Case Against Mexico Mayor Ends

MEXICO CITY — Abuse-of-authority charges against Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador were formally dropped Wednesday, putting an end to a political crisis and clearing the way for his presidential candidacy.

The announcement had been expected since April 27, when President Vicente Fox declared on national television that he would bring “conciliation” to the dispute, which threatened to tear apart Mexico’s evolving democracy.

Lopez Obrador was accused of ignoring a 2001 court order to stop a municipal road project over disputed land. Mexico’s Congress stripped him of immunity from prosecution April 7, with Fox’s National Action Party, or PAN, and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, forming a rare alliance to carry the vote.

That cleared the way to bring criminal charges, which meant not only a possible jail term for the mayor but, unless the case was quickly resolved in his favor, automatic disqualification from next year’s presidential race. Fox said Mexico’s rule of law was at stake.

But many Mexicans said the political consequences seemed out of proportion to the alleged crime in a country where the application of justice can be highly selective. The mayor and his supporters accused Fox and the PRI of a crude political maneuver to exclude a leading competitor from the election, and a majority of Mexicans seemed to agree. Lopez Obrador, a member of the Democratic Revolution Party, leads all other likely presidential candidates in voter polls. Fox is barred from running again.

Domestic and international criticism of the case as anti-democratic was intense. A key factor in Fox’s backing-down was an April 24 demonstration in which hundreds of thousands of Lopez Obrador supporters clogged the historic center of Mexico City. Another was a judge’s decision late last month to bounce the case back to prosecutors for procedural reasons.

In his April 27 address, Fox also announced the resignation of Atty. Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha and said Macedo’s successor would thoroughly review the case.

On Wednesday, new Atty. Gen. Daniel Cabeza de Vaca issued a statement saying that although it was “probable” that Lopez Obrador was culpable of ignoring the court order, there was no specific legal penalty for the alleged crime. Constitutional expert Lorenzo Cordova said that explained why no public official had ever been prosecuted for ignoring a court order under a broader abuse-of-authority charge.

“It’s finished,” said Jose Luis Manjarrez, a spokesman for Cabeza de Vaca. “He reviewed the case and decided there will be no proceedings.”

Mayoral aide Manuel Camacho Solis said Wednesday that Lopez Obrador would probably stay on the job until mid-July, then turn his attention to the presidential campaign. His party holds its nominating convention Sept. 18.

“It was late, but it was the only correct decision to make,” Camacho Solis said. “This is a historical victory for democracy.”