MEXICO CITY — Souvenirs bearing the picture of 70-year-old Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promote like T-shirts at a Taylor Swift live performance.
Simply outdoors of Mexico’s presidential palace, throngs of largely Mexicans crowd round a sales space promoting plush speaking dolls, earrings, plastic sandals, stickers, hats, mugs, lighters and even coloring books plastered with the face of the extremely common chief.
The populist López Obrador, finest identified by his nickname AMLO, has lengthy had a feverish following, however he’s turn out to be a larger-than-life determine in Mexican politics after main the nation for almost six years.
Now, regardless of not being eligible to run for reelection within the upcoming June 2 presidential vote, the nationalist looms bigger than any of the candidates competing for the helm of Mexico’s authorities.
“López Obrador goes to be current with out even being on the poll,” mentioned Carlos Pérez Ricart, a political analyst at Mexico’s Heart for Financial Analysis and Instructing. “For higher and for worse, he has managed to make all nationwide politics revolve round him.”
Armando Monter, a follower of López Obrador for 17 years, opened his memorabilia sales space three months in the past in downtown Mexico Metropolis, promoting only a few dolls and keychains.
“It was actually small, however then increasingly folks have been ,” mentioned Monter. “Now, we promote just about all the things as a result of the picture of the president is so cherished.”
Whereas presidential front-runner and López Obrador ally Claudia Sheinbaum makes an attempt to reflect the president, her closest competitor, Xóchitl Gálvez, has sought to villainize him as she lags within the polls.
López Obrador has been a part of Mexico’s nationwide politics for many years, gaining a highlight in 2006 when he narrowly misplaced the presidential election, which he insists was stolen. In 2018, he swept to victory, ousting the Institutional Revolutionary Social gathering (PRI) from the presidency.
Regardless of dealing with a variety of controversies and excessive ranges of violence within the nation underneath his management, López Obrador is adored by many like 56-year-old Carmen Andrade, an off-the-cuff vendor within the close by state of Morelos.
Andrade traveled three hours by bus on Thursday to Mexico Metropolis, simply to purchase a small, $8 cartoon López Obrador doll for her residence. She mentioned the slog into the capital was value it as a result of he is leaving workplace, and she or he needed one thing to recollect him by.
López Obrador has catered to working class voters in a manner no different latest Mexican chief has, his recognition helped alongside by the nation’s sturdy economic system.
He speaks candidly and he has pushed social packages, bumped up the minimal wage and proposed sweeping pension reforms. Within the first 4 years of his presidency, Mexico’s authorities mentioned 5 million folks have been pulled out of poverty.
“He’s my grandpa! … All of us love him,” Andrade mentioned, cradling the doll on her chest. “By doing nothing greater than specializing in the poor and the aged, he’s pushed apart all different presidents. They solely thought of themselves.”
López Obrador is closing his presidency with hovering approval rankings, with almost seven in 10 Mexicans approving of his administration. That’s a pointy distinction from earlier governments, together with his predecessor ending his time period with barely 20% approval after waves of corruption scandals.
“He’s been capable of join with the working class that felt tossed to the aspect,” Pérez Ricart mentioned. “He speaks like them, he seems to be like them, and that’s received him plenty of legitimacy.”
Andrade, who deliberate to journey one other three hours residence that night, mentioned she would have purchased one other doll for every room of her home, if solely she had the cash.
Within the upcoming elections, Andrade plans to vote for front-runner Sheinbaum, who she mentioned “carries the teachings” of López Obrador because the candidate of the president’s political celebration, Morena.
Nestled amongst López Obrador merchandise in Monter’s tent was a rising variety of dolls, magnets and keychains emblazoned with Sheinbaum’s face.
Monter mentioned he had by no means seen merchandise of any Mexican president till López Obrador. Over the previous month, he mentioned, increasingly prospects have come asking for souvenirs of Sheinbaum, who’s on the trail to turn out to be Mexico’s first lady president.
Sheinbaum is basically seen as a continuation of López Obrador, main in latest polls by a wholesome margin. She has carefully tethered herself to her mentor, showing subsequent to him in marketing campaign billboards and mirroring his tone and political platforms.
“A lot has modified in these six years,” Sheinbaum mentioned in her official marketing campaign launch, ticking off dozens of López Obrador’s accomplishments. “I ask you, do you are feeling the transformation within the nation? … We’re going to proceed with that transformation.”
López Obrador, too, has thrown his help behind Sheinbaum, to the purpose the place electoral authorities requested the politician to chorus from commenting on the election. What stays to be seen is that if he’ll proceed to wield energy within the incoming authorities if Sheinbaum wins. He has mentioned he’ll retire from politics.
Nonetheless, many citizens have grown disgruntled with some modifications underneath the populist’s management. Cartel violence throughout the nation has reached new extremes, López Obrador has attacked critics and journalists and carried out electoral reforms one official mentioned might “wind up poisoning democracy itself.”
Final month, tens of hundreds of Mexicans took to the streets to rail towards the president in what they dubbed a “march for democracy.” Opposition events latched onto the chief’s perceived failures, with presidential candidate Gálvez centering a lot of her presidential marketing campaign round criticizing López Obrador.
“The opposition to López Obrador lives off of López Obrador,” mentioned Pérez Ricart, the CIDE analyst. “I do not know what they are going to do when López Obrador is not in energy.”
Many supporters of the president planning to vote for Sheinbaum mentioned the bloodshed and his assaults on journalists have made a few of their enthusiasm for his or her chief wane.
Nonetheless, Andrade, who grinned as she held her cartoon López Obrador doll on Friday, was fast to defend the politician. “He does what he can, and he is performed the most effective he can. There are at all times going to be individuals who choose him,” she mentioned.
As Andrade walked away from the sales space teeming with prospects buying and selling pesos for figures of the president, she added: “I am leaving completely happy.”
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Comply with AP’s protection of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america