AMLO wins a broad mandate in the Mexican presidential election

MEXICO CITY – With votes counted on Monday after a historic election, Andrés Manuel López Obrador seemed close to congressional and presidential control – a resounding mandate for the country's first left-wing 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 results. The election results will give it broad power to reshape public policy, which has been largely defined by pro-American, free-market-oriented politicians over the past decades.

The peso fell 1% on news of his victory. a dramatic decline as some had predicted, but a sign that markets are skeptical about López Obrador's platform, which provides for increased spending for social assistance programs. In a speech late Sunday, López Obrador attempted to allay concerns, saying that he would not raise taxes or public debt and that he would respect the country's private sector.

Preliminary results suggest that members of his Morena party would take at least 260 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, and about 65 of the 128 seats in the Senate.

President Trump emerged in the background of this vote. It was not a secondary problem – all the presidential candidates opposed his immigration and trade policy and his anti-Mexican rhetoric – but the new president will have to deal with unusually strained cross-border relations.

Trump for almost two years, López Obrador said that he wanted a "friendship and mutual respect" with the United States.

López Obrador, 64, left-wing leader and former mayor of Mexico City, won a brilliant victory by promising to fight corruption and improve security. life of the poor. . He pledged to increase subsidies to the elderly and disabled, provide scholarships to students and re-examine a 2013 restructuring aimed at liberalizing Mexico's public oil industry.

During the campaign, many politicians and business leaders expressed their concern. policies could pose a danger to Mexico. But after his victory, his rivals adopted a conciliatory tone, calling Sunday's result a triumph of Mexican democracy.

One of López Obrador's commitments is to ensure that retirees' pensions are increased. In response Monday, former President Vicente Fox tweeted a photo of him and other former Mexican heads of state dressed in rags, with the caption: "If that's for the sake of from Mexico."

[Who is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the presidential candidate known as AMLO?]

An official "quick account" of one According to the national sampling of ballot papers, López Obrador would win between 53 and 53.8% of the votes. That put him far ahead of his main opponents, Ricardo Anaya and Jose Antonio Meade, who conceded Sunday night.

In his victory speeches, López Obrador called on Mexicans to reconcile and said his government would represent all citizens. We will respect everyone, "he said in a downtown hotel. "But we will give preference to the most humble and forgotten."

López Obrador's supporters rallied by the thousands on Sunday night at the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, chanting the name of the elected president while mariachis were playing. López Obrador arrived under a shower of confetti

"I want to go into history as a good president of Mexico," he said.

But many Mexicans were doubtful.

"There are so many mistakes, I think some people voted for López Obrador, but the majority voted for a change that we need," said Fernando Torres, a 23-year-old advertising agent who was working on the Paseo de la Reforma, an important boulevard of the city center. The victory of López Obrador represents a categorical rejection of the traditional politicians that he regularly calls the "Mafia of power". His models are the independence of Mexico and the revolutionary leaders who have resisted more powerful foreign countries.

López Obrador's critics warn that he will be more fighting with the United States than the current president, and the US-Mexico conflict could dramatically intensify when he chooses to fight with Trump. In previous years, López Obrador was a critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, but he and his team insisted that they want to preserve it and maintain good relations with it. Trump.

Trump regularly attacked Mexico enough to prevent drugs, crime and undocumented immigrants from entering the United States. He also began a renegotiation of NAFTA, claiming that Mexico stole American jobs and intends to build a border wall.

But Trump tweeted congratulations to López Obrador on Sunday night, adding, "I'm looking forward to working with him, there is plenty to do that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!"

López Obrador expressed satisfaction with the tweet, telling Mexico's Televisa network that he was "very respectful."

"That's what we always want"

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López Obrador's supporters have attributed his victory to the longevity and personal charisma of a candidate who ran for his third consecutive presidential election and campaigned in every municipality in the country.His message remained largely consistent – eradicating corruption, investing in the poor, fighting inequality – but it was better received this year because of growing frustration after a series of scandals in the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto. [1965] 9023] Peña Nieto, barred by the Constitution from running for re-election, is one of the most unpopular presidents in decades. His Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) – which ruled Mexico for most of the last century – misbehaved during the elections and Meade finished in third place

López Obrador grew up in a family bourgeois of the State of Tabasco. the Gulf of Mexico and began his political career by helping native villagers with public works projects that exposed him to the flagrant inequality of Mexico. He separated from the PRI in the late 1980s and joined a leftist opposition party. López Obrador has gained notoriety as a leader of the protests against electoral fraud and abuses of the public oil industry.

López Obrador won a single electoral victory. In 2000, he became mayor of Mexico City, where he increased social spending for single mothers, disabled people and the elderly. Major projects, such as an elevated highway through the city and the revitalization of downtown neighborhoods, have also boosted its popularity.

[Mexico’s next president could be a leftist demagogue or a practical reformer.]

After two presidential failures, López Obrador, nicknamed AMLO, tempered his message this year. While highlighting the fight against extreme poverty, claiming that it will result in less violence and a stronger economy, he has portrayed himself as more pro-business and pro-American than in the past. His critics worry about a recent restructuring aimed at allowing private investment in the oil industry and canceling a multi-billion dollar airport project in Mexico City

"It It's hard to know if he's changed, if it's less radical it's just a political decision to be elected, "said Andrés Rozental, a retired Mexican diplomat." AMLO, at least in his rhetoric, represents a much leftward shift of what we have ever seen on a national scale. "

López Obrador says he plans to cut staff and salaries government and prevent funds from being wasted by corruption, it intends to use these resources to stimulate social programs for the poor.Corruption experts express skepticism about if this plan is realistic.

Elec Sunday's appearances were the largest in Mexico's history, with more than 3,200 positions at all levels of government. Among them were 628 members of the National Congress who will be able to be re-elected for the first time in nearly a century, eight state governors and mayors from more than 1,500 cities, including Mexico City.

The election campaign was marked by violence, with about 130 candidates and campaign personnel murdered across the country.

López Obrador was competing against Anaya, an ambitious 39-year-old former president of the right-wing Action Party (PAN); and Meade, a 49-year-old economist trained at Yale, representing the PRI.

Maya Averbuch in Ecatepec, Mexico, and Dudley Althaus, Kevin Sieff and Gabriela Martinez in Mexico contributed to this report.

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