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Fox has to move independence gala

A supporter of Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador packs his blankets on Thursday as protesters began to pull down tents that have clogged Mexico City for more than six weeks in a protest against alleged fraud in the July presidential election. At left is a poster of outgoing President Vicente Fox calling him a traitor. PHOTO: AP

Mexican President Vicente Fox backed down from a possible confrontation with thousands of jeering leftists by moving yesterday's annual Independence Day celebration from the capital's main square to a small town 270km away.

The move led leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to claim victory on Thursday evening in his battle against July 2 elections he claims were stolen from him by fraud.

His supporters plan to throw their own Independence Day party in Mexico City's Zocalo square.

"We are very happy because the traitor to democracy will not be here tomorrow," the former Mexico City mayor told cheering sympathizers camped out in the Zocalo.

Lopez Obrador claims Fox rigged the presidential vote in favor of conservative Felipe Calderon and had called on his supporters to turn their backs when Fox made the annual salute of "Viva Mexico!"

Fox will move his ceremony to the central town of Dolores Hidalgo, northwest of Mexico City, where Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo launched the first call for independence from Spain in 1810. The town is in Fox's home state of Guanajuato, a bastion of support for his conservative National Action Party.

The last president to hold Independence Day celebrations in Dolores Hidalgo was Carlos Salinas in 1994.

Mexican Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal announced the change of venue shortly after the Senate voted unanimously to recommend that the outgoing president not travel to the Zocalo.

The Fox administration has a history of backing down from confrontations.

On Sept. 1, lawmakers from Lopez Obrador's party took over the podium of Congress, preventing the president from delivering his last state-of-the-nation address there.

Last year, his administration threw out criminal charges against Lopez Obrador after the leftist led mass marches. And in 2002, Fox abandoned plans to build a new airport after machete-wielding farmers kidnapped a group of policemen and threatened to kill them.

However, some analysts say Fox's decision to change venues for the independence celebrations was prudent.

Supporters of Lopez Obrador have been camped out in the Zocalo for weeks. They have refused to recognize Calderon's slim victory over Lopez Obrador and said they will do everything to keep the ruling party from holding power.

Calderon, of the National Action Party, will take office on Dec. 1.

Abascal said this year's Zocalo celebration will be led by Mexico City Mayor Alejandro Encinas of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party.

Lopez Obrador called on his sympathizers to support Encinas during the celebration and invited the mayor to share the stage with veteran leftist Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, whose son disappeared while in police custody in 1975.

The protesters gave Fox's government one concession: They agreed to remove their camps from the Zocalo and the upscale Reforma Avenue, allowing a military parade to follow its traditional route today.
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