“Take the cap, the flag, the shirt!”, “De a 20, de 20 pesitos”!, were the sounds of the street vendors who made their ‘August’ in February when they received the protesters on the streets and avenues bordering the Zócalo.
First like a trickle and then like a tide, people were arriving at the plaza for 5 de Mayo, 20 de Noviembre, 16 de Septiembre and Pino Suárez painting the streets pink and white as they went, displaying legends like #YoDefiendoAlINE, # ElINENoSeToca and #MiVotoNoSeToca.
(Photo: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP)
The welcome to the Zócalo for the attendees was a banner with the face of Genaro García Luna, former Secretary of Public Security in the six-year term of Felipe Calderón, on the building of the capital’s Congress.
Flanked by the PAN logo and the slogan #GarcíaLunaNoSeToca, the protesters responded with hisses and demands until local deputy Aníbal Cañez and personnel from the Acción Nacional bench tore down the canvas with the image of the ‘super policeman’, found guilty of drug trafficking A few days ago in New York.
There were groups that revealed their closeness to opposition political parties or with the banners of organizations such as the National Anti AMLO Front (FRENA), the National Civic Front, Citizen Power, Yes for Mexico, Mexico Civil Society, UNE Mexico and United for Mexico.
However, many attendees declared themselves non-partisan in defense of democracy, in a country where for decades the election of a new presidential figure did not depend on citizen votes, but on the ‘finger’ of whoever then selected the president in turn to succeed him.
“We want democracy. We voted for AMLO for democracy, but democracy itself is going to remove him. It is the democracy of my country, of Mexico, ”said one of the attendees at the demonstration, who arrived at the Zócalo with her daughter and her parents. “(I feel very disappointed”.
The approval of the so-called “Plan B”, which reduces the resources and structures the INE, has been explained and defended by the government of López Obrador as a measure against the “excesses of the electoral body”; But for the protesters who flooded the Zócalo this Sunday, the electoral reform is a risk for democracy and the institute that must guarantee the elections.
“I come of course to defend the INE. Unfortunately, before it was the INE, it cannot be touched, it has already been touched, but we trust the Supreme Court of Justice and we count on it so that this ‘Plan B’ or those that follow do not happen,” said Adriana, one of the protesters, who She arrived with a friend carrying a canvas with the legend ‘Supreme Court of Justice: we’re counting on you!’.
