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Andrés Manuel López Obrador (b. 13 November 1953) is a Mexican politician. He was the Head of Government (Jefe de Gobierno) of the Federal District (commonly called the "mayor of Mexico City" in the English-language press) from 2000 to 2005. He was stripped of immunity from prosecution in April 2005 by the Chamber of Deputies in order for him to face criminal charges that he allowed the building of an entrance road to a city hospital to continue, in defiance of a court order. After hundreds of thousands of people marched through Mexico City in his support, the Attorney General's office (called Procuraduría General de la República) dropped the case because the punishment for such an offence was unclear (see the desafuero section of this article). His arrest would have seriously compromised his presidential aspirations for 2006, for which he quit his post on July 29 2005. López Obrador was previously the president of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in his home state of Tabasco and the president of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) at the state and national levels.
In the media, López Obrador is frequently referred to by his initials AMLO and as el Peje an abbreviation of pejelagarto, a species of fish from the Lepisosteidae family, found in Tabasco.
Background
Born in the small town of Tepetitán, Macuspana municipality, in Tabasco, Andrés Manuel López Obrador became interested in politics at an early age. He studied political science and public administration at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) before joining the PRI and collaborating actively in Carlos Pellicer's campaign for the governorship of Tabasco.
In 1977, he was selected to head the Instituto Indigenista (Indigenous People's Institute) of his state, where he promoted the publication of Native American literature. In 1984 he relocated to Mexico City to work at the Instituto Nacional del Consumidor (National Consumers' Institute), a government agency.
Although he worked for a time for Tabasco governor Enrique González Pedrero, López Obrador resigned over political differences to join the new dissenting wing of the PRI led by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, which would later be transformed into an independent party, the PRD. He ran for office in Tabasco in 1988 under this new banner.
After losing that election, López Obrador served as PRD president in Tabasco until 1994, when, after losing a bid for the Tabasco governorship (to the PRI, in a highly disputed election) he launched a run for the head office of his party. He led the PRD from the 2 August 1996 until 10 April 1999.
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Jefe de Gobierno of Mexico City
On 29 March 2000, he entered the Federal District's Head of Government (Jefe de Gobierno) race. Jefe de Gobierno, a position with a status between that of city mayor and state governor, is arguably the second most important elected office in Mexico. His candidacy was contested by political opponents who claimed he was not really a resident of the capital city, but the allegations were dismissed on a legal technicality, and López Obrador proved popular amongst the working classes of the city, many of whom are themselves migrants from other parts of Mexico. This, combined with support from social democrats in the middle classes, vitalized by what they saw as the first real left-of-center candidate in Mexican politics for a long time, assured his solid victory in the elections of 2 July 2000, with 38.3% of the popular vote. Running as the "common candidate" of the Alliance for Mexico City, he defeated Santiago Creel of the PAN (33.4%), Jesús Silva Herzog of the PRI (22.8%), and a couple of other minor-party candidates.
This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Misplaced Pages's deletion policy.
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Please vote on and discuss the matter. See this article's entry on the Votes for Deletion page.
Public image
During his time as Head of Government, López Obrador has become one of the most recognizable and popular politicians in Mexico, both lauded and criticized for his populism. His past as a distinguished member of the PRI for many years, and his more recent acts against the government after he joined the PRD, for instance in closing oil ducts to pressure Pemex, the national oil monopoly, to pay farmers who claimed their land was contaminated, have made him unpopular or controversial in many political circles. Like most left-populist politicians in Latin America, López Obrador appeals to the large lower and lower middle classes, which make up the overwhelming majority of the population, but have considerably less influence in traditional politics and the media.
