A new alternative in Mexico

The following is an excerpt from an editorial in The Guardian:

Why did Mexico fall so hard for 64year-old Andrés Manuel López Obrador? His landslide victory is down in part to his offer of hopeful renewal and in part down to a national urge to stand up to Donald Trump’s noxious anti-Mexican bullying.

But López Obrador won largely because his opponents championed the technocratic, free-market approach that has dominated Mexico since the mid-1980s. That has conspicuously failed to deliver the promised growth to alleviate poverty. Meanwhile violence skyrocketed and corruption soaked the body politic.

In his victory speech López Obrador sensibly signalled a shift away from the militarized response to drug cartels that has palpably failed. The question he has yet to answer is how to enforce the rule of law in a country where murders have reached the level of an armed conflict.

On the economy, the new president has made it clear that he views Trump’s NAFTA negotiations as an opportunity rather than a calamity. Given its natural resources, it is remarkable that Mexico imports so much U.S. food produce.

Mexico is a young democracy, run until 2000 by one party. It is now a tolerant, secular state which has survived economic and democratic crises. There are no serious prospects of regional secession.

A new Mexican democracy is testing itself. The problems are daunting but a big step is being taken – and the signs are that it is in the right direction.