Sunday was a historic day in Mexico, with the overwhelming electoral victory of Claudia Sheinbaum, the primary lady and the primary Jewish individual to grow to be president of the nation.
However as a lot because it was regarding Sheinbaum, a embellished climatologist and head of Mexico Metropolis’s authorities from 2018 to 2023, it was additionally regarding probably the most highly effective man within the nation, who will quickly be heading for the exit.
The electoral victory of the successor of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador marks the start of the tip of a defining determine in Mexico.
López Obrador emerged from an space of the nation from which few nationwide politicians have come and have become president on his third try. He fully reformed Mexican politics and constructed a whole political occasion round his huge persona.
Critics additionally say he gave an excessive amount of energy to the army and pushed for measures that might weaken democratic establishments, such because the nation’s Supreme Courtroom.
Nevertheless, as he nears the tip of his six-year time period, López Obrador stays very fashionable.
After nearly 5 a long time in public life, López Obrador, 70, has stated he’ll retire “fully” following his final day in workplace, on September 30, though some commentators imagine he’ll discover a technique to proceed serving. affect behind the scenes.
He has stated he needs to spend his days on his household’s ranch within the southern state of Chiapas.
For a lot of residents of the neighboring state of Tabasco, a bastion of help for López Obrador, and the small city of Tepetitán, the place he was born, Sunday was bittersweet.
Miguel Angel Solis Burelo, 72, stated he was delighted to see Sheinbaum win as a result of she was “nicely ready” to hold out López Obrador’s agenda. He additionally stated it was “an amazing pleasure” to see a girl assume the presidency.
However Solis, who drove a ship down a river from the ranch the place he works to vote in Tepetitán, admitted he additionally felt “somewhat unhappy” seeing López Obrador close to the tip of his presidency. The Structure limits the time period of Mexican presidents to 6 years.
Kenia Sandoval Salvador, 47, a housewife, stated she watched movies on social media of López Obrador’s race earlier than going to the polls Sunday in Macuspana, a metropolis additionally in Tabasco, the place the president grew up.
“You already really feel the nostalgia,” he stated.
Born in 1953, López Obrador attended Tepetitán’s solely main faculty and helped in his dad and mom’ retailer. He began highschool regarding 40 minutes away, in Macuspana. He completed this and highschool in Villahermosa, the state capital, the place his household moved. He went to college in Mexico Metropolis, the place he later was mayor.
Referendum
Sunday’s election was seen by many as a referendum on López Obrador’s management, and Sheinbaum’s decisive victory was interpreted as a vote of confidence within the president, his insurance policies and the Morena occasion.
Antenor Paz Acosta, 75, who works on a ranch in Tepetitán and stated he had performed baseball with the president throughout his childhood, made it clear that he had the present chief in thoughts, even when he voted for Sheinbaum.
“I’m at all times supporting what Andrés Manuel has executed,” Paz stated. “The place he goes, she goes too.”
Throughout López Obrador’s time period, the economic system grew, tens of millions of Mexicans emerged from poverty, the minimal wage doubled, pensions had been expanded, and employees’ advantages improved.
However his presidency has additionally generated concern. He has been criticized for his “hugs, not bullets” technique in opposition to prison cartels, which has led to extra violence. His critics additionally declare that he has deteriorated the nation’s healthcare system and prioritized fossil fuels.
López Obrador, who is thought by his initials AMLO, will probably be remembered by many for his morning press conferences, throughout which he spent hours nearly every single day for the final 5 years sharing his emotions, celebrating his victories, attacking to his critics and attacking journalists. He might be as intense as he was folksy.
“López Obrador ruled from the morning,” stated Blanca Gómez, a Mexican journalist who wrote an unauthorized biography of López Obrador in 2005. “He realized that individuals take note of him when he speaks. Individuals imagine him. There are people who find themselves going to overlook the mornings. And there are lots of people who’re going to be pleased to not hear it anymore.”
Though Lázaro Vidal Martínez, 62, a farmer from Tepetitán, was often working within the mornings, he stated he heard it infrequently. “I preferred that he confirmed his face every single day as a result of different presidents by no means did that,” he stated.
Solis, the ranch employee who arrived by boat to vote, stated that what he preferred most regarding López Obrador’s presidency had been his social welfare applications, as a result of earlier than “they did not assist us in any respect they usually did not take us into consideration in any respect.” .
He stated his pension, for these over 65, has quintupled lately to regarding $170 every month.
Nonetheless, López Obrador ought to have been harder on prison teams, Solis added, though he was typically happy with the path of the nation.
“We would like the motion to proceed,” he stated, earlier than getting on his boat to return dwelling.
Throughout marketing campaign visits to Tabasco, Sheinbaum promised to protect López Obrador’s legacy, prompting cheers from the group.
In Tepetitán, a city of 1,500 inhabitants, what was his grandparents’ home opened its doorways final yr because the Casa de Obrador Neighborhood Museum, together with his bust outdoors. In Macuspana, a bigger metropolis with 31,000 inhabitants, the one reminiscence is a mural outdoors the general public library.
Not far-off, in a restaurant within the metropolis’s principal sq., sat Márvel Hernández Gutú, 79, a local of Tepetitán, a lawyer and former state official, who has identified López Obrador since they served collectively in a earlier political occasion. He needs López Obrador had executed extra for Mexico’s improvement by way of enterprise and infrastructure, particularly in Tabasco, one of many nation’s poorest states.
“As a legacy,” Hernández stated, “we will not say that he left us nice issues as a result of he actually had the chance to do it and he did not do it.”
No matter their opinions, many stated they didn’t imagine López Obrador would immediately disappear following a long time of public life and together with his protégée on the helm.
“He cares lots regarding his legacy,” stated Gómez, the journalist.
In a approach, it’s going to proceed in Tepetitán.
Throughout López Obrador’s profitable presidential marketing campaign six years in the past, Vidal, who stated his dad and mom knew López Obrador’s dad and mom, allowed an area artist to color a mural on the facet of his home, situated on the entrance to city. Anybody getting into or leaving the neighborhood would see it.
It has been repainted 3 times, and new decorations have been added every time. Surrounding López Obrador’s face are Tabasco wildlife: howler monkeys, parrots and the pejelagarto, an area delicacy and López Obrador’s nickname in Spanish.
The mural’s artist died final yr, Vidal stated, and he hopes one other artist may also help protect the reminiscence of the town’s most well-known son.
“That wall goes to remain,” he stated.
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