He has constructed a public image of frugality and moderation but media revelations have contradicted him on a few occasions. On May 10, 2005 the Crónica tabloid revealed he used a Tiffany watch with a price list of USD $7,800. It also reported that according to López own fiscal declaration he spent MXN $25,000 on 2003 on shoes (around USD $2,272). Previously on May 4, the 'Reforma' newspaper had revealed he used a Hugo Boss suit, with prices starting at USD $1,000. These revelations are based on photographs taken with a zoom lens at public events. 'La Revista' reported he used Scapinno clothes in his tours around the country on weekends, as observed by their reporter. While Mexican politicians aren't noted for their frugality, López Obrador has stated on several times it is his frugality and moderation which set him apart, and on a few occasions explicitly declared he never bought a suit but had them made by a tailor in downtown Mexico City using cloth from the nearby stores, and only one or two a year as his salary didn't allowed for more. López Obrador denied he used brand suits, and said the watch was a gift worth less than 'Crónica' reported. His salary as Head of Government is around USD $7,000 a month.
He owns an old car which he uses for official events, driven by Nicolás Mollinedo Bastar (whose high salary of USD $5,600 a month he justified by explaining he was not only his chauffeur as everyone thought but also his Coordinator of Logistics), has a discreet female-only group of bodyguards in civilian clothes, and insists on maintaining a running dialogue with the media, holding daily morning press conferences about the agenda of the district's government, and current events in the city. Opponents have claimed the press conferences are simply an excuse to get more publicity and media attention, doing politics from a television screen like Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez does in his weekly joint network transmissions, obligatorily carried on all television stations; one crucial difference, however, is that the Mexican broadcast media can choose whether or not to cover López Obrador's press conferences.
He is very popular among citizens of Mexico City, and was voted the second-best mayor in the world by Mexicans at the ATA online poll on www.citymayors.com. Therefore, he is widely seen as the PRD's obvious candidate for the 2006 presidential election, and until 2005 he denied having made up his mind regarding a presidential bid. As it became clear there was the possibility of a legal impediment to run for office (see Desafuero section) he publicly declared he would only support a different candidate for his party if he had a real chance of winning the election and not only a 15% of the votes (this percentage roughly that obtained by runner-up PRD precandidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in his previous runs for presidency). Should he run, he is considered one of the favourites, partly because both the two other main Mexican parties have had problems coming up with a viable and popular presidential candidate so far. However, his triumph isn't assured – his personal popularity is great in some parts of the country but his party, the PRD, is notably weak outside a handful of states.
Some of López Obrador's supporters for the presidency consider him to be Mexico's equivalent to the other new left-populist presidents in Latin America, such as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Néstor Kirchner (Argentina), Tabaré Vázquez (Uruguay), and Hugo Chávez (Venezuela); his detractors, however, prefer to compare him with the latter one. The comparison with Chávez is based on the perceived disregard of both for law and institutions coupled with an insistence on the authority of the "People" over established institutions (usually when referring to the desafuero process).
Specific acts cited by his detractors are:
- the incident in Tabasco, shortly after leaving the PRI, where he led a group of farmers to close oil ducts by force. The government chose not to press charges despite having a videotape of him leading the farmers.
- "El Encino", cause of the lifting of his executive process (see Desafuero section), where his disregard of a federal judicial order could prevent him from running for president in 2006.
- Similar to "El Encino" case, he has disobeyed several court resolutions holding as legal and valid the publicity contracts of Eumex, a Spanish company installing publicity stands on some of Mexico's City sidewalks. Eumex employees and executives have been arrested when attempting to install said stands despite the rulings in their favour.
- His occasional complaints about media coverage of news important to him, as when he complained on April 2, 2005 that Mexican TV gave more coverage to the dying Pope than to his political fate, which had suffered an especially important blow the previous day.
This background and his trademark insistence on presenting the corruption scandals in his term (e.g. his secretary of finance was caught in corruption acts) as the result of a conspiracy against him by his political enemies (amongst which he names former president Salinas and current president Fox) make his critics believe he might, if he becomes President, take actions like taking to himself the legislative powers of Congress or shutting down TV stations, all in name of the "People", like Chávez, even though he (unlike Chávez) has never been a member of the military or attempted a coup d'état.
