Mexico City ? President Vicente Fox is set to give his state-of-the-nation address today in a Congress surrounded by police, soldiers and towering concrete and metal barriers. The speech could become a major showdown with protesters demanding a recount of the July 2 presidential election results.

Activists have vowed to keep the Mexican leader from reaching Congress to deliver the last annual address of his six-year term. Thousands of supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador already are camped out on Mexico City’s elegant Reforma Avenue and main Zocalo plaza.