MEXICO CITY — Do a Google search on “AMLO,” the initials by which the populist front-runner for the presidency is known, and you’ll get a prompt: “Did you mean: malo?” Spanish for “bad.”
Whether Andrés Manuel López Obrador — whose initials are as widely recognized here as JFK and LBJ in the U.S. — would be good or bad for Mexico is anyone’s guess.
López Obrador resigned as mayor as of today to run for president in 2006 — a move sure to kick this country’s continued experiment with democracy into high gear.
A member of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, he has militant supporters, ardent detractors and no potential opponent on the horizon who does anywhere near as well in opinion polls.
He is preparing for a nationwide tour set to begin in early August.
“I’d bet the rent money he will be the next president,” said George Grayson, who is writing a book on López Obrador and is a Mexico expert at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
Critics of AMLO say he spends too much time spinning “I am the victim” conspiracy theories to cover his faults, poses as a populist for political advantage and oversaw a city hall tainted with corruption.
Arriving for his last full day of work Thursday just before dawn, López Obrador was serenaded by mariachis and swarmed by at least 2,000 frenzied supporters.
Many of them were hard-core, working-class folks who clutched carnations and were grateful to López Obrador for social programs.
“Bring it all to the presidency,” one sign read.
The showing was typical. The mayor draws rock star-like receptions in this city.
“I will back him forever,” Wendy, 21, said as she and her infant son avoided drizzle.
She declined to give her last name but said López Obrador helped her family with housing and monthly disability pay for her brother.
If López Obrador is elected president, it would put a twist on the political changes that started when Vicente Fox, of the conservative National Action Party, rallied a broad coalition in 2000 to defeat the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which ruled like a dictatorship for more than 70 years.
Fox is finishing a six-year term and can’t be re-elected.
There also are questions about how AMLO might get along with President Bush. His leftist rhetoric worries U.S. policy-makers and business leaders who see it as part of an anti-American trend in Latin American governments. And unlike most predecessors, López Obrador doesn’t speak English.
A gray-haired widower, López Obrador, 51, has a reputation as a man of the people — a guy who rides around in a tiny economy car, awakens daily at 4 a.m. and isn’t afraid to take on Fox or the U.S. government.
In addition to pensions for the elderly and disabled, he built the second deck of a major freeway here, launched a quirky city bus system and overhauled a large city park.
He said Thursday his opponents have not been able to topple him, though they’ve tried everything — notably, releasing secretly recorded videotapes of his staffers accepting money and bringing criminal charges against him stemming from a roadway disagreement. Nothing stuck.
Now he says, they’re hoping that when he’s no longer mayor, he’ll lose momentum and the ability to hold the public’s attention.
“They say when I leave government, it will be different. That is their bet,” López Obrador said. “But I think the opposite. Maybe we won’t be on television because we don’t have money, but we will have a presence with the people as I will travel the country.”
By those who love him and those who don’t, López Obrador is called “Pejelagarto,” Spanish for the long-nose gar, a huge predator fish with long, sharp teeth found in coastal swamps, including in his home state, Tabasco.
AMLO must enjoy the moniker. He has two of the fish in a tank in his office.
Clara Jusidman, a professor and political activist who has known López Obrador more than 20 years, said he has proven himself a very able politician.
“He has avoided all the traps they put in his way,” Jusidman said. “Andrés lives for politics; politics comes first in his life. Everything else is secondary.”
López Obrador, a former governor of Tabasco state who was elected mayor of Mexico’s ancient capital and central metropolis in 2000, has said he would like to continue some of the social programs he began here.
He has vowed to strengthen government protections for the electrical and petroleum industries, see the presidential salary slashed and move the presidential residence and offices back to the National Palace downtown, near City Hall.
His critics charge he does not have what it takes to lead a nation.
The biggest scandal came last year, when ranking city officials were caught on video accepting large sums of cash.
His then-finance chief was recorded in Las Vegas living the life of a high roller.
Then came the big battle, when federal authorities pursued removing him from office for allegedly breaking the law in his handling of a land dispute.
If López Obrador, who defected years ago from the PRI and is accused of using its populist tactics, had faced criminal charges, he would be forbidden to run for office.
But AMLO punched back, saying he’d run for president from jail and that the criminal probe was a plot by his opponents.
Fox stepped in, fired his attorney general and said no action would keep López Obrador off the ballot.
Some said the move was Fox’s attempt to protect a legacy of democratic reform. Others said it was a realistic acknowledgement that AMLO was likely the next president.
His opponents warn he never got serious enough about the crime that has ravaged this city, made a hot issue by a kidnapping industry and exemplified by the recent disappearance of a high-profile professional soccer coach.
“Listen, Andres López,” exclaimed a half-page ad, published this week in El Universal newspaper by the Citizen’s Committee for Public Safety and Criminal Justice.
“You didn’t finish the work you were hired to do by the voters — guarantee safety before anything else.”
Back at his final news conference at City Hall, as supporters chanted in the streets, AMLO left little doubt he is meticulous about politics, maybe even obsessed.
He discussed the relationship he’d built with journalists and, with a smile, noted he held 1,377 news conferences as mayor and had been asked 39,117 questions.
“But how many of my questions have you answered?” a reporter shot back.
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