Political agenda
His leadership of the city government has been one focused on social issues. Under the slogan First, the poor, he has instituted various social programs to help those living in abject poverty, including various subsidies for senior citizens. He is, in general, against raising taxes and the cost of city services, obtaining funds from debt and austerity plans in spending.
He has also reformed the city's police force, leading to a reduction in corruption. He has succeeded in lowering some crime rates (like car theft) but also saw his law enforcement record stained by the lynching of federal law enforcement officers doing an undercover investigation on 2004. They were observed taking photographs and were seized for several hours after identifying themselves as federal agents; two of them were finally beaten to death and burnt, the other one barely survived and was rescued. Both federal and local authorities refused to send any kind of reinforcements despite the several hours the incident lasted and the officers' pleas for help in live television; AMLO's posture was that he would never send the police against the crowd for any motive, even if they were holding law enforcement agents, as that would inevitably provoke a massacre. For this incident President Fox fired the city's head of police Marcelo Ebrard (a constitutional power), after AMLO clearly stated he would keep Ebrard in his post. After some days AMLO appointed Ebrard as Secretary of Social Development, a post only he can revoke. This new post caused speculations on whether López supports Ebrard as his succesor when he runs for Presidenty
One highly visible project has been the restoration and modernization of Mexico City's old city center, the Centro Histórico, which has 16th-17th century buildings and a large number of tourist attractions, yet has been badly maintained, overcrowded, and crime-ridden in the last few decades. The Mexico City government entered into a joint venture with Carlos Slim, Latin America's richest man, and a native of the Centro Histórico, to restore and rebuild large parts of the area, creating attractive new shopping and residential areas for the middle to upper classes.
In an effort to improve the city's traffic conditions, a widely cited problem exacerbated by the common blocking of streets and avenues by political activists left undisturbed by police, his government embarked in 2003 on a number of large construction projects, aiming to increase the capacity and speed of the city's main throughfares, by constructing rapid-transit upper levels and extensions. Despite being controversial while in construction, the projects have led to a noticeable improvement in travel times in some parts of the city, and more projects along the same lines are underway, or in planning. An express bus service, the Metrobús, based on the successful Colombian model is being built down Avenida Insurgentes, cutting through the city some 20 km from north to south; improvements to the aging metro system are not expected, however.
Controversy and criticism
In 2004, AMLO's city government was rocked by two major corruption scandals and a few minor ones.
Videoscandals
So named because they were made public by videos taken with a hidden camera, they involve his finance chief Ponce, right-hand man Bejarano and notable figures from his party.
In the first, Gustavo Ponce, Lopez Obrador's finance chief, was filmed gambling at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. He had made 37 similar trips in the last year, his hotel bills revealing huge tips and mini-bar room charges. After Ponce was exposed in the media, a probe by the Federal District's attorney general revealed that more than USD $3 million in city funds may have gone missing. López Obrador reacted slowly and unconvingly: having received a phone call warning him of an impending scandal, he watched Ponce's gambling on the nightly news. He immediately called Ponce by telephone, and Ponce reassured AMLO it was only a confusion and he would explain it to the press the following morning. López Obrador arrived next day for his morning conference and waited for Ponce to go together to meet the press; when it was obvious Ponce had fled he signed Ponce's leave in his absence. Ponce disappeared, amid heavy criticism to his government for not placing him in custody immediately. At first AMLO did not judge Ponce, only saying Ponce owed an explanation for his behavior. When a probe revealed missing funds, he said the scandal was part of a conspiracy by his political enemies, as it is incredibly hard to make an unauthorized filming inside a casino and obtain a guest's bills, and the videotapes seemed to be from the security closed circuit. After some time he expressed his concern Ponce was dead, killed so the truth about the scandal would never come to light. When Ponce was caught hiding in Mexico several months later, he expressed his relief at knowing he was still alive. Some time after his capture, and remembering his conspiracy theory, AMLO presented to the press confidential documents of the United States Treasury Department detailing an ongoing investigation of Ponce for possible financial crimes. These documents, obtained from the Mexican government by Federal District Attorney General Bátiz, under the pretext they were needed for the probe, showed, in AMLO's eyes, a conspiracy from the federal government against him, since they knew before the scandal something was wrong with Ponce. Both the Mexican and United States government reacted harshly to this violation of the cooperation agreement among the policies of both countries.
