Charges dropped against mayor
MEXICO CITY -- President Vicente Fox's government dropped divisive criminal charges Wednesday against Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, ending a controversy that could have prevented the popular mayor from running for president.
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A week after Fox backed away from the charges by accepting the resignation of his attorney general, the new top federal prosecutor's office said it believed Lopez Obrador was probably guilty of disobeying a judge's order to stop building a road to a hospital.
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But it said it would not prosecute the mayor because the law did not say exactly what penalty would be applied if he were found guilty.
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Fox's government said the decision adhered to Mexican law. But it appeared to be a speedy and badly needed solution to a political crisis for Fox, who faced huge protests after being accused of using the minor charges to try to eliminate a political enemy from next year's presidential elections.
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Fox, on a visit to Jamaica on Wednesday, said the action would ensure that the upcoming elections are a "truly clean game." He said he would do everything possible to support democracy in Mexico.
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Under Mexican law, Lopez Obrador could not have run for public office if he faced criminal charges. For months, he has led all possible presidential contenders in the polls, largely due to welfare programs that have endeared him to the public.
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The mayor and his allies, while pointing out that the decision appeared "contradictory," welcomed the decision for putting an end to the case.
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"It's good they made a correction," Lopez Obrador told a local radio station in response to the announcement. "We were at a point of falling into a state of instability."
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Legal changes
Later Wednesday, a Fox spokesman announced that the president would propose two legal changes: one that would clarify penalties for public officials who disobey court orders and the second to guarantee citizens can run for office even if indicted.
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By changing course on the charges, Fox averted a confrontation with the mayor and his supporters that could have thrown doubt on the legitimacy of next year's elections. He also avoided the potential tarnishing of his legacy as the democrat whose 2000 victory ended the authoritarian 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
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But since Fox announced last week that his government would "review" the case against the mayor, critics have questioned him for setting aside the law in search of an easy political solution, thereby damaging Mexico's efforts to consolidate its rule of law.
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Raul Carranca y Rivas, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the law lays out penalties for abuse-of- authority charges like those that prosecutors wanted to bring against Lopez Obrador. He said the penalty could be up to 8 years in prison.
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"What the [attorney general's office] is saying is totally false," Carranca y Rivas said. "The president performed one barbarity, and the [attorney general's office] is now doing another."
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Fox's action also drew criticism Wednesday from his political opponents.
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"The precedent is dangerous," said Manlio Fabio Beltrones, a PRI leader and president of Congress' Chamber of Deputies. "What worries me is that future abuse-of-authority cases will not be penalized and that other efforts of this nature will be cut short."
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The case has been filled with theatrics, contradictions and competing legal interpretations since the PRI-led Congress stripped Lopez Obrador of his legal immunity last month so he could be charged.
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Out on bond
Prosecutors filed the charges against the mayor two weeks ago. But a judge rejected them because they had not been filed until two legislators from Fox's right-wing National Action Party, or PAN, paid a bond so that Lopez Obrador would not have to go to jail. The PAN feared the mayor would campaign from behind bars as a victim.
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Prosecutors vowed to refile the charges. But, under pressure, Fox last week announced that Atty. Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha and his top deputies had resigned and that the case would be reviewed to make sure it did not block Lopez Obrador from running for president.
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Two days ago, a longtime Fox loyalist, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, was named the new attorney general.
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Announcing the abandonment of the case Wednesday, the attorney general's office said that "despite the probable guilt of C. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in the crime attributed to him, there is no actual penalty exactly applicable to the case."
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"This decision is 100 percent within the law," the statement said. "With these actions, the [attorney general's office] reinforces its commitment to the state of law and the strengthening of the institutions of the republic."
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SOURCE: EIU / INFO-e