The camp of the leftwing Mexican president candidate AMLO has much of the same feeling as many of the anticamps of the intercontinental governmental conferences: no-one quite know how many protesters will come, no-one quite knows whether the police or military will react violently and turn it all into a bloodbath. But most of all: no one quite knows whether one will make a difference, or at least stop or hinder some of the meetings behind closed doors.

After three nightly bus tours south from Douglas, AZ and another night in the town of Zacatecas, I have finally come to Mexico city, where everything seems to be happening right now. For those of you who have not followed the news, on July 2nd Mexico had a presidential election. Although it was expected that the moderate leftwinger Andrés Manuel López Obrador (short: AMLO) was expected to win the elections with a coalition of three left/centrist parties behind him, his right wing opponent Calderon of the national action party (PAN) seemingly won by just a few percentile. However, Mexico has seen rigged elections before, most notable in 1988.

Therefore AMLO did not just choose to give up, and despite court rulings against his favor, the opposition has instead chosen to occupy one of Mexico city’s main squares and the representatives of both AMLO’s own party PRD and anpther supporting party, the PT, stood up in parliament to hinder still-President Fox from giving his last oral report. AMLO and his supporters have also said that they would not accept another president (who is with all likelihood to be announced tomorrow or the day after).

Any revolutionary with free time on his hands anywhere in North America should at this time be gathering in Mexico city, as far as I can understand. However, that hardly seems the case. On my way down here, I hardly saw any gringo at all, most of the country seeming rather deserted. And the one American I did meet in Chihuahua did not have a clue about what was going on politically in the country he was currently traveling. And those of my friends in Europe who had followed the news, did not generally like the idea of me going to Mexico city, where any minute a civil war might start.

And it is true, as late as yesterday did AMLO ask the military to stay out of the current situation and not intervene (against the campers who have held the square for 36 days now). However, when I arrived today, the situation still looked rather friendly. For anyone who has been at one of the major global protests (Praha 2000, Nice 2000, Genoa 2001, Goeteborg 2001, Oslo 2002, Copenhagen 2002, etc.), this seems like much of the same. However there are some differences:
— There is close to no international participation (I believe I am one of maybe a handful foreigners at the camp — and some of the young foreign travellers do not even know what is going on.
— The rethorics are much less radical. AMLO talks about thinks like directing investments into housing, rather than overthrowing capitalism as a whole.
— The goal is much clearer, but also much more limited (taking the presidency rather than starting a world revolution).
— It is to last much longer. while any of the other protest usually last up to between a week and ten days, this is to last, according to some activists I’ve asked, until December first.

I will try to keep you updated on any further developments…