Mexico president to show muscle at big political rally, On Sunday, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s supporters are anticipated to swarm the streets of Mexico City in a significant political display of the left-wing populist. The protest occurs as 2024 presidential candidates, including Lopez Obrador’s allies, begin to campaign.
Mexico president to show muscle at big political rally
Two weeks after tens of thousands joined an opposition protest against his proposed electoral reform, Lopez Obrador plans to lead a pro-government march through the heart of the capital. The aim is to celebrate the government’s “transformation of Mexico” four years into his six-year term, Lopez Obrador told reporters. “I invite all the people, all those who can attend,” including government ministers and lawmakers, he said.
It will be the first such march led by a Mexican president in at least four decades, and possibly the biggest pro-government rally since Lopez Obrador took office in 2018, according to experts. Lopez Obrador wants to “show muscle,” Fernando Dworak, a political analyst at the Mexican Autonomous Institute of Technology, said. “It was a serious mistake by the opposition to believe that the president can be beaten on the streets,” he told AFP, referring to the November 13 anti-government protest.
– ‘Oiled machinery’ –
Lopez Obrador enjoys an approval rating of nearly 60 percent, and few doubt his ability to draw a huge crowd on Sunday, when he plans to give a speech outlining his achievements in office. Mexican presidents are barred from serving more than one term, and Lopez Obrador has ruled out trying to change the constitution to stay in office.
Even so, he is keen to see his Morena party hold onto power after he stands aside. Two of Lopez Obrador’s close allies and potential successors, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, are expected to march alongside him. Lopez Obrador knows “that in order for him to win elections he needs oiled machinery that works all the time,” said Gustavo Lopez, a political scientist at Tecnologico de Monterrey, a Mexican university.
Opposition parties accuse Lopez Obrador of being an “authoritarian” populist who is “militarizing” the country by giving a greater role to the armed forces in both security and infrastructure projects. His efforts to revamp the independent National Electoral Institute (INE) have proven particularly controversial. Lopez Obrador alleges that the INE endorsed fraud when he ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2006 and 2012, before winning in 2018.
He wants to replace the organization with a new one that has a lesser budget and members chosen by citizens rather than lawmakers. The proposal is criticized as being an assault on one of Mexico’s most significant democratic institutions. A minimum of two-thirds of Congress’ members would need to support the reform, and Lopez Obrador’s political rivals have vowed to oppose it.
Know more: