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Why Mexican presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is winning the hearts of voters
STEPHANIE NOLEN LATIN AMERICA
MEXICO CITY
PUBLISHED 21 MINUTES AGO
Blanca Vazquez and Daniel Islas were out for lunch one day in 1999 at Vips, a restaurant chain with locations scattered across Mexico City, when they spotted Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (ALMO), the leader of a national political party who was starting a successful run for mayor of this megalopolis. They went up to introduce themselves, and Mr. Lopez Obrador stood to greet them, invited Ms. Vazquez to sit down and chatted with them courteously.
“That’s the kind of person he is,” said Mr. Islas, 70. “And that’s why I believe in him, why I’ll vote for him.” Mr. Lopez Obrador seemed like a regular guy, far removed from the world of Mexico’s aloof political elite with whom Mr. Islas and Ms. Vazquez, 71, are thoroughly disgusted.
That’s part of his appeal: In a conversation a few days ago in the modest apartment their pensions can’t pay for, with three different bolts on the door, it was easy to see the other reasons this pair is drawn to Mr. Lopez Obrador. Like a great many Mexican voters, they are seeking a dramatic break with the past in Sunday’s elections, and they believe AMLO, as he is often called, is their best hope.
“The reason why he’s so successful is that he has a very different discourse than the other candidates – and it’s been a long time since that was true here,” said Catalina Perez Correa, a professor of legal studies at the Center for Research and Teaching of Economics, a Mexico City university. For the best part of the past 25 years, she said, the country’s two main political parties have campaigned on similar platforms of economic liberalization and a militarized response to crime and violence, and the leftist Mr. Lopez Obrador, 64, is the only candidate talking about the country’s problems in a substantively different way.
More:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-why-mexican-presidential-front-runner-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-is/