Mexico Trucker Online

MEXICO CITY — Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador strove to portray himself as a moderate while formally registering his presidential candidacy Sunday, promising to reduce emigration to the United States and maintain a balanced foreign policy.

Portrayed as a radical or populist by detractors, the former mayor of this capital city has worked to move toward the political center after his once-commanding lead in public opinion polls shrank since late fall.

Calling for “a broad representative and inclusive citizen’s movement,” Lopez Obrador promised Mexicans “a new economy” but said it wouldn’t be based on ideology.

“Changing the current economic system is indispensable,” he told a cheering crowd of supporters at the Federal Electoral Commission’s headquarters in southern Mexico City. “Not for ideological reasons, but for the common good.”

Lopez Obrador said that, if elected president July 2, he will work to stem the tide of millions of Mexicans who cross into the United States legally and otherwise in search of higher-paying jobs.

“It’s painful to see thousands of Mexicans risking their lives trying to cross the border,” he said. “The objective is that nobody have to abandon the country and their family in order to find work.”

He called a U.S. proposal for extending border walls “a disgrace” but said that, as president, he would maintain “a moderate foreign policy.”

Lopez Obrador left Mexico City’s mayorship last summer and was unopposed for the nomination of his leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party. Two smaller parties also are supporting his candidacy.

Rivals Felipe Calderon of President Vicente Fox’s conservative National Action Party and Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party — which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000 — both won primary races to gain their nominations.

Calderon got a significant boost in polls after his primary, pulling almost even with Lopez Obrador and Madrazo.

Lopez Obrador had worked to avoid being labeled part of the rising leftist tide in Latin America, citing Chile — a country with left-leaning government but conservative economic polices — as a potential model.

Leftists have won recent presidential elections in Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries in the region, and some have become persistent critics of Washington.

Lopez Obrador’s party has acknowledged that the more-conservative north of the country — where his party traditionally has been weak — will be important in winning the presidential race.