Left-wing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador has claimed victory in Mexico’s presidential election, saying “profound change” is coming.
The ex-Mexico City mayor, known by his initials Amlo, is projected to win about 53%. His rivals have conceded in a crushing defeat for the main parties.
Mr López Obrador’s key pledge has been to tackle the “evil” of corruption.
[…]
Late on Sunday, the 64-year-old promised to respect civil liberties and said he was “not looking to construct a dictatorship, either open or hidden”.
Some opponents have expressed fears that his leftist and populist policies could damage the already sluggish economy and turn Mexico into “another Venezuela”, which is suffering a deep economic crisis and rampant inflation.
Hailing a “historic night”, Mr López Obrador called on all Mexicans to reconcile and repeated his campaign pledge to review energy contracts for signs of corruption.
“Corruption is… the result of a decadent political regime. We are absolutely convinced that this evil is the main cause of social and economic inequality, and also that corruption is to blame for the violence in our country,” he said.
He has insisted that no-one involved in corruption will be spared, not even those he calls “brothers-in-arms”.
So what are his other main policies?
On combating Mexico’s record levels of violence, much of it related to drug cartels, Mr López Obrador said he would have daily meetings with his security cabinet, which under him, he said, would be under a “unified command”.
Sunday’s election followed one of Mexico’s deadliest campaigns in decades with more than 130 political candidates and party workers killed.
The good news is that totalitarian regimes usually have a pretty good track record of quashing unauthorized corruption and criminal activity. Mao’s China or Stalin’s USSR were paragons of regimes that quelled crime. Unfortunately, they do so by internalizing the corruption into the regime, centralizing power, and crushing civil liberties. I suspect that we will see the nationalization of some industries (despite claims to the contrary), suppression of civil liberties (despite claims to the contrary), rampant inflation, the general decline of Mexico, and the accompanying exodus of Mexicans seeking a better alternative.
Build the wall.
One final note… these statements are contradictory…
He also said his government would be fiscally disciplined and taxes would not be raised.
On social policies, he said he would double pensions for the elderly upon taking office on 1 December as a first step to reducing Mexico’s disparate income levels.
Mexico has been communist/socialist for a long time. that is why it is so corrupt and people want to flee.
If American leftists get a hold of power here and screw things up as bad, we may need to flee to Mexico.
Build the wall.
“I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me –and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
Thank god us tax payers aren’t on the hook for the wall. As soon as Trump gets the money from Mexico it’s shovels to the dirt.
Commie? Maybe. Probably just the cartels’ candidate.
In the nine months leading up to this weekend’s presidential election, 132 politicians have been killed. That’s according to Etellekt, a risk analysis and crisis management firm. – CNN https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/27/americas/mexico-political-deaths-election-season-trnd/index.html
It’s easy to get the money from Mexico. Simply intercept the remittances. That’s about $40Bn right there–every year.
“It’s easy to get the money from Mexico. Simply intercept the remittances. That’s about $40Bn right there–every year.”
When is this going to start happening?