JOSÉ LÓPEZ PORTILLO (1920-2004)
From Mexico's
LaRouche Youth Movement:
`For His Patriotism'
The following report was filed on Feb. 18, 2004 by the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) in Mexico.
Don José López Portillo, the last President of the Mexican Revolution, died on the night of Feb. 17, 2004. He was one of the few world political leaders who sustained a public relationship with Lyndon LaRouche, and the last true nationalist President of Mexico.
In all sadness, the LaRouche Youth Movement of Mexico went to pay its condolences, both to the family, but also to the entire nation, for the loss of this great Patriot. We took with us a wreath of flowers which bore the legend: "For His Patriotism. LaRouche Youth Movement."
The wake was held in the Army Chapel. We arrived at the same time as former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and we were therefore held up by security, but the military personnel there let us pass, and allowed our wreath to be placed by the door of the chapel. Some other security people tried to get us to leave, but certain soldiers said, "No, no one is to be denied entrance." They took advantage of the fact that prominent political figures were leaving to allow us access to the chapel with our wreath, to make our presence known.
Things were really pathetic inside, with the politicians in little cliques, spreading rumors and gossip about Don José. As is known, he was the target of a flood of slanders, for having taken on the international rentier financial interests.
Politicians of all stripes, as well as former Presidential candidates such as Francisco Labastida and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, arrived, with all the media approaching them and encircling them, like a real circus.
We were there for a few hours, on the sidelines of the wake, where everything was turned, as LaRouche would say, into a spectacle. It didn't seem like a wake, so we decided to take action. We had just decided to sing, when one of Don José's daughters saw us and asked about the wreath. We told her we wanted to come inside and present the wreath and sing, and she immediately agreed. The entire LYM entered the chapel, as one. When we came in, we were allowed to view the body, and place our wreath in front of it. When he read what our wreath said, former Presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas stepped aside and gave three of our members his place next to the casket.
After a few minutes, López Portillo's widow came in and we stepped aside for her, and again for the entire family. When the media circus followed Mrs. López Portillo out, we began to sing "Oh, Freedom," first in a Spanish version, then in the English version, then again in the Spanish. Everyone went silent and listened, and for a moment, seriousness reigned in the room.
After we finished singing and left the room, various people approached us to ask who had sent us, what we had been singing and why. We told them we were with Lyndon LaRouche, that the song was used by Martin Luther King's civil rights movement, and that we offered it in homage to the fight that Don José López Portillo had waged "to free us from the oppression of the international bankers"—something which isn't said in the media.
Afterwards, his daughters thanked us. We gave an EIR with pictures of LaRouche and Don José on the cover, to one of the daughters.
We left the place unnoticed by the media, but our goal had been achieved, which was to pay genuine homage, however small, to this Patriot, and to demonstrate, as we told his daughter, that the nationalist fighting spirit of Don José López Portillo, would continue to live on in us.
May he rest in peace.
