’Anti-Yankee’ Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Sits at Top of Presidential Polls Paul Bedard - Washington Examiner
go to original May 15, 2017

Meet AMLO, the Mexican Bernie Sanders (Lua Times)

The newest populist poised to make it big on the world stage isn't in Europe but instead on the United States' southern border. And he's gunning for President Trump.

Former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, often just called AMLO, is leading in the presidential polls for next year's elections, and he could end up being Trump's biggest challenge.

He is "stridently nationalistic," said Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington. "Quite anti-Yankee."



During a March tour through U.S. cities, Lopez Obrador, the founder of Mexico's new leftist Morena Party (Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional - National Regeneration Party), made that clear when he said, "Trump is blaming migrants for problems in the U.S., and we are not going to permit this." At Washington's National Press Club, he added, "In the end it's neo-fascism."

He also has blasted Trump's planned border wall and petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to protect illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States.

Wood, in a phone call from Mexico City, said Lopez Obrador is the anti-Trump. He has been in politics for decades and has run two losing presidential campaigns. But he is up by 10 points in the polls for the July 2018 election and is building a strong base among the poor and anti-establishment forces.

Trump's anti-illegal immigrant, pro-wall position is helping Lopez Obrador's campaign and boosting his popularity at a time when current and unpopular President Enrique Peña Nieto is trying to work with Washington.

"He has a more strident, anti-Trump approach, and he would not nearly be so moderate with Trump," Wood said.

Read the rest at Washington Examiner

Related: How the Border Wall Cuts Across Mexico's Political Landscape (Fronteras Desk)

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