Protest Halts Trading On Mexican Market

Hundreds of peasants in straw sombreros and sandals blockaded the Mexican stock market on Monday, preventing trading from starting for two hours as smartly suited stockbrokers fumed outside.

More than 300 demonstrators of the opposition Democratic Revolution Party took part in the protest, led by their losing candidate in last year’s gubernatorial race in Tabasco state.

“We the workers and peasants have walked more than 640 miles from Tabasco for more than 40 days to demand democracy, liberty and social justice,” said the failed candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He arrived in Mexico City with some 4,000 supporters on Saturday after a 43-day march from Tabasco.

The protest underscored the discontent of Mexico’s poor.

Lopez Obrador claimed that more than 10 million of Mexico’s 90 million people have lost jobs because of the crisis, which began with the Dec. 21 devaluation of the peso. But he said stock market investors continue to profit.