Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s leftwing presidential candidate and member of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) talked to Adam Thomson, the FT’s correspondent in Mexico, on August 20 2006 from his tent in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square.

The candidate, who is demanding a recount of the votes cast in last month’s election – he lost out to Felipe Calderón of the centre-right National Action Party (PAN) by just 0.58 per cent of the vote – insists the election was fraudulent.