Perpetual candidate known as AMLO is a leftwing politician known for personal modesty but he also senses an opening against establishment parties

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

In a stump speech in a village plaza high in the pine-covered hills of Mexico state, populist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador calmly took aim at a string of hate figures: crooked politicians, corrupt officials and Donald Trump, who he described as “an irresponsible bully”.



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He spared his harshest words, however, for Mexico’s own president, Enrique Peña Nieto, who he accused of failing stand up to his US counterpart.

“He didn’t have the guts to tell Trump, ‘You will respect the Mexican people,’” López Obrador said. “’You will respect our migrants.’”

A self-styled outsider, mocked by critics as the “Mexican messiah”, López Obrador is the left’s perpetual presidential candidate. He is leading in early polls for the 2018 election, playing on discontent with the country’s economic underperformance and unhappiness with a political class perceived as living in luxury while ordinary Mexicans see salaries stagnate.

Commonly referred to as AMLO, López Obrador draws comparisons to leftwing leaders such as Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn: politicians who have endured ridicule for sticking to a set of ideals which eventually resonate with voters.

But his critics also compare López Obrador to Trump, declaring him a dangerous demagogue who does not respect democratic norms: he has twice refused to accept general election defeats, alleging fraud and mass vote-buying.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andrés Manuel López Obrador joins supporters in Mexico City during his 2006 run for the presidency. Photograph: David de la Paz/EPA

Unlike those he’s compared to, López Obrador has governing experience, in Mexico City from 2000 to 2005. He ran a populist and popular administration which kept subway fares low, built elevated freeways and partnered with the billionaire Carlos Slim to restore the city’s historic centre. He also provided stipends to seniors and single mothers, initiatives initially denounced as populism but replicated by others including Peña Nieto.



Since Trump’s win in November, López Obrador has widened his lead in the polls, although major rival parties have yet to name their candidates. This weekend in Los Angeles, he launched a US tour meant to defend Mexican migrants and highlight what he considers shortcomings in the Mexican government’s response to Trump.

“They have not realized what Donald Trump’s strategy is,” he told Univisión. “I think that many have not realized that it is, even with its rudeness, about politics and not economics.”

Other politicians from Mexico’s mainstream political parties are currently touring the US. Like his rivals, López Obrador is trying to capitalize on anti-Trump sentiment, though analysts say he is also trying to calm foreign critics, who see his rise in the polls as part of an anti-American backlash.

He has critics at home, too. His blunt language, constant campaigning and leftward leanings unsettle Mexico’s political and business classes – the latter having sunk his 2006 presidential campaign with scaremongering ads which compared him to the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez and branded him “a danger for Mexico”.

Mexican politicians are often accused of using elected office as an opportunity for personal enrichment, but López Obrador lives simply. While mayor of Mexico City he was memorably chauffeured around in a small Nissan.

His critics point out the incongruence of an an anti-system candidate whose party continues to collect a share of the $200m in public money that is showered on political parties.

Ilán Semo, history professor at the Iberoamerican University, described López Obrador as “authentically austere”, but said he often forms alliances with politicians with checkered pasts.

Observers say that as Mexico moves away from nationalism and a closed economy to free trade and more open markets, AMLO’s stalwart opposition to technocratic rule has made him the target for an elite suddenly contemplating a future cut loose by the US.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thousands of López Obrador supporters rally in Mexico City in 2006. Photograph: Daniel Aguilar/Reuters

“He’s the person that would displace the political group that has governed Mexico since the 1980s,” Semo said. That’s why they’re so severe with him.”

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Now 63, he has run twice for president, in 2006 and 2012, losing by a sliver the first time in an election he considers to have been rigged. Like Trump he often attacks the media and criticises negative polls. And like Trump, his simple language connects with ordinary voters, although whereas the US president prefers boastful hyperbole, López Obrador’s style is plainspoken to the point of being somewhat dull.

Like Trump, “He’s an excellent communicator with a simple discourse,” said Fernando Dworak, a political consultant who said López Obrador also employed the politics of personality and showed “little commitment to institutions”.



He has expressed support for Nafta, albeit with modifications, proposes infrastructure spending – including five new refineries – and talks of reviving the countryside and holding a referendum on the current government’s structural reforms.

“He’s a nationalist who loves his country and is against the corruption,” said Carmen Muñoz, a dentist attending an AMLO rally. “Mexico is so rich, but these rapacious and thieving politicians are living in opulence when we have millions of poor people starving.”