Mexico City mayor stripped of immunity

‘We just want free elections’
“It’s not fair that they’re trying to get rid of a candidate, rather than defeating him at the ballot box,” said Juana Hernandez Garduno, a 66-year-old homemaker who received a housing loan from Lopez Obrador’s administration. “We just want free elections.”

Lopez Obrador has built a following based on handout programs and public works projects. On Thursday he proposed “a homeland for all, a homeland for the humiliated,” which in the past he has said would involve a more state-supported economy, greater reliance on oil revenues and a renegotiation of free trade pacts.

“They call him a populist because he hands out money,” said Ernesto Pena, 47, a restaurant owner who attended the mayor’s rally. “But the reason none of the other politicians hands out money is because they just steal it.”

The crowd cheered wildly when Lopez Obrador finally declared his candidacy for the 2006 race.

“Wherever I am, I am going to compete for the internal vote of my party for the presidency of the republic,” he said.

Authorities seek court order
The federal attorney general’s office has said it would immediately request a court order for Lopez Obrador’s arrest after the vote.

“He may try to depict himself as a victim ... or the champion of popular causes,” federal prosecutor Carlos Javier Vega told Congress on Thursday, “but he can never justify having disobeyed a court order.”

Analysts have warned that the congressional vote could cause political instability, wreak havoc on financial markets and undermine Mexicans’ faith in their fledgling democracy.

Lopez Obrador, who has frequently depicted himself as a victim and a martyr when challenged in the past, took Thursday’s events in stride.

Before the vote, he told Congress: “I am proud to be accused by those who deceived Mexico, who offered change, and then defrauded the public.”

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