Development & Aid, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

ELECTIONS-MEXICO: PRD’s Lopez Obrador – Leftist Pledges Pain-Free Change

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Jul 3 2006 (IPS) - Few nicknames are as evocative as that of Mexico’s left-leaning presidential hopeful. Andrés López Obrador’s “Peje” refers to the “pejelagarto” fish – complete with lizard-like head, hard scales and sharp teeth – that lives in the tropical state of Tabasco, the birthplace of the politician who some adore, and some fear.

“If Peje wins (Sunday’s presidential elections), he’s going to take away our house, our money and will steer us right into a crisis,” a small businessman who wished to remain anonymous told IPS. Yet domestic worker Matilde Trujillo declared that López Obrador “is the only one who is going to look out for us.”

Former mayor of Mexico City, 52-year-old López Obrador has framed his campaign within a discourse rich in references to the gaps “between those at the top and those at the bottom,” and pledged to implement “redistributive” justice through a government driven by “moral authority,” not economic greed.

His strategy has both hit home and divided voters. Studies indicate that incomes in Mexico’s richest strata are 25 times higher than those of the country’s poor – a situation that has changed little over the past 20 years. In a population that now tops 103 million, overall poverty rates are 37 percent, with 11.7 living in extreme poverty.

On the eve of the elections, all voter opinion polls show López Obrador, the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) candidate, and opponent Felipe Calderón, of the governing conservative National Action Party (PAN), as the front-runners in the bid to succeed President Vicente Fox.

Holding a political science degree from a state university, López Obrador worked with Chontal indigenous communities in Tabasco in the 1970s. With other PRD founders, he started out on the front lines, leading protests and demonstrations against authorities, and by the 1990s he rose to become the party’s national leader.

He scored high in public support during his term as Mexico City mayor, 2001-2005. During this time, he gave daily press conferences at 6 a.m., a practice he has promise to continue if he wins the presidency.

Unlike many Mexican politicians, López Obrador leads a lifestyle of restraint, driving a modest Japanese car and living in a small apartment with his three children. He stays away from the social club scene, is a widower and never appears in the magazines that cover jet-set events and high society. He promised not to lose his characteristic humbleness should he become president.

Late in his term as mayor he was accused by the District Attorney’s Office – overseen by the Fox government – of not complying with a judicial order pertaining to land he had illegally expropriated in the course of his official duties. But the District Attorney eventually dropped the charge, clearing the way for López Obrador to run for the presidency (a six-year term).

“We are going to revamp the economic model, because neoliberalism is not working,” he repeatedly promised during the campaign, in which he portrayed himself as an honest, modest, humble and nationalist politician “that will never betray the people.”

Some analysts call him messianic and populist, and he has been compared to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. But others paint him as neoliberal through and through, leftist in name only.

López Obrador’s plans include providing economic support to Mexico’s poorest, increasing the salaries of low-income workers, lowering electricity and fuel rates, renegotiating trade agreements and opening new universities that dispense with entrance exams.

His strategies to fund his platform include combating state corruption, cutting the salaries of high-level government officials – including the president – and saving resources. He assures that the public funds will be enough to pay for all projects, and that he will not impose new taxes or drive the country further into debt.

However, analyses of his platform conducted by independent academics working for Lupa Ciudadana and the Espinosa Yglesias Research Centre, two citizen watchdog initiatives, claim state resources could not possibly pay for all of the candidate’s plans.

Jorge Chabat, a political scientist with Mexico’s Centre for Economic Research and Education, told IPS that López Obrador’s strength lies in his charisma and two “irrefutable” and urgent calls to action: the mitigation of socio-economic inequality and eradication of corruption.

However, the expert indicated that these laudable sentiments are tarnished by the distrust and even fear that López Obrador’s leftist profile breeds in the general population, as well as the indications that his plans would trigger an economic crisis.

“There has been a lot of fear-mongering regarding our candidate, but critics will be in for a surprise when he becomes president, because they’ll see that he will act responsibly, support business and lead an intelligent government,” said Federico Arreola, an adviser to López Obrador.