Lopez Obrador: ‘Stubborn’ leftist vowing to change Mexico

“Stubborn” is among the many insults that have been hurled at Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the veteran leftist who was the heavy favourite to win Mexico’s presidential election yesterday. He considers it a compliment.

The man known as ‘AMLO’ kicked off his third presidential bid vowing to use his headstrong personality to fight for the change that so many Mexicans hunger for this election year.

“I’m stubborn. It’s a well-known fact,” he said. “With that same conviction, I will act as president... stubbornly, obstinately, persistently, bordering on craziness, to wipe out corruption.”

Those close to him can vouch for that. Lopez Obrador, 64, is one of the most divisive figures in Mexican politics: his critics hate him as fervently as his fans love him. But his vows to fight for a “radical turn” in Mexico have worked in a nation fed up with seemingly endless corruption scandals and a horrifically violent drug war. The former Mexico City mayor leads his rivals by more than 20 points heading into election day.

Fire and ice

Lopez Obrador’s fiery attacks on the “mafia of power” have tapped the frustrations of voters sick of the two parties that have governed Mexico for almost a century: the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN). But the two-time presidential runner-up has also managed to present a cooler side this time around, answering criticism with humour and laughing off dire warnings about how he would wreck Latin America’s second-largest economy. When enemies accused him of ties to Russia, he slyly turned the insult to irony, donning a Russian ushanka hat and calling himself “Andres Manuelovich.”When the three other candidates took turns attacking him during debates, he calmly stayed above the fray — at one point whipping out a chart with the latest poll numbers by way of rebuttal. “I don’t want to brag, but I humbly submit to you the latest poll,” he said.

Anti-graft poster boy

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As his rivals have battled each other to sound the toughest on corruption, Lopez Obrador has easily emerged as the anti-graft poster boy, vowing to lead by example. He says he will halve the presidential salary if elected, live in his modest home instead of the presidential residence, and sell the presidential jet. He has clashed with Mexico’s business community, with some warning he would pursue Venezuela-style socialist policies. Seeking to ease those fears, he has appointed a team of market-friendly advisers and backpedalled on some of his most controversial proposals.