Mexico vote protests cripple capital

MEXICO CITY - Street protests led by the leftist candidate in Mexico's presidential election plunged the capital into chaos for a second day on Tuesday, raising fears of a long and increasingly nasty fight over vote fraud claims.

The mass demonstrations called by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to protest alleged vote-rigging in his close election defeat to conservative rival Felipe Calderon on July 2 have turned Mexico City's swanky business district into a sprawling campsite.

European Union observers say they found no evidence of fraud, but Mexico's long history of vote fraud has left many leftists suspicious. Lopez Obrador says he has evidence that vote returns were tampered with.

He wants Mexico's top electoral court to order a recount. The court has until August 31 to rule on the request, meaning Mexico's political deadlock could stretch on for at least another month.

Mexico's currency fell 0.85 per cent on Tuesday and stocks were down 0.6 per cent as the chaos and rising hostility between supporters of Lopez Obrador and Calderon unnerved investors.

Calderon's team insists he won cleanly. Calderon opposes the vote-by-vote recount being demanded by Lopez Obrador.

Protesters are camped along the capital's main boulevard, skyscraper-flanked Paseo de la Reforma, causing traffic chaos in the heart of one of the world's biggest cities.

Angry commuters

Late for work, court clerk Carolina Gutierrez, 22, hurried across Reforma from a nearby subway station, shaking her head in scorn at shouting protesters. Three packed trains had passed by her platform before she could squeeze on to the metro.

"It is chaos for everybody who lives here," she said. "It's not fair. There are legal ways to resolve this."

At a key intersection, commuters locked bumpers a block from Reforma, many screaming through car windows at police who diverted cars from the artery.

"This is a disaster," one man shouted.

After sleeping in a tent in Mexico City's main square amid thousands of supporters from poor rural areas, Lopez Obrador rose before dawn and strode down Reforma, visiting delighted supporters in makeshift camps.

Abandoning steaming caldrons of food, shrieking women in shawls mobbed him, jostling with men in ski jackets for a hug from the candidate or a photograph with him.

"He is a man of the people," said Constantino Matias, a baker from the edge of the city. "He is our hope."

But Lopez Obrador is under fire from critics and even some longtime allies for paralysing the heart of the capital.

He is unrepentant. In one speech on Tuesday, he dismissed critics who accuse him of exacerbating class tensions.

"Only now are they realising we live in a very unequal country, where a few own everything and most lack bare essentials," Lopez Obrador said.

Protesters waving flags barred entry to one of the main buildings housing Mexico's autonomous central bank.

Lopez Obrador's supporters show no signs of abandoning Reforma or Mexico's City's vast Spanish colonial main square, which resembles a refugee camp, complete with food kitchens and a small medical clinic.

- REUTERS