dismantle Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE), the federal electoral commission, and give AMLO's Morena party total control over the elections. In other words, the party in power counts the votes and runs the computers. What could possibly go wrong under that scenario?
The bad news is that the Mexican Senate approved the so-called "Plan B." The good news is that the Mexican Supreme Court may kill it. The judges have issued a temporary suspension.
How will AMLO take an opinion by the court that his baby "Plan B" is unconstitutional? Honestly, that's what a lot of those people in the streets are scared about.
Last, but not least, they are concerned about AMLO's "autocratic" ways at the Atlantic:
Mexico’s erratic and authoritarian president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is scheming to end the country’s quarter-century commitment to multiparty liberal democracy. He is subverting the institutions that have upheld Mexico’s democratic achievement -- above all, the country’s admired and independent elections system. On López Obrador’s present trajectory, the Mexican federal elections scheduled for the summer of 2024 may be less than free and far from fair.
AMLO has lost the liberal Atlantic and Mexicans are worried.
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