PRESS RELEASE
LaRouche Youth Rally in Los Angeles
Gives Congratulations to López Obrador
July 31, 2006 (EIRNS)—Within a political vacuum in the United States regarding the recent unresolved Mexican Presidential election, the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) in Los Angeles pulled together an assembly in support of Andres Manuel López Obrador's patriotic call for a vote by vote recount.
In solidarity with the 2.5 to 3 million Mexican citizens that took to the streets in Mexico City on Sunday July 30, LYM members organized an assembly at the Placita Olvera in Downtown Los Angeles along with representatives of Mexico's PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party). Nearly 75 contacts were in attendance when LYM member Maria Barragan led the audience in singing the Mexican national anthem to open the rally. Of the 75-plus attending—which did not include the large LYM contingent—many were Mexican-Americans who had been organized on the spot to join the rally. They had been drawn by the organizing in La Placita Olvera, which is an outdoor park, done by the LYM, together with the PRD activists.
LYM member Freddy Coronel spoke first, explaining how the same forces behind the fraud in Mexicos Presidential election today, are the same as those behind the Democratic Party abandoning the Franklin Roosevelt tradition for the international banker Felix Rohatyn's drive toward global fascism.
LaRouche's West Coast spokesman Harley Schlanger delivered the keynote address, challenging both those present to join LaRouche in defending the sovereignty of the Mexican nation-state from the grip of globalization, and to the U.S. State Department to take a stance in defense of López Obrador's call for a vote by vote recount. Schlanger posed the question regarding the blaring silence coming from the United States, outside of LaRouche's movement, in taking up the question of a resolution to the Mexican Presidential election, and Felipe Calderon's attempt to subvert a fair vote by vote recount.
Schlanger opened his speech by stating that Lyndon LaRouche is offering his congratulations to the new President of Mexico, López Obrador, which drew the audience to its feet, cheering and chanting, "Viva Mexico! Viva Presidente López Obrador!"
The LaRouche movement was joined by representatives of the PRD, Moises Torres and Jose Bedolla. Bedolla, from Riverside, California, pointed to the fact that this is not a fraud against López Obrador, but rather a fraud against all of Mexico. Torres spoke of the necessity of being united throughout this fight to ensure a victory over Calderon's attempt to instate a corrupt government in Mexico that would ensure that millions more Mexicans would emigrate to the United States. Other speakers from the audience with close ties to Mexico voiced concerns about the potential for an uprising in Mexico that could lead to a bloody revolution if López Obrador's call for a vote by vote recount were to be ignored. Most questions demonstrated a lack of understanding what steps to take next in a continued effort to support López Obrador's fight, to which LYM member and event moderator Tauren Jones responded that the best thing to do is to join the LYM in their weekly meetings.
Perhaps the most telling response of the event's impact came from a gentleman who repeatedly shouted "Viva LaRouche!" and who came to the microphone ecstatic about the LYM's Classical bel canto chorus. He exclaimed that the youth had been the best part of the assembly, warning the audience to look toward their example of enthusiasm and their beautiful songs. The LYM chorus closed the gathering with the Civil War song "Battle Cry of Freedom," and then led a spirited march through the vicinity with banners reading "LaRouche Endorses López Obrador's Call for a Vote-by-Vote Recount," Franklin Roosevelt Legacy club, and other official PRD signs and banners.
