MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Vicente Fox moved Wednesday to defuse a political crisis that has consumed the country for weeks, accepting the resignation of the attorney general who had been leading the prosecution of Mexico City's popular mayor.
In a surprise announcement broadcast nationwide, Fox gave no reason for the departure of Atty. Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha, but analysts said the president acted because of growing criticism of the government's criminal case against Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the top contender in next year's presidential election.
The government's prosecution of Lopez Obrador over what many here consider a minor municipal land dispute has ignited protests across Mexico and provoked harsh criticism from the international community. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Mexico City in support of the mayor, whose presidential candidacy has been jeopardized by the legal charges.
In his eight-minute address Wednesday night, Fox did not mention Lopez Obrador but appeared to be striking a conciliatory tone.
"My government will not obstruct anyone from participating in the coming federal election," he said. He went on to say that he would soon propose legal reforms that would "preserve the rights of citizens subject to trial until a final sentence is given."
Mexican law prohibits anyone facing criminal charges from running for public office.
"It will always be better for our Mexico if our disposition is to discuss rather than confront, if our purpose is conciliation and not division," Fox added.
Lopez Obrador aide Marti Batres Guadarrama told reporters Wednesday night that the mayor was waiting for Fox's call for conciliation to "convert to deeds.... It's an interesting message, but you have to keep in mind that as long as the judicial case has not been thrown out, the threat has not ended."
Fox, of the National Action Party, or PAN, took power in 2000, breaking the seven-decade-long grip of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Lopez Obrador belongs to the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, which has gained strength recently on the basis of the mayor's popularity and widespread disappointment with Fox, who cannot run for reelection.
Fox had endorsed the prosecution of Lopez Obrador, saying that Mexico's rule of law was at stake and that the most powerful officials in the land had to answer for their misdeeds just as average citizens did. But the argument failed to resonate with Mexicans, who perceive justice as frequently selective in its application.
