Lopez Obrador, Andres Manuel

▪ 2006

      During 2005 Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the popular head of Mexico's Federal District government, survived a politically motivated impeachment process and consolidated his position as the leading contender in the country's 2006 presidential contest.

      López Obrador was born into a provincial middle-class family in Villa de Tepetitán, Tabasco, on Nov. 13, 1953. From 1972 to 1976 he studied political science and public administration at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

      López Obrador began his political career in Mexico's long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), eventually becoming Tabasco state party president in 1983. He left the party, however, and backed the dissident presidential candidacy of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in 1988. López Obrador's own 1988 opposition candidacy for Tabasco's governorship ended in defeat, but he later became state president of the party founded on the basis of Cárdenas's electoral coalition, the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

      During the 1990s López Obrador earned a national reputation for organizing grassroots protests against environmental damage in Tabasco caused by the state-owned Mexican Petroleum Company (PEMEX) and electoral fraud committed by the “official” PRI (most notably involving the 1994 Tabasco gubernatorial race, which he lost to 2005–06 PRI presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo Pintado). From 1996 to 1999 López Obrador served as national president of the PRD, a position he used both to promote grassroots party organization and to recruit prominent PRI members as PRD mayoral and gubernatorial candidates. In 2000 he was elected head of the Federal District government, a post he held through July 2005, when he resigned to seek the PRD's presidential nomination.

      López Obrador compiled a generally successful record as head of Mexico City's government. Under the slogan “For the good of all, the poor first,” he promoted a series of innovative social and cultural programs (including old-age pensions, financial support for single mothers and the unemployed, substantial investments in urban redevelopment and transportation infrastructure, and educational outreach programs) that won him widespread popularity. Nevertheless, his record was marred by sensational corruption scandals involving several close subordinates, and public security remained a major challenge.

      In May 2004 the federal attorney general initiated impeachment proceedings against López Obrador, charging him with having defied a court order by authorizing the construction of a hospital access road across private property. Mexican Pres. Vicente Fox argued that his administration sought only to uphold the rule of law, but many national and international observers believed that the underlying motive was to disqualify López Obrador as a presidential candidate. After nearly one million protesters marched through downtown Mexico City in April 2005, Fox finally ended the prolonged confrontation by dropping the impeachment charge.

Kevin J. Middlebrook

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▪ Mexican politician

born Nov. 13, 1953, Villa de Tepetitán, Tabasco, Mex.

 

 populist Mexican politician who served as head of the Federal District government (2000–05) and ran, unsuccessfully, for president of Mexico in 2006.

      López Obrador was born into a provincial middle-class family. From 1972 to 1976 he studied political science and public administration at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He began his political career in Mexico's long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), eventually becoming Tabasco state party president in 1983. He left the party, however, and backed the dissident presidential candidacy of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas in 1988. López Obrador's own 1988 opposition candidacy for Tabasco's governorship ended in defeat, but he later became state president of the party founded on the basis of Cárdenas's electoral coalition, the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

      During the 1990s López Obrador earned a national reputation for organizing grassroots protests against environmental damage in Tabasco caused by the state-owned Mexican Petroleum Company (PEMEX) and electoral fraud committed by the “official” PRI (most notably involving the 1994 Tabasco gubernatorial race, which he lost to 2005–06 PRI presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo Pintado). From 1996 to 1999 López Obrador served as national president of the PRD, a position he used both to promote grassroots party organization and to recruit prominent PRI members as PRD mayoral and gubernatorial candidates. In 2000 he was elected head of the Federal District government, a post he held through July 2005, when he resigned to seek the PRD's presidential nomination.

      López Obrador compiled a generally successful record as head of Mexico City's government. Under the slogan “For the good of all, the poor first,” he promoted a series of innovative social and cultural programs—including old-age pensions, financial support for single mothers and the unemployed, substantial investments in urban redevelopment and transportation infrastructure, and educational outreach programs—that won him widespread popularity. Nevertheless, his record was marred by sensational corruption scandals involving several close subordinates, and public security remained a major challenge.

      In May 2004 the federal attorney general initiated impeachment proceedings against López Obrador, charging him with having defied a court order by authorizing the construction of a hospital access road across private property. Mexican Pres. Vicente Fox (Fox, Vicente) argued that his administration sought only to uphold the rule of law, but many national and international observers believed that the underlying motive was to disqualify López Obrador as a presidential candidate. After nearly one million protesters marched through downtown Mexico City in April 2005, Fox finally ended the prolonged confrontation by dropping the impeachment charge.

      Early polls placed López Obrador far ahead of Fox's protégé Felipe Calderón (Calderón, Felipe), but by the date of the election in July 2006, those numbers had been dimished by a strong Calderón media campaign. Initial results had the two candidates in a virtual dead heat, and Calderón emerged the victor by a mere 0.56 percent of the vote. Almost immediately, tens of thousands of López Obrador supporters took to the streets to demand a recount. A partial recount failed to change the results, however, and Calderón was officially declared the winner. In response, López Obrador held a massive public ceremony in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square, to inaugurate himself as the “legitimate president” of a parallel government.

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