Mexican legislators' disruption defies Fox

MEXICO CITY — In a historic rebuke, opposition legislators seized control of Mexico's congressional chamber Friday and blocked President Vicente Fox from delivering his final State of the Nation address.

Fox, who was adorned in Mexico's green, red and white presidential sash, stood awkwardly in the chamber's foyer for nearly 10 minutes before conceding that he had no chance of entering. Surrounded by bodyguards, Fox was handed a microphone, quickly said that he would leave and gave a copy of his speech to a legislative official.

The legislators who commandeered Mexico's congressional building are aligned with the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, and its candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is demanding a full recount of the July 2 presidential election results.

After giving up, Fox turned and left the building with his wife, Mexico's first lady, Martha Sahagun, who had donned an evening gown for the occasion. Fox smiled and nodded, while Sahagun chatted with the crowd that formed around them outside the building, which had been ringed by riot fencing and was guarded by 6,000 police officers. Then they disappeared into a waiting vehicle.

The scuttling of the presidential address, which broke a tradition dating 180 years, played out live on television in Mexico, where a dispute over the results of the election to replace Fox has brought massive protests and chaos to Mexico City's downtown.

López Obrador, a populist former Mexico City mayor who has led the demonstrations, claims that fraud allegedly committed by Fox's National Action Party is responsible for his apparent narrow loss to Felipe Calderón. After refusing López Obrador's request for a full recount Aug. 6, Mexico's special election court is expected to certify Calderón's victory within days.

PRD legislators rushed the stage in Mexico's legislative chamber, which was draped with a huge Mexican flag, while Chamber of Deputies President Jorge Zermeno tried in vain to get them to sit.

The legislators chanted "vote by vote, polling place by place," repeating a phrase that López Obrador and his supporters have plastered on posters for the past two months. Some waved signs that said "Fox is a traitor," and others lofted Mexican flags.

Their shouts could be heard in the distance as Fox climbed the building's steps and stood before the glass doors leading from the foyer into the chamber. While the PRD legislators chanted, Fox shook his head and grimaced. Finally, he nodded his head and a cheer burst out of the chamber.

"This is a scandal," Alejandro Rosas, a historian, said during one of the many news programs that filled the airwaves with shocked commentary after the incident.

Fox's departure from the legislative building capped a strange sequence of events that captivated this city. First, thousands of police officers in riot gear surrounded the legislative building, anticipating a full-frontal assault by thousands of López Obrador supporters.

The masses of protesters never materialized. Dozens of street vendors who had anticipated a big crowd stood idle on the streets leading to the building. Police officers practiced using their shields to block violent demonstrators, squatting and rising repeatedly.

While the police waited for an onslaught that never came, López Obrador convened his latest in a series of dozens of "informative assemblies" in the large downtown square, the Zocalo, where thousands of his followers have been camping for the past month.

"Only the unjust resort to violence," he told the crowd.

More importantly, he told the crowd to stay in place instead of marching to the legislative building as everyone had expected. The crowd cheered wildly, hanging on every word from López Obrador, who has vowed to form a parallel government and not accept Calderón's ascendancy to Mexico's highest office.

López Obrador's crowds had slackened in recent weeks, but on Friday there was a renewed sense of energy as thousands of college students, back from summer break, poured into the square.

While López Obrador spoke, and later while Fox was being turned away, Calderón — the man who will soon likely lead this country — was nowhere to be seen.

Fox, meanwhile, later spoke directly to the nation in a televised speech from his office. He stressed his government's success bringing democracy and transparency to the country. He also touted economic growth, conceding that poverty and lack of safety remained "an outstanding debt."

He added that the actions of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, were not a personal affront.

"This attitude, contrary to democratic practices, does not represent an offense against myself, but rather against the presidential office and Mexican society," he said.

López Obrador's supporters in the Zocalo saw it differently, cheering the news that Fox was unable to give his speech. "The people united will never be divided," they chanted.

Information from The Dallas Morning News is included in this report.