2 Candidates: Time for Change

MEXICO CITY — The man who still claims he was cheated out of Mexico’s presidency six years ago closed his campaign on a defiant note Saturday, warning the government not to cheat Aug. 21.

“If that happens, I pledge to summon and lead a civil resistance movement, mobilize our forces throughout the republic and draw on all the means given to us by the constitution to defend the nation and its citizens,” Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party told supporters in Mexico City.

The other leading opposition candidate, Diego Fernandez de Cevallos of the conservative National Action Party, said Mexicans deserve a “peaceful and democratic change” from one-party rule. He called the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party “the world’s oldest oligarchy.”