Mexico elects left-leaning populist as president to chart a new course

[sandensea]

Source: USA Today

Mexican voters upended the country's political order Sunday, according to exit polls, by supporting a left-leaning populist as the next president who vows to make changes.

The candidate of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), José Antonio Meade, conceded defeat on television to Andrés Manuel López Obrador soon after the polls closed at 9 p.m. Eastern. The exit-poll survey by Consulta Mitofsky projected López Obrador had a 16 to 26% lead over his nearest rival, conservative Ricardo Anaya. Meade finished third, according to the survey.

López Obrador, 64, commonly known as AMLO and making his third bid for the presidency, held a commanding lead in the polls ahead of Sunday's vote.

The former mayor of Mexico City has promised to “uproot corruption,” increase social spending and pursue a different approach to crack down on drug cartels – even floating the idea of amnesty for those involved if not accused of serious offences.

López Obrador had cast his ballot early in the day, saying, “More than an election, it’s going to be a referendum. People will decide between more of the same or real change.”

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/07/01/mexico-votes-president/749379002/

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The President-elect of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. A new beginning?

[Tiggeroshii]

1. Does he need 51% to avoid a runoff?

[sandensea]

2. Mexico, as it turns out, has no runoff elections.

The winner, by a simple majority, wins outright.

Here's hoping he can make a difference.

[C Moon]

12. Winner by simple majority. What a great concept.

Makes the U.S. look like a dictatorship.

[sandensea]

13. Our electoral college is indeed a farce.

And what's worse, an existential threat to our very democracy.

The GOP, of course, knows this very well, and has become quite expert at exploiting that.

[Honeycombe8]

3. They're having a blue wave, too? Sounds good to me!

Blue or red, all of Mexico is united against Trump. Like Canada is. And Great Britain. And Germany. And....

[sandensea]

4. And not just against Cheeto. Against the failed status quo. Here's hoping he can make a difference

Lula da Silva and Néstor Kirchner, who ran on similar platforms as López Obrador, turned their countries around after taking office in 2003 (especially Kirchner, who inherited a full-on depression).

The right, of course, threw the Maduro (Venezuela) straw man at López Obrador every chance they got - as they do with all other progressives in the region.

Maduro has become the new Castro: Someone for right-wingers to point to as an example of a "leftist failure" (which he is), and in so doing make progressive leaders in the region out to be like him (which they're not).

López Obrador certainly seems more like a Kirchner or da Silva to me, than an extremist.

That said, Mexico has intractable, longstanding problems that no one may be able to solve within our lifetimes (much like Brazil, and to a lesser extent Argentina, have theirs). Here's hoping he can at least ameliorate them.

[MarcA]

7. Here's hoping our MSM will exhibit a fair and balanced attitude toward him.

Knowing their history regarding Latin America and their ownership
won't hold my breath.

[sandensea]

9. Sad, but true.

The region's predatory right-wing regimes (particularly Argentina's Macri) are cheered on by most big media - until the very day their policies cause a collapse, as is happening in Argentina as we speak.

The region's progressives, on the other hand, as always compared to either Castro, Maduro, or both - regardless of the results, which are usually quite positive by Latin American standards, even from a business point of view.

Could be different this time; we'll see.

[MarcA]

10. Keeping a scorecard on the MSM on this would be a good idea n/t

[Honeycombe8]

17. Very informative. Thank you.

I don't follow Mexican or other South/Central American countries much, so I appreciate the info. I DO know that Venezuela has mucho problems that have a lot to do with its leaders. The country seized private businesses and such.

Mexico's drug cartel problem is massive. How it got that out of control, I don't know. A horrible situation.

I'm disturbed by the term "populist," since that's what Trump is identified as. But hopefully this new Mex. President can help the middle class in Mexico...it's my understanding that Mexico is what hte U S will soon be: a class of very wealthy & powerful, the masses are mainly in poverty, with a small middle class.

I'm hoping this is an indication of a global shift to the left by first world countries, as a reaction to Trump.

[Grassy Knoll]

5. Update Your Security, Sir.

[sandensea]

6. Good advice if there ever was one!

[Judi Lynn]

8. People who haven't read it would be doing themselves a real favor by taking the time to read it.

Such valuable information therein doesn't come easily without reading a whole lot more.

It's no wonder he has had to employ bodyguards to protect him around the clock after a point of no return in his life.

[sandensea]

11. Yes, indeed.

His chapter on the murder of Ecuador's nationalist president, Jaime Roldós Aguilera, in 1981 over his refusal to roll back nationalization of the country's oil/gas resources is worth the time in and of itself.

Perkins, as you know, also believes Panama's Omar Torrijos was killed in the same way (also in 1981).

Torrijos earned RW ire with his skillful negotiation of the Panama Canal Treaty with Jimmy Carter (a treaty which arguably cost Carter the presidency), and was opposed to the idea of turning his country into a drug money laundromat - as indeed happened in subsequent years (under Bush buddy Guillermo Endara, especially).

These days, of course, they prefer what Cristina Kirchner and Dilma Rousseff refer to as 'lawfare' - the use of kangaroo courts to smear, harass, and, ultimately, jail progressive figures who won't play ball (or not as much ball as they'd like).

Here's hoping López Obrador can escape the same fate. He seems to know how to talk to difficult people; I know he can do it.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Outstanding information. Didn't know that Cristina Kirchner & Dilma Rousseff had coined a word

to describe it, and it's perfect.

Glad to know that this tactic was actually being discussed freely, that people saw it so clearly some time ago, even though people here in the U.S. still don't grasp it has ever happened, thanks to the perception management going into corporate media fare.

Thank you for the quick lesson!

(Oh, yes, also glad for more insight on why the right-wing despised Jimmy Carter so much they smeared him from his very first day of office, mocking and attacking one of the most genteel and serious modern Presidents who did a lot to try to modify some filthy behavior toward the innocents under savage attack by the right-wing in the Americas. (Better dead than red, and all that bogus and twisted crap.))

[elleng]

18. Thanks for the reminder.

Been thinking of him.

[Tatiana]

14. Take a look at this result. And remember that Cambridge Analytica tried to set up shop in Mexico.

Early last year, facing abysmal poll numbers and a strong opponent in the presidential race, the party was approached by the now-defunct firm Cambridge Analytica. It offered to help the PRI win, just as it said it had done for President Trump, according to a 57-page proposal the company drafted that was obtained by The New York Times.

The PRI reviewed the proposal for months, but eventually decided it didn’t need to pay millions of dollars to an outsider to wage a dirty campaign, according to three people familiar with the negotiations. The party could do that itself. But in a preview of the extreme measures the party was willing to take to secure its position, it paid Cambridge anyway so that the company would not work for anyone else, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

The decision, made in the early months of 2017, was an informal start to what has, to some, been a period of misuse of government resources for electoral purposes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/world/americas/mexico-election-cambridge-analytica.html

They got caught. So they had to shut it down. But they were able to successfully carry out the operation here in the U.S. and in the U.K. with Brexit.

[Puzzler]

15. Congrats!!!

-Puzzler