Parallel universes? AMLO in the news

Catherine Bremer, writing for Reuters, says:

The leftist who a year ago was a hair’s breadth from winning Mexico’s presidency was reduced to political artifact on Sunday, drawing a fraction of his old crowds to an anniversary rally.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who insists his razor-thin defeat to Felipe Calderon in the July 2, 2006, election was rigged, has spent most of the past year crisscrossing Mexico to declare himself the “legitimate president.”

While Sunday’s rally attracted tens of thousands of people, numbers were far fewer than the estimated 300,000 who turned out for Lopez Obrador in the run-up to the election in some of the biggest political marches ever seen in Mexico.

However, the Spanish language Associated Press report tells a different story:

CIUDAD DE MEXICO — El candidato izquierdista que perdió por escaso margen las elecciones presidenciales emitió un mensaje de desafío al gobierno ante cientos de miles de seguidores en la plaza principal de México, a fin de reactivar su decaído gobierno de resistencia, un movimiento que amenaza con dividir a la izquierda.

…

El movimiento, que ha obtenido el apoyo de alrededor de una cuarta parte de la población, se mantiene vivo debido a un trasfondo de escepticismo y descontento, aunque eso en muy raras ocasiones es noticia de primera plana.

I tend to think the AP reporter was actually there, since the reporter noted the speech (mostly a rejection of any privatization of Pemex, blaming the U.S. and the Calderón administration for high emigration rates and renewing the call for leftist delegates and senators to reject the administration’s proposals) and caught something you’d think Ms. Bremer might have though worthy of mentioning at least in passing … the threatened downpour poured down.

AMLO’s re-emergence sort of snuck up on the AP… the reporter quotes an admirer who complains that Lopez Obradór has been snubbed by what we’d call the “mainstream media”.

Here’s the Reuters’ photo:

and here’s a screen capture from El Universal (not notably pro-AMLO) which has a video of the speech…

Explain it how you will.

Both Reuters and AP say that Calderón had a 65% approval rating in the last poll that was reported (rather low for a new president… Fox’s was closer to 80% after his first year) and that AMLO’s support has dropped over the last year… but, then again, he hasn’t been much in the news.

A drop from a little over a third in the election to a quarter still means he’s got a significant following… and if the recent northern state elections indicate what I think they do, it’s more that the left is divided than that it’s down and out. AMLO is certain not down… nor out.