The second scandal came when René Bejarano, previously López Obrador's personal secretary, later elected to the Mexico City legislature, was videotaped accepting USD $320,000 in cash. The video was played at Victor Trujillo's news program (which he hosted as his Brozo character), followed by an studio interview with a completely unsuspecting Bejarano. Bejarano claimed that the money, which was given to him by Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, an Argentine newspaper owner and city contractor, was a cash contribution for the political campaign of Leticia Robles (unrelated to Rosario Robles), a city borough mayor. Robles denied involvement in any illegal campaign financing. In this case, too, López Obrador failed to quickly distance himself from the scandal, placing the blame on a conspiracy by Carlos Ahumada and his political opponents (like ex-president Carlos Salinas), remaining silent about Bejarano. As more videotapes were released, AMLO found it difficult to not say anything about Bejarano's involvement and after a few months he declared he had done something inappropriate. Carlos Ahumada, who fled to Cuba to avoid prosecution, was captured by the Cuban government and held in custody, incommunicated, for some weeks before being deported to Mexico. Ahumada says he videotaped the encounters for his own safety as he felt threatened by Bejarano's cash requests, and released them as a desperate measure when his contracts with the city government were canceled. He also gave money to PRD's Carlos Ímaz, another borough mayor, who was introduced to Ahumada by Rosario Robles, AMLO's predecessor. Carlos Ahumada was imprisoned in one of Mexico City's prisons, in complete isolation; media requests to interview him have been denied. About a year later, in April 2005, when the possibility of Ahumada being found innocent of all charges and released in the following months became real, AMLO's government pressed a new charge, low quality work in one of Ahumada's contracts. This charge, a civil offense that can't be punished by prison time, will keep Ahumada in jail for one or two more years, since the general attorney refused to receive evidence in his favor in the early stages of this new process, which would have allowed Ahumada to be processed outside jail.
Bejarano was controversially freed on bail on 2005; Imaz found guilty and fined. Ahumada and Ponce remain on custody, Ahumada in complete isolation since he was jailed.
Despite the involvement of his collaborators, reacting slowly to the scandals and his stubborn insistence on placing the blame on his political enemies only, there's no evidence AMLO participated himself in anything illegal, so he emerged from the scandals with his public image relatively unscathed.
Judicial disobedience
A minor controversy which has the potential to become a bigger problem is his legal fight with Spanish company Eumex. Eumex contracted street publicity with former regent (before AMLO's post existed) Óscar Espinosa Villarreal. The contract has been found to be legal, so far, but AMLO says it is extremely advantageous to Eumex and violates Spanish (not Mexican) laws. A few incidents where Eumex workers and executives were detained when installing publicity stands on the sidewalks caught the media attention. Eumex lawyers claim they have a judicial order preventing AMLO's government to interfere with them, and have insinuated this could become another "El Encino" for López Obrador (see Desafuero process).
Transparency, salaries and expenses
A less damaging scandal occurred when it was found his chauffeur, Nicolás Mollinedo Bastar, earned USD $5,600 a month. AMLO explained he worked at his Coordinator of Logistics, and as such it was part of his duties to drive his car.
A controversial note was the findings that money assigned to Metro manteinance was diverted (apparently legally) to build the second level of the Periferico highway. As the Metro has suffered several suspensions of service in 2005 and is critical to the transport system of the city, this diversion of funds was highly questioned.
