In journalism, it is always risky to make predictions, especially about election results. On 2 June, Mexico will go to the polls for a presidential election, as well as for a large number of state legislatures, governors, and other authorities throughout the country. Polls so far suggest that the candidate Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo of MORENA, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will be elected with a solid lead over her two rivals. Xóchitl Gálvez, who is backed by the former PRI, the right-wing PAN and the PRD, a party that despite its current status still claims to be left-wing. She will also be ahead of Jorge Álvarez of the Movimiento Ciudadano, who is predicted to get only 5 percent of the vote.
Claudia Sheinbaum’s victory will also make her the first Mexican woman to win the presidency of the Republic, which is particularly significant in a country like Mexico with a population of more than 180 million. It is also marked by federalism and the action of the powerful de facto groups that are fighting to prevent a repeat of López Obrador’s government. A leader who, after six years in office, leaves behind an immense legacy of achievements: a real improvement in the minimum wage (from 88 to 172 pesos), one and a half million new jobs, and an impressive labor reform that put an end to the trade union mafias that imposed themselves on the workers.
In terms of public works, López Obrador’s achievements are also very important, such as the 1554-kilometre Maya Train, one of the most spectacular achievements of Mexican engineering. The advances made during his six-year term are many, but what we want to highlight here is the ethical solvency of a ruler who has put an end to the privileges of his predecessors, applied strict sobriety in the exercise of power, always respected democratic institutions and maintained a policy of dignity and good neighborliness with the United States, despite the serious challenges of migration, the fight against drug trafficking and other tense binational issues. This did not prevent him from strengthening his good relations with the countries of the region and even expressing his friendship and solidarity with the punished regimes of Venezuela and Cuba.
As a journalist, I had the fortunate opportunity to meet and greet López Obrador at a modest neighborhood meeting in Nuevo Vallarta, just as he was beginning to emerge as a leader of the left. Listening to the solid political ideology he laid out in front of a handful of supporters, I was convinced that sooner or later he would come to power, after the attempts of Cauthémoc Cárdenas, who was twice denied his obvious electoral victory during the rotten PRI government. In other words, the people, the media, and millions of citizens hailed him as the moral leader of Mexican politics and one of the continent’s heroes.
Since then, I have closely followed AMLO’s career, his political work and his qualities as an uncorrupt citizen with an exemplary family life and an immense capacity for work. As a result, he has gained widespread support from the most modest sectors of the population, who recognize his enormous efforts to ensure the security of citizens and the fulfillment of their fundamental rights, which has led to a significant reduction in the number of poor people in Mexico today.
So much so that in the last two years of his administration it is claimed that the number of poor people has fallen by 9 million, although it is accepted that 30 percent of Mexicans still live in poverty.
Despite the opposition’s efforts to undermine his credibility, he could never be accused of corruption, even though he sponsored the end of immunity for heads of government so that he could be tried as an ordinary citizen.
No one thought that López Obrador would continue his daily morning dialogue with the press and face the country for so many years. Similarly, he has only been absent two or three times to travel abroad (once to Chile), while most Latin American leaders travel around the world with every justification and at great expense.
There is no doubt that Claudia Sheinbaum’s imminent triumph will be largely explained by the good role played by her mentor, who is still in government. But one of his great achievements was undoubtedly to support the nomination of a candidate who has enormous merits of her own. At the age of 61, she is known to have had a brilliant career as a teacher, biochemist, and doctor of solar technology. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of her aims is to bring Mexico into line with clean and renewable energies. With the enormous fiscal resources that the country now has, under López Obrador, it has been able to significantly reduce tax evasion and avoidance, especially by big business. It will therefore be possible to strengthen the ‘entrepreneurial state’ to reduce imports, strengthen national industry, and distribute income.
There is no doubt that another legacy of the outgoing president is the ideological contribution his government has made in favor of the role of the state and independence from the outside world. This could serve as an example to other rulers who declare themselves left-wing and win elections in our region, only to be enchanted by neo-liberal ideas and the handing over of our natural resources to private and transnational companies. To weaken the state, which, as we know, has historically been much more involved in the development of our countries in Mexico, Chile, and other countries. In this sense, it is enough to think of the nationalization of oil and copper, among so many good examples. It is now outrageous that our country is renouncing the sovereign exploitation of our enormous lithium reserves.
For the same reason, June 2nd is also predicted to be a triumph of the dormant, but still valid, values of the leftover those of the right, represented by the two candidates who will be largely defeated, despite the million-dollar advertising budgets they have received from the Mexican oligarchy and eager foreign investors. This shows that what mattered was the consistency and suitability of López Obrador’s regime, as well as the progressive ideas of his sure successor.
