MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Charges against Lopez Obrador dropped

Mexico's Attorney General's office announced Wednesday it will drop contempt charges against Mexico City charismatic Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador despite the belief that he is “probably guilty” of defying a court order in a municipal land dispute.

The official announcement mentioned the absence of a specific criminal sanction for the contempt of court offence as the reason for abandoning the case, the same argument put forward months ago by Mexico's Ombudsman.

Mr. Lopez Obrador's immunity from prosecution was lifted by Congress last April 7 paving the way for his prosecution and probable barring from running in the 2006 presidential race in spite of public opinion polls showing him the clear front-runner.

Mayor Lopez Obrador consistently denied the substance of the charges and accused his political enemies, particularly the ruling party of President Vicente Fox, of setting the case up so as to prevent him from running.

On Sunday April 24 after an impressive support march for Mr. Lopez Obrador with over 1,2 million people in the streets, described as the largest ever in Mexico, conservative President Vicente Fox in a national television address said he had accepted the resignation of Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha along with that of two top prosecutors, including the one who spearheaded the case against Mexico City's mayor who now seems unbeatable in his quest for Los Pinos Palace.

"My government will not prevent anyone from taking part in the next federal election", underlined Mr. Fox in a conciliatory tone Wednesday April 27.

The decision to drop the case against Mr. Lopez Obrador brings an end to more than a year of escalating mutual acrimony between him and the Fox administration.