Mexican front-runner to campaign near border

Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seen as less accommodating toward US

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexico’s presidential front-runner launches his campaign close to the US border on Sunday amid tension over US President Donald Trump’s plan to put up a wall between the countries.

If leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wins the July 1 election, he is expected to be less accommodating towards Trump than the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, which has been lagging in polls because of anger over violence and graft.

His three-month campaign starts in Ciudad Juarez, a tribute to the city’s namesake Benito Juarez, the 19th century Mexican president from indigenous roots whose exiled government resisted a French colonialist intervention from the unruly border city.

Lopez Obrador recently criticized President Enrique Pena Nieto for “governing with recipes sent from abroad,” but he has lately softened his opposition to the government’s policy of allowing foreign investment in the oil industry.

The ruling party candidate in third place, former finance minister Jose Antonio Meade, launches his own campaign on Sunday at the other end of the country in the southeastern town of Merida. Second-place Ricardo Anaya began campaigning on Friday.

Silver-haired Lopez Obrador, 64, a former Mexico City mayor, first ran for president in 2006. He wants a meeting with Trump “as soon as possible” a senior adviser said, while indicating his foreign policy would hew less closely to US regional priorities.

Trump’s tough trade policies, insults against Mexican migrants and demands for the border wall have angered ordinary Mexicans who see their country as a natural ally of the United States.

Lopez Obrador has made clear that relations will remain strong if he wins, while promising to throw Trump a “curve ball.” His inconsistencies have led to comparisons with the US president.

He supports the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and the US but has called for talks started by Trump to renegotiate the deal to be suspended until after the election.

In a possible sign of the moderation Lopez Obrador is keen to project, Ciudad Juarez also harbored another of his heroes – Francisco I. Madero, a wealthy, US-educated, moderate leader of the Mexican revolution who tried to unite conservatives and radicals. However, he continues to play to his leftist base, attacking the government over a $13 billion airport project he says is tainted by corruption. He promised to make the presidential residence a cultural center, sell the presidential plane and halve his salary.

Angel Perez, 29, a Mexican national who lives in El Paso, was hopeful that Lopez Obrador could deliver.

“I think he has what it takes to put Trump in his place,” he said.