Populist winner in Mexico vows better relations with Trump
MEXICO CITY – The landslide winner of Mexico’s presidential election pledged Monday to pursue cordial relations with a fellow populist, U.S. President Donald Trump, though their two nations are at sharp odds over trade and immigration.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist who swept to victory Sunday by promising to end Mexico’s rampant government corruption and killings by drug cartels, thanked Trump for tweeting congratulations shortly after he was declared the victor.
In an interview with Televisa, Lopez Obrador called Trump’s tweet “very
respectful. That is what we always want to maintain with the U.S. government, that there be mutual respect.”
“We are never going to disrespect the U.S. government, because we want them to respect us,” Lopez Obrador said. “At the appropriate moment, we are going to get in touch, to reach an understanding” with the Trump administration.
Trump tweeted Sunday, “I look very much forward to working with him. There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!”
Lopez Obrador won 53 percent of the vote in a multi-candidate race – the highest total since 1982. Trump barely registered as an issue despite strong disapproval of him because of his attacks on Mexico for refusing to pay for a border wall to stop illegal entries into the USA and for running a large trade surplus with its northern neighbor.
The two men hail from different worlds: Trump was born into wealth and made a fortune in New York real estate and by marketing his name as a brand. Lopez Obrador grew up in a small town in southeastern Tabasco state, where he started in politics as a director in the country’s indigenous institute and lived in an impoverished Chontal Maya community for years.
Yet both are nationalistic populists – Trump on the political right and Lopez Obrador on the left.
“They will understand each other (but) disagree on everything,” said Federico Estevez, a political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. “It’s ‘Mexico first’ versus ‘America first,’ and the dice are loaded in favor of the North.”
Lopez Obrador tweeted Monday that he received a call from Trump and the two spoke for a half-hour. “I proposed that we explore an integral agreement of development projects, which generate jobs in Mexico, and with that reduce migration and improve security,” he said. “There was respectful treatment, and our representatives will speak more.”
Solving their differences will be a challenge, given how far apart they are on trade and immigration issues. Lopez Obrador, 64, has endorsed the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.