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Lopez Obrador: Self-styled champion of Mexico's downtrodden
AFP/Luis Acosta
Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), seen here on 09 June 2006.
By Patrick Moser
AFP
MEXICO CITY,
Petroleumworld.com 06 27 06
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 52, who has a razor-thin lead in Mexico's presidential race, is variously portrayed as a champion of the downtrodden and a dangerous left-wing populist.
The highly popular former Mexico City mayor, widely known by his initials AMLO, leads opinion polls ahead of Sunday's voting with a two-to-five-point lead over conservative Felipe Calderon.
A charismatic politician, Lopez Obrador has capitalized on a widespread feeling that the US-backed market policies which stabilized the economy did little to improve the lives of the millions of impoverished Mexicans.
He says that, if elected, he would respect international agreements, including those with the International Monetary Fund, but "not in an orthodox manner," insisting governments that don't follow IMF remedies are better off.
While the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) candidate does not propose ending the free market economy, he wants a stronger role for the state and stresses social justice.
His social programs helped him reach high popularity levels during his 2000-2005 term as mayor of Mexico City, when he handed out monthly checks of about 60 dollars to elderly people, single mothers and handicapped residents, and built new schools and low-cost housing.
But conservative Felipe Calderon, his main rival in Sunday's presidential election, claims he was soft on crime and corruption, accumulated debt and left the huge city with the lowest growth rate in the country.
Calderon also portrayed him as a dangerous populist in the vein of Venezuela's firebrand president, Hugo Chavez.
The former mayor has denied that his policies are inspired by Chavez, whose fiery anti-American rhetoric has infuriated Washington. But he insists that, if elected, he will not allow Mexico to become a "puppet" of the United States, and he says he would focus primarily on domestic issues, relegating foreign relations to a secondary position.
In his campaign, Lopez Obrador repeatedly pointed to the huge gap between wealthy Mexicans and those who live in abject poverty. But as mayor, he had formed an alliance with Carlos Slim, one of the world's wealthiest men, to rebuild the capital's historic but decaying city center.
He also hired former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani to craft a policy of zero tolerance on crime, which plagues the city.
The silver-haired widower lives in a modest apartment and says he would use only a small section of the presidential palace if elected. As mayor, he cut his own salary.
"I do not lie, I do not steal, I do not cheat," he said recently.
Born in the southeastern state of Tabasco in 1953, Lopez Obrador studied political sciences and public administration in Mexico City.
He started his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico with an iron fist for 71 years until conservative Vicente Fox was elected president in 2000.
In 1988, Lopez Obrador split from the PRI to join a newly formed party that eventually became the PRD.
He ran twice for governor of Tabasco and lost both times in what he claimed were fraudulent elections. In 1994, he was defeated by Roberto Madrazo, the PRI's candidate in Sunday's presidential election.
He led a series of popular protests against the PRI, including one in 1996, when thousands of people blocked entrances to installations of the state-run oil company to protest oil spills that polluted rivers and farmland.
He has since toned down his once fiery rhetoric and hard-charging style, but he did lead a massive march in Mexico City in April 2005 to protest a legal case that could have derailed his political ambitions.
The legal battle eventually ended with the resignation of Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, who had been behind attempts to bring Lopez Obrador to court for defying a court order when he condemned private land to build a public
AFP 28 1035 GMT 06 06
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