Mexican Police Use Tear Gas & Clubs In Violent Clash Over Election

Mexican police gas leftist lawmakers, protesters
Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:22pm ET


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican riot police used tear gas and clubs to drive back leftist legislators and supporters protesting outside Congress on Monday in the first violent clash over a fiercely contested presidential election.

Several lawmakers from the left-wing party whose presidential candidate narrowly lost the July 2 election were slightly injured when police swept through their protest camp.

Demonstrators threw rocks back at the federal police lines. It was the first time the government has deployed police to break up protests that began days after the election and have until now been peaceful.


"They hit us all, they fired gas at us. I still haven't recovered from the tear gas," Elias Moreno, a senator of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD.

Supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who claims the election was stolen by his conservative rival Felipe Calderon, have turned the center of Mexico City into a sea of tents and extended their protests to Congress on Monday.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-08-14T232233Z_01_N28358335_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEXICO-ELECTION.xml&src=rss

You can be sure the GOP is watching this situation closely.