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

[sandensea]

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.”

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

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

[Tiggeroshii]

1. There are only two paths from here on out...

He will either bring up the disenfranchised and vulnerable from the depths of poverty and turn Mexico into an economic power the likes we have never seen, or it will fall into the turmoil we see in Venezuela. Hopefullly the former.

[sandensea]

4. Hear, hear.

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).

Not so Hugo Chávez, sadly - to say nothing of his successor, Nicolás Maduro.

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 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.

[DetlefK]

10. Venezuela is unique in its problems.

Venezuela has Chavez-socialism and Maduro refuses to change anything because that would be proof that Chavez-socialism isn't the best idea ever.

Also, Venezuela never expected that the days of expensive oil would end: They never set aside reserves for bad days. Then, when Saudi-Arabia ramped up oil-production to drop the price in order to kill the US fracking-industry, Venezuela was collateral damage.

[Iliyah]

2. Didn't I read where CNN called him t-rump like?

ugh

[Wwcd]

3. Earlier post said he was the Mexican Bernie!

[sandensea]

5. Mexican right-wingers must have fed them that line.

The spaghetti on the wall tactic.

[Clarity2]

6. Vincente Fox

called him a 🐀...here is hoping for Mexico’s sake that he is not! Obrador said hes going to weed out the cartel by lifting poverty and legalizing drugs. A tall order, and well, drugs are still illegal in the countries the cartels deliver them to, so that part is just not going to work.

[4now]

7. Good for Mexico

Don't believe every right wing rag that you see.

[Judi Lynn]

8. It is a heavy undertaking for him to face. He has courage beyond natural courage.

No leftist Latin American leader has ever been safe from the military industrial complex controlling our own government.

What that complex can achieve against leftist leaders covertly it will. What it can't will be done violently using people from that country, or mercenaries from other countries to achieve it.

The MIC usually wins, after a short struggle conducted behind the propaganda screen working overtime against the leftist leader, but as anyone can see, the worst oppression, even something like the Dirty War in Argentina, with over 30,000 people tortured and murdered, disappeared as it seemed, into thin air, after the people lived in paralyzed silence, they still never went away.

Human beings still remain, and they have damned good memories.

Hoping a better chance ahead for AMLO. The entire world needs him to succeed. Maybe he might stand a better chance as he is so much closer to the US population, with so many Mexican citizens living and working here who can tell the truth. Knock on wood. As a DU posters has quoted, from a Mexican leader, "Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close To The United States.”

Best wishes to a fine citizen who has taken on a heavy burden, with full knowledge, and a great sense of concern.

Thank you, sandensea!

[sandensea]

9. You're most welcome!

Here's hoping he can bring about some much-needed progress, and do so with still navigating the region's very treacherous political waters (as you vividly illustrated).

And at Trumpian times like these, it'll also be nice to have both our neighbors led by humanists and progressives - as Trudeau and López Obrador are.

¡Salúd!

[GatoGordo]

11. Let us hope the Socialism he brings to Mexico is the Swedish style

and not the Cuban style. The disasters in Nicaragua and Venezuela are proof of that concept.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Lpez Obrador, a leftist, wins sweeping mandate in Mexican presidential election

López Obrador, a leftist, wins sweeping mandate in Mexican presidential election



Andrés Manuel López Obrador, winner of Mexico's presidential election, center, waves during a rally at Zocalo square inMexico Cityo, on Sunday, July 1, 2018. (Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg)
By Kevin Sieff and Joshua Partlow
July 2 at 11:46 AM

MEXICO CITY — As votes were tallied Monday following a historic election, Andrés Manuel López Obrador appeared close to gaining control of congress as well as the presidency — a resounding mandate for the country’s first leftist leader in decades.

López Obrador won more than 50 percent of the vote, the most in the history of Mexico’s multiparty democracy, according to incomplete returns. The electoral results will give him broad power to reshape public policy, which has largely been set by pro-American, free-market-oriented politicians in recent decades.

The peso dropped about 1 percent on news of his victory, not as dramatic a slide as some had predicted, but a sign the markets are skeptical of López Obrador’s platform, which features a surge in spending on welfare programs. In a speech late Sunday, López Obrador tried to quell concerns, saying he would not increase taxes or the public debt and would respect the country's private sector.

. . .

López Obrador, 64, a longtime leftist standard-bearer and former mayor of Mexico City, scored a stunning victory by promising to battle corruption and improve the lives of the poor. He has pledged to increase subsidies to the elderly and people with a disability, provide scholarships to students and re-examine a 2013 restructuring to liberalize Mexico’s state-run oil industry.

. . .

One of López Obrador’s pledges is to reduce the size of the pensions given to retired presidents. In response on Monday, former president Vicente Fox tweeted a picture of him and other former Mexican heads of state dressed in rags, with the caption: “If it’s for the good of Mexico.”

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/lopez-obrador-a-leftist-wins-sweeping-mandate-in-mexican-presidential-election/2018/07/02/4c5e1de4-7be3-11e8-ac4e-421ef7165923_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2bdf76d078a9




Former President Vicente Fox, "impressed" by a taco bowl! (He's joking!)