Mexican President AMLO Performs His Last ‘Independence Cry’
President AMLO at the Zocalo, Mexico City, Sept. 15, 2024. X/ @_TereFelipe_
September 16, 2024 Hour: 8:14 am
‘Death to corruption, greed, racism, and discrimination!’ Lopez Obrador exclaimed at the Zocalo Square.
On Sunday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) celebrated his sixth “Independence Cry” during his administration (2018–2024), a massive event held in Zocalo Square in Mexico City, where he demonstrated the impressive political support he maintains before handing over the presidency to Claudia Sheinbaum on October 1.
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At 11:00 PM, Lopez Obrador stepped out onto the central balcony of the National Palace with the Mexican flag, which had been previously carried by cadets from the Military Academy, to deliver the traditional “Dolores Cry” in commemoration of the 214th anniversary of the start of Mexico’s War of Independence.
“Mexican women and men! Long live Mexico’s Independence!” he said, immediately adding the traditional “¡viva!” to the independence heroes: Miguel Hidalgo, Josefa Ortiz, Ignacio Allende, Leona Vicario, Jose Maria Morelos, Vicente Guerrero, and the anonymous heroines and heroes. He continued with calls for liberty, equality, justice, democracy, honesty, sovereignty, and universal fraternity.
“Mexican women and men, death to corruption, greed, racism, and discrimination!” he exclaimed, followed by a “¡viva!” for love, Mexican workers, migrant brothers and sisters, Indigenous peoples, Mexico’s cultural greatness, and the Fourth Transformation, his political and ideological program.
Lopez Obrador ended with three passionate cries of “¡Viva Mexico!” and then raised the Mexican flag and rang the Dolores bell, the same one that priest Miguel Hidalgo rang in 1810 to signal the start of the fight for Independence. After the crowd sang the national anthem, the event featured fireworks and traditional music, followed by a performance from the regional group Banda MS.
On the night of Sept. 15-16, 1810, priest Miguel Hidalgo began the armed uprising to proclaim independence from Spain after being alerted that the conspiracy he was a part of in the city of Queretaro had been discovered. Hidalgo, known as the Father of the Nation, gave the historic “Cry” in the town of Dolores in the state of Guanajuato, marking the beginning of the independence struggle, which was ultimately achieved on Sept. 27, 1821.
In Mexico, the Independence Cry is delivered by the president and local authorities in most public squares of the 2,457 municipalities across the country. Subnational authorities lead the crowds in cheering “to the heroes who gave us our homeland and freedom!” in a tone similar to that of the Mexican president.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE