This will be my last update here from Mexico city as I will be going further south in about two hours. The camp is gone, and for now Mexico city once again looks like most capital cities.
And the change has been rapid. Since the last posting we first had the Grito with the PRD mayor of Mexico (supported and accompanied by AMLO). Although the entire Zocalo was filled with people screaming “Presidente” and “Obrador” and “¡Viva la resistencia pacífica!” in good weather, while Fox’ alternative ceremony was drenched in rain, all the major TV stations seemed to have ignored the Mexico city Grito completely — instead they did report on such interesting places as Phoenix, Arizona and the celebrations there!

Then the following night (15th-16th) some of us were to sleep at the Zocalo again, while the rest went and slept in an underground garage of a sports center. I was amongst those sleeping at the Zocalo to begin with, but then suddenly we were woken up because the army had decided that we had to move before their parade the next morning (16th). At that time I went to the youth hostel that is at the Zocalo rather than to the parking garage, which had struck me as a dangerous place to be hiding from the military.

The next morning, the Zocalo was then in the hands of the army — and for a few hours Fox was back, driving around in a car of the army, inspecting his army, and even going on the balcony of his palace there (the federal building at the Zocalo). Then Fox and his army disappeared, and starting a little after 3Pm, the square was once again filled with 100,000s of delegates for the democratic national convention. The whole convention was successful, but it also marked the end of the encampment. However, as to be expected, the western media pretty much boycotted the event. The whole convention consisted of a few speeches and votes on about ten things. One of the main questions was whether one should merely call AMLO the “leader of the resistance” or whether one should go as far as claiming that he is the legitimate president (no-one can really know for sure given that the votes have not really been counted yet). The delegates went for the more radical “president”-option. The news agency Reuters and others then managed to distort that, saying that the delegates “rejected a move to name Lopez Obrador head of a civil resistance campaign. Aides said the vote showed his supporters wanted to channel their opposition to conservative president-elect Felipe Calderon mostly through political means, rather than protests.” Tss! One can only hope that protests will be so loud as to not let Reuters & co get away with such nonsense.

Given that the resistance for now is over here, I have no interest going over into the tourist crowd, and so I move on, further south…