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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 24 sepTember 2020
Mexican leader: Protesters welcome to camp near his office

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexi- The protesters appear to
can President Andrés Man- be a little more well-heeled
uel López Obrador said than those who manned
Wednesday that conser- communal tents for miles
vative protesters demand- on the city's main avenue
ing his resignation are for seven weeks in 2006 to
welcome to camp out in protest what they claimed
Mexico City's main plaza was electoral fraud that
outside his offices in the co- prevented López Obrador
lonial-era National Palace. from winning in the first of
López Obrador himself led his three runs for the presi-
numerous protest encamp- dency.
ments in his decades as an The conservative protest-
opposition leader, and he ers sleep in their own indi-
offered some advice to the vidual or family-sized tents
more novice opposition of and appear to have a bit
today. more camping gear that
"Don't playact," López the pro-AMLO encamp-
Obrador said. "The (pro- ments of 2006 and others in
test) leaders should stay the 1990s.
to sleep" in the collection A protester waves a Mexican flag to demand the resignation of Mexican President Andrés Manuel But it is also not clear that
of hundreds of small tents López Obrador, commonly known by his initials AMLO, during a sleep-in protest at the intersection López Obrador followed
that sprang up on an av- of Avenida Juarez and Reforma in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020. his own advice. Toward
enue leading to the plaza Associated Press the end of his seven-week-
over the weekend after long encampment in 2006,
demonstrators complained tents, an uncomfortable has ignored checks and on free speech. In fact, po- many of the tents pitched
that police blocked their proposition in Mexico City's balances and civic groups. lice have been limiting ac- along the city's Reforma
attempt to march into the rainy season. They are also angered by cess to the plaza off and on boulevard were actually
main plaza, known as the The protest movement calls his handling of the pan- since the coronavirus pan- empty.
Zócalo. itself the "National anti- demic and its economic demic began as a way to While López Obrador no
The president, who is bet- AMLO Front" or FRENA, a effects. enforce social distancing. longer enjoys the over-
ter known by his initials as contrived acronym that is On Sunday, the group The group pledged to whelming popularity he
AMLO, was apparently also the Spanish word for complained that dozens of make another attempt had after taking office in
suggesting that only foot "brake." The leaders claim police blocked protesters Wednesday to enter the December 2018, he still ap-
soldiers among the demon- López Obrador has accu- from marching to the Zóca- plaza, the symbolic and pears to have the support
strators were sleeping in the mulated too much power, lo and called it an attack historical center of the city. of a majority of Mexicans.q

First stone laid at Dutch Holocaust Memorial in Amsterdam

THE HAGUE, Netherlands rial in March. A Dutch court
(AP) — A friend of World cleared the way last year
War II Jewish diarist Anne for the memorial to be con-
Frank laid the first stone structed. Amsterdam Mu-
Wednesday at a new me- nicipality had granted per-
morial under construction mission for construction to
in Amsterdam to honor all start in 2017, but residents
Dutch victims of the Holo- argued that it was too big
caust. for the location and could
The ceremonial laying of cause traffic problems.
the first stone, on which the Jacqueline van Maarsen,
name of a Dutch Holocaust who knew Anne Frank
victim was engraved, is the before the diarist and her
latest step in construction of family were captured and
the Dutch memorial, which sent to Nazi concentra-
will feature the names of tion camps, laid a stone
more than 102,000 Jews, engraved by laser with the
Roma and Sinti who were name, date of birth and
murdered in Nazi concen- age of Dina Frankenhuis,
tration camps during World who was murdered, aged
War II or who died on their 20, on June 4, 1943, at the
way to the camps. Sobibor camp.
"I almost can't believe it, but Designed by Polish-Jewish
it is now really happening," architect Daniel Libeskind,
Jacques Grishaver, chair- the memorial in the heart of
man of the Netherlands Amsterdam's historic Jewish
Auschwitz Committee, said In this Wednesday, June 12, 2019 file photo, Jacqueline van Maarsen, left, and Albert Gomes de Quarter will be made up of
Mesquita, school friends of Anne Frank, talk to students during an event to mark what would have
in a statement. "The first been Anne Frank's 90th birthday, in Amsterdam. walls shaped to form four
of the more than 102,000 Associated Press Hebrew letters spelling out
stones has been laid." a word that translates as "In
The last of the stones, each of which is engraved with a name, is expected to be placed in the memo- Memory Of."q