Mexicans favour a leftist after decades
VOTERS DISILLUSIONED BY PERVASIVE CORRUPTION AND VIOLENCE TURN TO A FAMILIAR FACE IN LOPEZ OBRADOR
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador nodded at the sea of red Tshirts and flag-waving devotees jammed into a plaza in Guadalajara.
Never before had such a crowd welcomed him here. In his previous campaigns for the president’s office, residents of Guadalajara, the wealthy capital of the state of Jalisco, shunned him, considering his leftist platform too radical.
But this time, only days before one of Mexico’s most important elections in decades, the cheers reflected a nationwide shift — and the ability of Lopez Obrador to ride it.
“We have had three transformations in the history of our country: our independence, the reform and the revolution,” he told the crowd. “We are going to pull off the fourth.”
As corruption and violence gnaw at Mexico’s patience, voters have turned to a familiar face in Lopez Obrador, a threetime candidate for president who once shut down Mexico City for months after a narrow loss, refusing to accept defeat.
Brandishing a deep connection with the poor, built over more than a decade of visits to every corner of this country of 120 million, he has managed a staggering lead before the vote today.
If the poll numbers bear out on election day, Lopez Obrador — who has promised to sell the presidential plane and convert the opulent presidential palace into a public park — could win by a landslide, putting a leftist leader in charge of Latin America’s second-largest country for the first time in decades.
He is currently 20 to 30 percentage points ahead of his closest rival, a stunning reversal for a politician whose future was far from clear just a few years ago. But a broad disgust with Mexico’s political establishment has brought him back into the graces of the electorate.
But for all the brash, confrontational stances he has taken, Lopez Obrador has been surprisingly moderate on the topic of US President Donald Trump, adopting a pragmatic approach that sounds a lot like the Mexican establishment figures he hopes to topple.
“We are going to maintain a good relationship” with the United States, Lopez Obrador said in an interview. “Or rather, we will aim to have a good bilateral relationship because it is indispensable.”
In fact, Lopez Obrador has earned more than a few comparisons to Trump.
Both men lash out at their critics and perceived enemies. Both are suspicious of the press and checks on their power.
For much of his career, Lopez Obrador has focused on two central issues, poverty and corruption, national scourges he views as inseparable. For the masses in Mexico, the twin pillars of his platform hold a powerful appeal.
Many doubt he can eliminate graft. But after spending the past 18 years vacillating between Mexico’s two dominant parties, voters appear increasingly willing to try something else.
Stubborn poverty rates and vast inequality, coupled with corruption scandals and a rise in violence, have pushed voters toward Lopez Obrador, who last held elected office in 2005 as mayor of Mexico City.