MEXICO’S Presidential election is coming up, and the candidate favored to win the race is a man named Andres Manuel Obrador.
The best way to describe Obrador is that he is Mexico’s anti-Duterte, and this is because Obrador reportedly said he is willing to consider granting amnesty to drug cartel kingpins, a proposal that would most likely shock our own President.
Obrador made headlines recently after he made comment about how Mexicans should flood into the US, which is obviously an attempt at getting back at Trump after the US president and his administration strengthened their anti-immigration, nationalist policies.
Although a large proportion of immigrants to the United States are actually coming from the poorer southern parts of the country, mainly the Yucatan area, nationalist rhetoric coming from the US is aimed mostly at Mexico, and this has helped to propped up Obrador’s popularity in the current Mexican election. They want a leader who can stand up to the Gringo President.
However, Obrador’s political career precedes Trump’s election. Obrador’s first attempt at the presidency was back in 2006, and though he lost, many of his supporters proclaimed he was the legitimate president. He ran again in 2012 but again, he lost.
In each of his candidacies, Obrador always ran as both a nationalist and a socialist. He ran on raising Mexico’s minimum wage and seems to be in favor of nationalizing key industries, like oil production.
Back in 2012, he also ran on ending monopolies and expanding job creation. He also has that same charismatic tough-guy charisma that populist leaders seem to have.
So despite his apparent conflict with Trump, he shares many characteristics with him and other populist leaders. And like Duterte, he wants to shake things up a bit while helping the working and middle class as much as possible.
However, Mexico is a unique country with problems and issues that would seem bizarre to us in the Philippines. Aside from the immigration issue, which involves the United States, Mexico is also a major hot spot in the drug war, a gigantic mess that has turned many parts of Latin America into the personal fiefdoms of various regional drug lords. This partly explains why Obrador wants to pardon several major drug lords in his country. He wants to end the drug war, and hopefully deescalate it.
The election is still underway, but things are heating up in Mexico. If Obrador is elected and if he persists in his agenda, particularly with regards to US and immigration policy then expect a lot of fireworks between the US and Mexico in the years to come./PN
