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Mexican Invasion Title: Mexico's new president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is the result of political upheaval Even for a nation hardened by years of rampant cartel violence, the Mexican election has been shocking. More than 130 political figures have been killed since the campaign began last September. A candidate for the state of Guerrero was found dead in his parked van, with six bullets in his body. Another had just left a debate with his rivals in Coahuila and was posing for selfies, when he was shot in the head from behind. Last month, an entire police squad was detained on suspicion of complicity in the assassination of a mayoral candidate in the western state of Michoacan. It's not only been the most violent campaign Mexico has experienced in recent history, it's also been the largest — over 3,400 positions were up for grabs across all levels of government. The seismic result shows voters, weary from a war on drugs that has failed to staunch the bloodshed, have decisively rejected the two major parties' platforms. This political upheaval is unprecedented in modern Mexico. The incumbent PRI party was in power continuously from 1929 to 2000. Its conservative rival, PAN, held office for the next 12 years until president Enrique Pena Nieto returned the PRI to power. The electorate has decided that neither major party has a plausible solution to curb the spiralling violence. Last year, more than 29,000 people were murdered, the highest annual figure for two decades. This year, the murder rate is on track to surpass that macabre record. This isn't happening in some economic backwater. Mexico has the second largest economy in Latin America. Private investors have enjoyed lucrative access to the country's big oil reserves for the past five years. As US President Trump likes to remind his supporters, corporations like Ford and IBM have been building big manufacturing plants there, attracted by the cheap cost of labour. But for most citizens, the benefits are yet to arrive. Mexicans work longer hours than any other nationality on Earth but they earn less today — relative to their northern neighbours — than they did when NAFTA was introduced. Economic growth is poor, more than half of the population is still in poverty, the peso has been dropping sharply against the US dollar, and Mexicans are angry. 'Mexico's Bernie Sanders' Enter: ~ Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The anti-establishment candidate. A 64-year-old veteran of politics and a former mayor of Mexico City, known by his initials AMLO. Mr Lopez Obrador is a left-wing firebrand who journalists compare to Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders. His critics fear he's more like Hugo Chavez — a dangerous throwback to protectionism and nationalisation. He wants to increase minimum wages without raising taxes — he says it'll be funded by stamping out corruption — and take a harder line on NAFTA negotiations. He was the populist candidate who promised to turn the opulent presidential palace into a public park, to sell the president's $300 million 787 Dreamliner jet, and to cut his own salary to half of his predecessor's. His campaign railed against what AMLO describes as "the Mafia of Power": the corruption of the Mexican business and political elite by drug cartels. Controversially, his solution to combat gang warfare is an amnesty, which he says he will even consider extending to the kingpins. By comparison, his main rival Ricardo Anaya proposed a continuation of the current military-led campaign against drug gangs. And yet a domestic poll last December found that two-thirds of voters disagreed with the idea of brokering an amnesty, which suggests that Mr Lopez Obrador's victory could be less an endorsement of his platform, than it was a disavowal of his competitors' credibility. Mr Anaya, who polled second in the presidential elections, spent much of the campaign denying allegations he was responsible for an illicit property deal in his home state of Queretaro. The campaign of the outgoing government's candidate, Jose Antonio Meade, was undermined by an embezzlement scandal that his rivals said occurred while he was head of the Social Development Ministry. How Mexico's relationship with the US might change It's also unclear how Mr Lopez Obrador will deal with Mr Trump. Mr Lopez Obrador has described the policy of separating migrant families at the border as "arrogant, racist and inhuman". But analysts note that the president-elect has been ambiguous on what he will do about it. "In terms of the relationship with the United States, Manuel Lopez Obrador has been proposing a more proactive approach, he's demanding more respect," said Dr Fernando Nieto Morales, a public administration expert from El Colegio de Mexico. "We don't know yet what the strategy will be and how exactly this is going to unfold, particularly in regard to migration." Acquiescence to the White House may not play well. His predecessor was ridiculed after appearing with Mr Trump in a 2016 campaign visit, after which Mr Trump immediately flew to an Arizona rally and declared: "They don't know it yet, but they're going to pay for [the wall]." Polling by the newspaper El Universal found 88 per cent of Mexicans were offended by Mr Trump's visit, and Mr Pena Nieto's popularity never recovered. "AMLO is unlikely to be as silent as Pena Nieto in the face of slights and threats," said Shannon O'Neil from the Council on Foreign Relations. "Though AMLO has said he does not plan on confronting [Mr] Trump directly, he — like [Mr] Trump — understands the importance of playing to his domestic base." It's too early to say how exactly these two mercurial figures will find common ground. But the early signs are promising at least, with Mr Trump tweeting his congratulations soon after the landslide result became apparent. For now though, it will be fascinating to see how Mr Lopez Obrador will meet the very high public expectations he has set for his presidency and who emerges as his inner circle. He's promising change "as profound" as Mexico's revolution, but "without violence". What is clear is he's just won in a landslide — with reportedly more than 50 per cent of the vote — and the credibility of his opponents has been damaged. When the crucial details of his political program do emerge, the incoming president has plenty of political capital to push through the resistance.
Poster Comment: This chalupa will encourage his trash to invade to the north. Hopefully a drug cartel will JFK him.
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#2. To: GrandIsland (#0)
He's the result of greedy morons, but if he helps get our wall built faster he will have had a useful purpose in life. A bigger Berniezuela on our southern border will confer NO benefits upon the United States.
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