The opposition launches its first challenge to López Obrador in the streets

Thousands of people marched this Sunday through the streets of Mexico City, and a handful of other cities in the country, to protest against the electoral reform of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The constitutional changes promoted by Morena, one of the key bets of the government, have clearly concentrated the opposition sectors for the first time so far in the six-year term.

Civil organizations and parties have taken to the streets under the slogan "the INE is not touched", in reference to the presidential initiative that seeks a thorough review of the electoral regulator, as well as the distribution of budgets for political parties.

The march, which passed without altercations through the streets of the center of the capital, concluded at the Monument of the Revolution with a statement from the former president of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), José Woldenberg.

“Our future cannot be the result of the seduction of a past that has been banished.

No to the destruction of the INE, no to the destruction of local institutes, no to authoritarianism,” the academic proclaimed from an improvised stage in the central Mexican square.

The election as spokesperson for Woldenberg, former president of the predecessor body of the INE and with a long career on the liberal left, also fueled the polarization around the march.

López Obrador pointed to him as "the political master of Lorenzo Córdova and of that entire group."

Criticism of the reform, which is already being debated in commissions in the Chamber of Deputies, focuses on warning of the supposed dangers of the new electoral map for alternation in power.

This Sunday's appointment has been the most massive among the opposition protests so far in the six-year term.

During the first two years, some ultra-Catholic groups staged rallies in the capital that failed to join forces with other groups.

López Obrador's landslide victory in 2018 left the opposition parties on the canvas, divided and without clear leadership.

Last year's parliamentary elections inaugurated an unprecedented alliance of all against Morena.

The coalition of PAN, PRI and PRD lives, however, low hours, after the approach of the PRI leadership to the party in power.

The three parties are immersed in negotiations with Morena in the face of electoral reform, an unprecedented path not explored during the great reforms of the six-year term.

Among the 51 organizations that supported the mobilization are some linked to the PAN and the PRI.

The protest has also received a boost from former presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón.

Some of the groups have their origin in conservative organizations.

The stature of the conveners —among them the businessmen Claudio X. González and Gustavo de Hoyo Walther— has increased the polarization on the subject, simplifying the argument and dividing public opinion.

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