Mexico City is amongst the least transparent governments in the nation. Although most states and the federal government have enacted independent organisms to disclose government documents, López Obrador has been headfast in his refusal to open his archives, and most of the data pertaining to expenditures and government work continues to be off limits to the public, including expenses to send his personal security team to Israel for training.
Campaign for Presidency
On May 9, 2005, López Obrador announced that he would resign as head of government on July 31 in order to concentrate on his candidacy for President of Mexico in the 2006 presidential election. Thus far he has been running ahead in almost every survey, and his approval rating is as high as ever.
He has, however, started his campaign before he resigns, in his daily conferences as Head of Government. He has made several announcements regarding his actions once he becomes president:
- The minimum-security penal colony in the Islas Marías (an isolated island group in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Nayarit) would be transformed into a ecological tourism center; he described it as "Children's Island".
- He would construct a high-speed train (like the Japanese 'shinkansen') crossing the country from the capital to the north border.
- He would live in the National Palace on Mexico City's zócalo (currently it is partly used for official ceremonies and as a touristic attraction but the president lives elsewhere, in the Los Pinos residence)
- He would lower his salary as president to a level slightly higher than what he currently receives as mayor, and make it the maximum salary for an official.
He also asked the press attending his daily conferences to devote the last two minutes to hear announcements related to his presidential campaign, claiming he won't have enough money to pay for air time once he resigns his post; the reporters refused.
His campaign has been marred by increasingly common problems with the Metro system due to lack of maintenance, further compounded when it was found out the works on the Periferico second level were funded by money taken out of Metro's maintenance, and also by of the worsening of the year-old deficiencies in the water supply in some parts of the city. He also was questioned as to whether he was behind letters of support to his party candidate (Citlalli Ibáñez Camacho) to the governorship of México State (a crime under electoral law) sent to voters, but he refused to answer, since his conferences weren't "about political issues".
He also was heavily criticized for, once again, opening incomplete public works, this time the Metrobús system. Three stations were closed as access bridges were not ready; safety walls to separate traffic were not in place, and access was free since the electronic payment system (who was shown at an earlier event for the media he attended) was not installed. Accesses for disabled persons (a group he has tried to reach with his social programs) were not made, and in the first days there were several minor accidents related to this. The media reported the stations were apparently illegally connected to the power line; the official stance is that the contract with the power company couldn't be made before the opening but the current temporary connection isn't illegal and payments will be made later. One month after the opening, some stations operate with candlelight, and the electronic tickets aren't ready. The head of the Metrobús was fired, but no reasons were given. The Metrobús opening couldn't be delayed because López will resign from his post at the end of the month to run for his party's presidential candidacy. Despite problems, the Metrobús system has generally improved traffic conditions and travel times along Mexico City's busiest avenue.
Publications
Unless otherwise noted, in Spanish and published in Mexico.
- Los Primeros Pasos (First Steps)
- Del Esplendor a la Sombra (From Splendor to Darkness)
- Tabasco, Víctima de un Fraude (Tabasco, Victim of Fraud)
- Entre la Historia y la Esperanza (Between History and Hope)
- Un proyecto alternativo de nación (An alternate nation project) ISBN 685956979
- Contra el desafuero: mi defensa jurídica (Against the lifting of executive immunity: my legal defense) ISBN 9685957908
See also
External links
- Official site of Andrés Manuel López Obrador
- Mexico mayor runs into the buffers (BBC News)
- Greetings from Mexistan (Washington Post opinion column)
- Support site against the desafuero process
- Authors Elena Poniatowska and Paco Ignacio Taibo describe Obrador's magnetism on Democracy Now! program
- 'Crónica' newspaper article revealing López uses USD7,800 watches and luxury clothes. (in Spanish)
- El Universal: Zapatista leader blasts AMLO (in Spanish).