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Mexico ramps up airport, oil security amid protests

Posted on: Friday, 4 August 2006, 12:46 CDT

By Anahi Rama

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Security has been increased at Mexico City's airport so leftists challenging a tight presidential election cannot block flights as part of their crippling protests, the government said on Friday.

Extra safeguards have also been put in place at power plants, crude refineries and other installations of state-owned oil monopoly Pemex.

"Security has been stepped up," government spokesman Ruben Aguilar said. "Mexico City airport will always be in operation."

Claiming vote fraud, supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have seized a long stretch of Mexico City's main Reforma boulevard and the huge Zocalo square to demand a recount of the July 2 election that the leftist narrowly lost.

The peaceful blockade has caused traffic chaos and forced hundreds of businesses to shut down. Lopez Obrador has vowed to ramp up the protests and prevent Calderon from taking power if the country's electoral court does not order a vote-by-vote recount.

Mexico City's airport is considered a possible target, as is the oil industry. Lopez Obrador is from the oil state of Tabasco and staged blockades and marches there to protest a governor's race he lost in 1994.

Mexico City's airport is the busiest in the country, with hundreds of daily international and domestic flights.

The state-owned oil industry generates one-third of government revenues and is a symbol of national sovereignty.

"Security has been reinforced, as a preventive measure, to safeguard the operations of installations," Energy Minister Fernando Canales told reporters.

Ruling party conservative candidate Felipe Calderon, who won the presidential race by 244,000 votes, says he won cleanly, although he will accept a recount if the electoral court orders one.

Calderon's team admits the standoff is creating political instability.

"We cannot ignore there are a lot of Mexicans worried about what is going on, and others convinced by anything Lopez Obrador says," Juan Camilo Mourino, a senior Calderon aide, told Reuters on Thursday. "It's definitely a problem."

He said, however, that Lopez Obrador's protest campaign could backfire. While the leftist has been able to draw hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets to back his cause, many Mexico City residents are sick of the chaos.

Lawyer Miriam Caballero said blocking the airport would show how desperate Lopez Obrador is becoming in his demands for a recount. "I think he is a man who doesn't care about ruining the country for his own ambition."

European Union observers say they found no evidence of fraud, but Lopez Obrador contends vote returns were tampered with. The electoral court has until August 31 to rule on the matter, and they must declare a president-elect by September 6.

(Additional reporting by Adriana Barrera and Catherine Bremer)

Source: REUTERS

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