The World - News from July 16, 1989

Opposition demonstrators blocked roads throughout the central Mexican state of Michoacan in protest against alleged fraud in July 2 local elections won by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. “We are not defying either the government or the law in blocking roads and taking government buildings,” said Sen. Roberto Robles Garnica of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution, formed in May by Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, himself a former presidential candidate. “It is the people acting to defend their vote.” About 1,000 of the party’s followers also occupied the government building in Morelia, the state capital, blocking traffic and access to offices.