Leftist takes Mexico’s reins for first time in decades

MEXICO CITY — Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took the oath of office Saturday as Mexico’s first leftist president in over 70 years, marking a turning point in one of the world’s most radical experiments in opening markets and privatization.

In his first speech to Congress, Lopez Obrador pledged “a peaceful and orderly transition, but one that is deep and radical ... because we will end the corruption and impunity that prevent Mexico’s rebirth.”

Mexico long had a closed, state-dominated economy, but since entering the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs in 1986, it has signed more free trade agreements than almost any other country, and privatized almost every corner of the economy except oil and electricity.

Now, though, Lopez Obrador talks a talk not heard in Mexico since the 1960s: He wants to build more state-owned oil refineries and encourages Mexicans “not to buy abroad, but to produce in Mexico what we consume.”

Even so, Lopez Obrador has tried to send conciliatory messages to financial markets, which have been roiled in the weeks before he took office.

The first foreign dignitary Lopez Obrador greeted was U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, accompanied by Ivanka Trump.

The new president faces a challenge with a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants camped out on the border, which Trump had threatened to close to keep them out.

Lopez Obrador said he wanted to reach an agreement with the governments and companies in the U.S. and Canada to develop Central America and southern Mexico so people wouldn’t have to migrate — “to address in that way, and not with coercive measures, the migration phenomenon.”

Lopez Obrador’s predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto, leaves office with a historically low approval rating, which in several polls ranged from 20 percent to 24 percent. Pena Nieto failed to rein in Mexico’s rising homicide rate or deal with thousands of Central American migrants camped out on the border, leaving both intractable issues as the biggest immediate challenges facing Lopez Obrador.