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Revision as of 21:27, 12 June 2004 by Patricio00 (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Andrés Manuél López Obrador (1953-) has been the mayor of Mexico City since the year 2000]]. López Obrador has been 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.
Born in the small town of Tepetitán, county of Macuspana, Tabasco, Obrador was interested in politics from an early age, studying Political Science and Public Administration in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) joining officially the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, collaborating actively in the campaign of Carlos Pellicer for Tabasco’s governorship.
In 1977 he was elected to head the Instituto Indigenista (Indian Institute) of his state, where he promoted the publication of Amerindian literature. In 1984 he immigrated to México City to work at the Instituto Nacional del Consumidor (National Institute for the Consumer) a government agency.
Although he worked for a time for the governor of Tabasco Enrique González Pedrero, 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. Participating as a candidate of Tabasco in [[1988 under this new banner.
After loosing the elections, Obrador became involved as the president of the PRD in Tabasco until 1994, when after another loosing Tabasco once more he began a run for the head office of his party. Obrador led the PRD from the 2nd of August 1996, until the 10th of April 1999. The 29th of March 2000, he entered the race for the mayoralty of Mexico City winning over a wide margin.
López Obrador has become one of the most notorious and popular politicians in Mexico, criticized both by his populism and by his inability to solve the crime problem of Mexico City. He is widely seen as the de facto candidate of the PRD for the 2006 elections, although he has publicly denied having made up his mind.