Mexico on Saturday, swore in a new leftist leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, before a huge emotional crowd that included world leaders and Congress members.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Amlo took the oath of office Saturday as Mexico’s first leftist president in over 70 years, marking a turning point in one of the world’s most radical experiments in opening markets and privatization.
Lopez Obrador Amlo in his first speech, pledged “a peaceful and orderly transition, but one that is deep and radical … because we will end the corruption and impunity that prevent Mexico’s rebirth.” He said.
Lopez Obrador Amlo in his speech, touched on areas the People of Mexico have been wanting previous leaders to touch, and even when they did, they never followed through with their promises. Amlo said, he wants to build more state-owned oil refineries and encourages Mexicans to “not to buy abroad, but to produce in Mexico what we consume.” He also promised not to steal or loot, and lie to the people of Mexico. He said:
“I promise, and I’m a man of my word, that the investments of foreign and international investors will be safe, and we will even create conditions that will allow them to get good returns,” he said, “because in Mexico there will be honesty, rule of law, clear rules, economic growth and confidence.”
“We are going to govern for everyone, but we are going to give preference to the most impoverished and vulnerable,” “For the good of all, the poor come first.’” Amlo said
“Mexico’s crisis originated not only with the failure of the neoliberal policies applied over the last 36 years,” he said in his inaugural speech, “but also in the prevalence of the filthiest corruption.”
On President Trump:
“I have spoken on two occasions with Trump [since the presidential election] and he has sent a delegation [to Mexico] and there are ongoing negotiations, and I must recognise that he has given us respectful treatment. You will see how we will maintain a good relationship with the US government,”
Lopez Obrador won a crushing victory in the July 1 elections after two previous, unsuccessful runs for the presidency and he is the country’s first president since the Mexican Revolution to rise to prominence as a protest leader.
Amlo will also not be staying at the Presidential Palace, as he will be ruling from his home, as arrangement are being finalized for him to move to the old Presidential building.
Amlo is 65-year old, who began his political career in 1976 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Tabasco and eventually became the party’s state leader.
In 1989, he joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and was the party’s 1994 candidate for Governor of Tabasco. He was the national leader of the PRD between 1996 and 1999. In 2000, he was elected Head of Government of Mexico City.
He resigned as Head of Government of Mexico City in July 2005 to enter the 2006 presidential election, representing the Coalition for the Good of All, which was led by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and included the Citizens’ Movement party and the Labor Party.
López Obrador was a candidate for the second time in the 2012 presidential election representing a coalition of the PRD, Labor Party, and Citizens’ Movement. He finished second with 31.59% of the vote. He left the PRD in 2012 and in 2014 founded the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), which he led until 2017.
López Obrador was a candidate for the third time in the 2018 presidential election, representing Juntos Haremos Historia, a coalition of the left-wing Labor Party, right-wing Social Encounter Party, and MORENA. This time, he won in a landslide victory, taking 53 percent of the vote.