New path in Mexico

ONE hopes Mexico’s elimination by Brazil from the World Cup soccer tournament on the day after he was elected president will not prove to be a bad omen for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leftist who rode a wave of outrage over Mexico’s corruption and violence to a landslide victory.

But the prospects of a populist who makes as many promises as Obrador are even harder to predict than a tournament as filled with surprises as this World Cup. Why he won is not the mystery. Killings are at record levels, corruption scandals are ceaseless and nearly half the population lives in poverty. Obrador promised a break with the past, so voters not only denied the presidency to the two mainstream parties that have dominated Mexican politics for two decades, they also gave him a likely majority in parliament.

That means Obrador, the 64-year-old former mayor of Mexico City, has considerable leverage from the outset. But to do what? Here is where things become more complicated. “Only I can fix corruption,” he declared in his campaign, but gave few details.

Equally unclear is how Obrador intends to curb Mexico’s endemic violence. A decade ago, the government deployed the military against the powerful drug cartels, yet 2017 was the deadliest year.

If the Trump administration chooses to make life difficult for him, it will only deepen Mexico’s problems and increase the power of the drug cartels and the despair driving people to head north. It is in Mexico’s best interest, and therefore in America’s, that the new president succeed.