Thursday, April 14, 2005

Mexican president visits Acapulco

When President Fox visited Acapulco earlier this week to inaugurate a new tourist market (heck, the entire city is a tourist market), he was not greeted by the Mayor, who is a member of the PRD. The Mayor said it was a personal decision out of loyalty to AMLO. The Governor of the state, who is also a PRD member, did host the President, and they exchanged thinly veiled niceties regarding the desafuero:

Zeferino Torreblanca dio la bienvenida al mandatario federal con un mensaje en donde puntualizó que "la transición hacia una nación de instituciones es un complejo proceso que requiere paciencia, tolerancia y desprendimiento de todos los protagonistas".

Y lo llamó a "profundizar las coincidencias, hacer a un lado las divergencias y lograr que las cosas sean más pactadas que forzadas".

En respuesta, el presidente Fox agradeció al gobernador Torreblanca la invitación a visitar Acapulco, el recibimiento respetuoso que recibió y la disposición del mandatario local a trabajar por las instituciones, el crecimiento económico y el bienestar de los mexicanos.

That exchange is reported in an article from La Jornada .

The article focuses more on the fact that politicians and other attendees to the President's formal visit were made to remove small pins that expressed their support for AMLO. The pins were small red, green, and white striped ribbons like the red ribbons and pink ribbons worn in support of AIDS and breast cancer research funding. Normally, the pins are just worn on Mexican Independence Day in September; I have a couple that have tiny bottles of Corona and Tequila glued to the ribbon. But recently, the ribbons have become a sign of support for AMLO, and apparently anyone wearing such a ribbon was required by the President's security team to remove the ribbon before entering the area of the photo op.

While elites inside the photo op were not allowed to display "their colors," plenty of protestors were waiting outside with signs protesting the desafuero.

It seems that freedom of expression is a right that is selectively protected.

posted by Michelle @ 9:50 AM,

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