{"id":6603,"date":"2018-07-16T16:37:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T20:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6603"},"modified":"2018-07-23T16:40:03","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T20:40:03","slug":"andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-was-elected-to-transform-mexico-can-he-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6603","title":{"rendered":"Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador Was Elected to \u2018Transform\u2019 Mexico. Can He Do It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Over 30 million Mexicans voted<\/a> for Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador<\/a> in the country\u2019s July 1 presidential election<\/a>, handing the former Mexico City mayor a landslide victory over three opponents with 53 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s agenda \u2013 to root out corruption<\/a>, reduce violence<\/a>, rethink Mexico\u2019s gas and energy policy<\/a>, welcome migrants<\/a> and spur growth<\/a> in impoverished areas \u2013 is ambitious in this traditionally conservative Latin American nation.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Obrador has run for president twice on a similar platform, in 2006<\/a> and 2012<\/a>. He lost both times.<\/p>\n

To win this year, L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s young Morena party<\/a> joined forces with several smaller parties from both right and left to build a triumphant but strange electoral coalition called \u201cJuntos Haremos Historia<\/a>,\u201d or Together We\u2019ll Make History.<\/p>\n

The people now charged with turning L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s promises into policy when he takes office in December will come from wildly disparate backgrounds, including social progressives<\/a>, pragmatic business tycoons<\/a>, evangelical Christians<\/a> and committed Marxists<\/a>. The coalition even made room for high-level defectors from all three mainstream Mexican political parties<\/a>, including the Institutional Revolutionary Party<\/a> of the outgoing current president, Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto.<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez Obrador has promised to \u201ctransform<\/a>\u201d Mexico.<\/p>\n

With such a wildly varied team behind him, can he actually deliver?<\/p>\n

The PRI\u2019s pragmatic legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mexican voters punished Pe\u00f1a Nieto and his party, called \u201cel PRI\u201d for its Spanish acronym, for promoting corruption<\/a>, allowing deep inequality<\/a> to fester and turning a blind eye to the country\u2019s ferocious violence<\/a>. PRI candidate Jos\u00e9 Antonio Meade received just 16 percent of votes on July 1.<\/p>\n

But, as a political analyst born and raised in Mexico<\/a>, it\u2019s hard not to notice that L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s new ideologically muddled Morena party looks an awful lot like the old PRI.<\/p>\n

Until the disastrous presidency of Pe\u00f1a Nieto, who is finishing out his six-year term with a 21 percent approval rate<\/a>, the PRI was an extraordinarily powerful, adaptable and resilient<\/a> political machine. It ruled Mexico almost uncontested for nearly a century.<\/p>\n