Andrés Manuel López Obrador

February 17, 2017 By Fausta

Mexico: AMLO campaigns in LA, criticizing Pres. Trump UPDATED

The Dems cry foul and accuse Russia of interfering in American elections, they turn a blind eye to Mexican extreme-left presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a.k.a AMLO:

Over the last few days, Sr. Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador, known south of the border as AMLO, was campaigning in Los Angeles and criticizing President Trump

(click on image for the text in Spanish)

Mexico’s Lopez Obrador blasts Trump’s immigration policies at LA rally

Mexico’s home-grown populist and presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rallied supporters in Los Angeles on Sunday, criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and plans for a wall along the border.

Looking ahead to the presidential election next year, Lopez Obrador sought to tap widespread discontent with Mexico’s ruling party and resentment toward the new U.S. president, while placing faith in Americans to resist Trump’s policies.

“I think the wall and the demagoguery of patriotism are no match for the dignity and humanity of the American people,” Lopez Obrador told the rally in Los Angeles.

Here are Mexico’s immigration guidelines. Additionally,

In Mexico, each voter is provided with a government-supplied voter ID card, which includes the voter’s photograph, fingerprints, and a holographic image.

I suggest that the U.S. hold Mexican nationals to the same standards.

UPDATE:
In his speech, AMLO mentions union leader César Chávez,

recordamos a César Chávez, un luchador social excepcional, quien nos enseñó que la libertad no se implora, se conquista.
[my translation:] we remember César Chávez, an exceptional social warrior, who taught us that feedom is not begged, it is conquered.

AMLO’s speechwriters would do well to read up on U.S. born Chávez, who was fiercely opposed to illegal immigration, as it depressed farm union workers’ wages.

December 3, 2013 By Fausta

Mexico: AMLO has a heart attack, and other news

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, far-left former presidential candidate who was endorsed by Hugo Chavez has been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack,

The 60-year-old Mr. López Obrador on Sunday addressed a large gathering in the city’s main square in opposition to plans to open the oil sector to private investment, and has planned a number of protest actions as the congress takes up the proposal this week.” target=”_blank”>The 60-year-old Mr. López Obrador on Sunday addressed a large gathering in the city’s main square in opposition to plans to open the oil sector to private investment, and has planned a number of protest actions as the congress takes up the proposal this week.

In other Mexico news,
U.S. Indicts Ex-Mexico Governor [Tomas Yarrington]
Former Mexican governor and one-time presidential hopeful is accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from drug cartels for protecting drug shipments

In the May indictment, opened on Monday in Brownsville, Texas, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson charged the former governor, Tomas Yarrington, with accepting millions of dollars to allow the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas drug gang to ship tons of cocaine through the state of Tamaulipas while he was governor between 1999 and 2005.
…
The indictment marks the second time in weeks that a Mexican governor has been indicted in the U.S., and is an embarrassment for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto. Many Mexicans suspect the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, for years had ties to organized crime cartels. The PRI has denied that.

Migrants clash with U.S. Border Patrol agents at Mexican border

More than 100 people attempting to illegally cross into the United States from Mexico over the weekend threw rocks and bottles at U.S. Border Patrol agents trying to stop them, the agency said Monday.

And, in a lighter mode, let’s not forget this week’s Terapia intensiva, in Spanish,

November 12, 2009 By Fausta

Mexico: Amlo’s pretend government

What to do when you lose but can’t let go? Well, if you are Andrés Manuel López Obrador, best known as Amlo, you claim to be the actual government.

No wonder so many Americans, Europeans and Asians think of Latin America as the place where magical realism best describes reality.

Here’s the front-page Wall Street Journal article:

Mexico Has a President Who Runs Things and One Who Doesn’t
Shadow Government of Mr. López Obrador Takes Pretense to New Heights

It all began in 2006 when the former Mexico City mayor almost became Mexico’s real president, losing the election by a hair. He cried fraud, launched street protests, and excoriated the winner, President Felipe Calderón, as a “presidential usurper.” Then, as a culminating gesture of defiance, he held a mock inauguration in the country’s main square, donning a replica of Mexico’s red, white and green presidential sash and took a pretend oath of office.

With this, many assumed they had seen the last of Mr. López Obrador — at least until the next election in 2012.

But while the leftist has faded from international headlines, he never really went away in Mexico. He went on to found a parallel executive branch of government that proposes new laws, issues statements, holds elections, officiates during Mexican Independence Day, and even circulates its own form of identification card for Mexicans (some 2.8 million Mexicans carry them, according to a Legitimate Government spokesman).

Nowadays, Mr. López Obrador tours the country giving presidential speeches where he is introduced as the real McCoy. After three years of this, he will soon have visited all of Mexico’s 2,438 municipalities. That would make him, he says, the first politician — indeed, maybe even the first man — ever to have done that.

Amlo’s fantasy “Legitimate Government” has volunteer functionaries, real journalists assigned to cover him (who at least get paid for their jobs), and lots of rallies.

You would think that all this nonsense would show results. Think again:

Support for the leftist hovers at around 16% of the population — about half what he got in the 2006 election — according to a June poll in the Mexican daily La Reforma.

Perhaps all this effort makes Mexicans more aware that Amlo may be Mexico’s Hugo Chavez, considering Chavez’s support during the electoral campaign, which he lost.

Amlo, however, carries on, pretending.