Newest updates on the Grito: Fox has decided that he will not hold the Grito here and he has already skipped town to hold it a few hundred miles outside of Mexico city. The news has been well-received on the camp, and AMLO has announced that instead of him, Alejandro Encinas, PRD-member (and following AMLO to hold that post) will hold the Grito at the Zocalo. At the same time it was promised that we would remove our tents from the Zocalo, but it’s not quite as easy as that…
For anyone who has not been here, the Zocalo is bordered by two government buildings: one is controlled by the federal government (PAN) and the other by the municipal government (PRD). Fox was going to speak from the federal building. For the duration of the camp we were allowed to use the restrooms in the municipal government building. And after the tent was packed yesterday, they also allowed us to sleep on the sidewalk outside of it.
In that way we stay true to he promise to have left the Zocalo, without really having to leave. When the soldiers saw that, the immediately ordered guarding the federal building, which includes Fox’ offices.
Although it all looks peaceful and we seem to basically have been able t take over the town, many of my co-campers are still afraid of the large military presence, so when the mayor walked by they him what he thinks will happen. He told them not to worry, because if the soldiers are to intervene, he will send the city police to fight the soldiers! This night at 5 then, we were all woken up because some Mexican marines had been walking through the street screaming that the army was coming to get us. Luckily, it was false alarm.
Now lets see how all this ends…