Violence, crime, Trump: the new mailbox of the Mexican president



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MEXICO: Leftist anti-establishment Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won Sunday a resounding victory in the Mexican presidential election, but he will not have much time to rejoice.

From rampant corruption to record crime, from a gloomy economy to the phenomenon that is Donald Trump, the man known as "AMLO" inherits a list of things to do when it will take office on December 1st.

Lopez Obrador promised in his victory speech to change the current strategy of the government to fight the country's powerful drug cartels.

The backtracking of the military crackdown launched by the authorities in 2006 has been enormous.

Fragile cartels are fighting each other and the authorities have unleashed a wave of violence. Last year, a record 25,000 people were murdered.

Lopez Obrador promised to fight "the root causes of violent crime", citing inequality and poverty – although his speech was short on the details.

But the violence is not expected to end soon, said Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

"Crime groups are fighting for control of opium poppy cultivation and heroin distribution networks, and I think the violence will not diminish for a long time," he said in a statement. ; AFP.

Keys, he said, will train local police forces and eradicate corrupt officials who are allies to cartels.

This is the number one Lopez Obrador.

The government and the party of incumbent President Enrique Pena Nieto were mired in a seemingly bottomless series of scandals.

Lopez Obrador calls corruption the root of all of Mexico's ills, from inequality to poverty to violence.

"The problem of corruption was the starting point for much of the dissatisfaction of Mexican society," said Arturo Sanchez, of the Monterrey Technological University.

"People are going to expect immediate results."

Mexico's relations with its powerful neighbor in the United States have been rocky since President Donald Trump won the White House in 2016, on a platform featuring anti-Mexican insults and promises of construction. 39, a mbadive border wall.

Lopez Obrador castigated Trump in the past, promising to "put him in his place".

But he said in his victory speech that he wanted a relationship of "friendship and cooperation".

Trump meanwhile tweeted he was "very impatient to work with" Lopez Obrador.

"AMLO is not going to pay for the wall, that's for sure," said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Political Research in Washington.

"But he made it clear that he wanted good relations with the United States."

The second largest economy in Latin America, after Brazil, has experienced poor growth in recent years.

And Lopez Obrador faces a deep skepticism of the business sector – although both sides extended the olive branches on Sunday.

The elected president promised to pursue market-friendly policies, while the president of the Coordinating Council of Enterprises, Juan Pablo Castanon, is committed to "working together … to establish a program for the stability, trust and development ".

Among the toughest questions on the to-do list: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada, which Trump insisted on renegotiating.

The negotiators of the three countries failed to reach an agreement before the elections, and may now have to start again with a new Mexican president who is skeptical about trade.

The agreement is crucial for Mexico, which sends about 80% of its exports to the United States.

The current NAFTA talks are expected to resume this month and end in 2019.

"The conclusion of some kind of agreement will depend primarily on the fact that the US will soften its stance and abandon some of its most controversial proposals," said consulting firm Eurasia Group.

Trump also castigated the issue of Mexican and Central American migrants arriving in the United States.

The "zero tolerance" policy of his administration with regard to undocumented migrants and the separation of migrant families have tense links.

Lopez Obrador said under his government, "Those who want to migrate will do it because they want it, not because they have to."

But he was short on details.

The new president will have to support regional development and ensure that Mexico "treats Central American migrants with humanity," Laborde said.

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