Mexican elections in the limelight
at ¡Gringo Unleashed!, who has a Andrés Manuel López Obrador and PRD: background and history, including a brief overview of the Mexican political landscape,

with PAN double-clutching after their midterm election setbacks and PRI still rebuilding after losing in 2000, López Obrador (known by his acronym AMLO in most newspapers) has emerged as a front-runner for the 2006 presidential elections. From people I’ve talked to, he is enormously popular–people see him as something of a maverick who will shake things up, much like Fox was viewed back in 2000.

It was in this atmosphere that the turmoil surrounding AMLO erupted earlier this year

and a huge AMLO roundup, which includes this op-ed from Frontera news,

The matter was very clear: Lopez Obrador did violate the law and did commit a felony. Because of this, no less than 360 deputies, 73.6% of the deputies present in the session, more than the 327 necessary as a qualified majority, voted in favor of the removal of immunity. But now it turns out President Fox decided not to exercise legal action against the Head of Government of the DF. And he left the chamber hanging in the balance.

But the matter has legal implications. The President of the Republic and the attorney general of the Republic can be placed under judgment by way of a request of the judicial power of the Federation, for refusing to follow a judicial action. The law allows for the stripping of immunity of officials that don’t fulfill the law. Fox fell in the trap that Lopez Obrador made for him: to politicize justice. Now it will be enough to plead political profiles to elude judicial action. In a single blow, President Fox annulled the moral and legal authority of judicial power and of the public ministry.

¡Gringo Unleashed! has done a superb job of translating and explaining the situation. A must-read.