Mexico Trucker Online

MEXICO CITY — Standing before stone walls of the centuries-old National Palace, populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador capped his phenomenal run for president by asking a pumped-up crowd of 200,000 people to help him put the poor first.López Obrador rallied the masses in the capital city’s central plaza — the nation’s most historic site — as he sought to put the presidency, for the first time, in the hands of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.

“We are going to transform the country, we are going to make history,” he said, facing a crush of yellow and black shirts, flags, hats and bandanas to show the party colors.

He spoke of the fight for independence from Spain and the 1910 revolution, but said this change would come with peace and respect.

“I do not hate; I am a happy man,” he said. “All I want is for us to live in a better society.”

The crowd, heavy on housewives, laborers and retirees, had high expectations life will never be the same.

Wednesday marked the last day candidates campaign for the Sunday election, which has divided this country.

López Obrador is tied in polls with conservative Felipe Calderón, of outgoing President Vicente Fox’s National Action Party.

Calderón, who was Fox’s energy minister, finished his campaign Wednesday with a major rally in Guadalajara.

Calderón’s camp has stoked fears that López Obrador is dangerous and compared him to Venezuela’s anti-Washington Hugo Chávez.

Political analysts and shoe shiners alike have said while López Obrador lives for politics, he believes he is on a mission to deliver this nation — run by the privileged — from inequality, injustice and corruption that have plagued it since the Spanish Inquisition.

“The doubts are reasonable,” political scientist Edna Jaime said of concerns about López Obrador. “His plans raise a lot of questions about what could realistically be accomplished.”

While there are huge expectations a President López Obrador would bring change, it is lost on no one that change won’t come easy, and politicians promise a lot.

“He is going to help the humble, the workers, the people in need — senior citizens,” said Amado Castañeda, 74, a retiree who had two party flags slung over his left shoulder.

“We have faith and hope that he can come through,” Castañeda said. “If he delivers, that is great. If not, at least I have the flags to remember he betrayed us.”

López Obrador drew cheers by saying he would modernize government-owned power and petroleum industries without allowing foreign investment.

He also vowed to protect bean and corn farmers by renegotiating portions of a free-trade pact with the United States and Canada.

Mesmerized by promises, there was a stream of people with requests of López Obrador.

Painter Max Sánchez wants jobs.

Housewife Beatriz Alcántara wants coupons for her children’s milk.

Nine-year-old Roberto Cruz wants a president who is honest.

Inside the National Palace, where López Obrador wants to return government offices and the official residence, walls are covered by murals of some of the darkest, as well as most glorious, moments in Mexican history.

Tour guide Hugo García, 72, makes ends meet by explaining the controversial class-conscious murals, with images of conquistadors, slaves, rebels and presidents.

As Garcia put it: “What we need is not a revolution, but evolution.”