Andrés Manuel López Obrador facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
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López Obrador in 2020
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| 65th President of Mexico | |
| Assumed office 1 December 2018 |
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| Preceded by | Enrique Peña Nieto |
| President pro tempore of CELAC | |
| In office 8 January 2020 – 7 January 2022 |
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| Preceded by | Jeanine Áñez |
| Succeeded by | Alberto Fernández |
| President of the National Regeneration Movement | |
| In office 20 November 2015 – 12 December 2017 |
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| Preceded by | Martí Batres |
| Succeeded by | Yeidckol Polevnsky |
| Head of Government of the Federal District | |
| In office 5 December 2000 – 29 July 2005 |
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| Preceded by | Rosario Robles |
| Succeeded by | Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez |
| President of the Party of the Democratic Revolution | |
| In office 2 August 1996 – 10 April 1999 |
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| Preceded by | Porfirio Muñoz Ledo |
| Succeeded by | Pablo Gómez Álvarez |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 13 November 1953 Tepetitán, Tabasco, Mexico |
| Political party | Morena (since 2012) |
| Other political affiliations |
Institutional Revolutionary Party (1976–1989) Party of the Democratic Revolution (1989–2012) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives | Manuela Obrador Narváez (cousin) |
| Education | National Autonomous University of Mexico (BA) |
| Signature |  |
Andrés Manuel López Obrador ( born 13 November 1953), also known by his initials AMLO, is a Mexican politician who is the 65th and current president of Mexico since 2018. He previously served as Head of Government of Mexico City from 2000 to 2005.
Born in Tepetitán, in the municipality of Macuspana, in the south-eastern state of Tabasco, López Obrador earned a degree in political science from the National Autonomous University of Mexico following a hiatus from his studies to participate in politics. He began his political career in 1976 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). His first public position was as director of the Indigenous Institute of Tabasco, where he promoted the addition of books in indigenous languages and the project of the Chontal ridge. In 1989, he joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), becoming the party's 1994 candidate for Governor of Tabasco and national leader between 1996 and 1999. In 2000, he was elected Head of Government of Mexico City. During his tenure, his crime, infrastructure and social spending policies made him a popular figure on the Mexican left. In 2004, his state immunity from prosecution was removed after he refused to cease construction on land allegedly expropriated by his predecessor, Rosario Robles. This legal process lasted a year, ending with López Obrador maintaining his right to run for office.
López Obrador was nominated as the presidential candidate for the Coalition for the Good of All during the 2006 elections, where he was narrowly defeated by the National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderón. While the Federal Electoral Tribunal noted a number of irregularities, it denied López Obrador's request for a general recount, which sparked protests across the country. In 2011, he founded Morena, a civil association and later political party. He was a candidate for the Progressive Movement coalition in the 2012 elections, won by the Commitment to Mexico coalition candidate Enrique Peña Nieto. In 2012, he left the PRD after protesting the party's signing of the Pact for Mexico and joined Morena. As part of the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition, López Obrador was elected president after a landslide victory in the 2018 general election.
Described as being center-left, progressive, left-wing populist, social democratic, and economic nationalist, López Obrador has been a national politician for over three decades. During his presidency, he has promoted public investment in sectors that had been liberalized under previous administrations and has implemented several progressive social reforms. Supporters have praised him for promoting institutional renewal after decades of high inequality and corruption and refocusing the country's neoliberal consensus towards improving the state of the working class.
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Early life and education
López Obrador was born in Tepetitán, a small village in the municipality of Macuspana, in the southern state of Tabasco, on 13 November 1953. He is the firstborn son of Andrés López Ramón (son of Lorenzo López and Beatriz Ramón) and Manuela Obrador González, Tabasco and Veracruz-based merchants. His younger siblings include José Ramón, José Ramiro, Pedro Arturo, Pío Lorenzo, and twins Candelaria Beatriz and Martín Jesús. His maternal grandfather José Obrador Revuelta was a Cantabrian who arrived as an exile in Mexico from Ampuero, Spain, while his maternal grandmother Úrsula González was the daughter of Asturians. Through his paternal grandparents, López Obrador is also of Indigenous and African descent.
López Obrador attended the only elementary school in town, the Marcos E. Becerra school, managed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and named after the Mexican poet of the same name. During afternoons, he helped his parents at the La Posadita store. López Obrador began middle school in Macuspana but finished it in the state capital of Villahermosa, where his family moved in the mid-1960s and opened a clothes and shoe store called Novedades Andrés. On 8 June 1969, when he was 15 years old, his brother José Ramón López Obrador died from a gunshot to the head. According to Jorge Zepeda Patterson's Los Suspirantes 2018, José Ramón found a pistol, played with it, and it slipped out of his hands, firing a bullet into his head. The Tabasco newspapers Rumbo Nuevo, Diario de Tabasco, and Diario Presente presented a story where they were both playing around with the pistol and that Andrés Manuel fired it by accident. According to Zepeda Patterson, Andrés Manuel became "taciturn, much more thoughtful" following the incident. López Obrador finished high school and, at age 19, went to Mexico City to study at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
He studied political science and public administration at the UNAM from 1973 to 1976. He returned to school to complete his education after having held several positions within the government of Tabasco and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In 1987, he received a degree in political science and public administration after the presentation of his thesis, Proceso de formación del Estado Nacional en México 1821-1867 (Formation Process of the National State in Mexico 1821–1867).
He lived in the Casa del Estudiante Tabasco during his college years on Violeta Street in the Guerrero neighborhood of Mexico City. The institution was financed by the administration of Tabasco governor Mario Trujillo García through efforts of the poet Carlos Pellicer, with whom López Obrador began discussing. There was empathy between the two because the young man raised his concern for the Chontal Maya. After the meeting, the poet invited him to his senate campaign during the 1976 elections. His university professor, Enrique González Pedrero, was another figure that influenced López Obrador's political trajectory.
Family and personal life
After attending school from 1973 to 1976, he returned to his native Tabasco, where he held various government positions and was a professor at the Juárez Autonomous University of Tabasco. During his stint, he met Rocío Beltrán Medina, a sociology student, who suggested López Obrador embrace the progressive wing of the PRI. They eventually married on 8 April 1978. They had three sons: José Ramón López Beltrán (born 1981), Andrés Manuel López Beltrán (born 1986), and Gonzalo Alfonso López Beltrán (born 1991). Beltrán Medina died on 12 January 2003 due to respiratory arrest caused by lupus, which she had suffered for several years.
On 16 October 2006, he married Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, who had worked in the Mexico City government during his tenure as Head of Government of Mexico City. Together they have one son, Jesús Ernesto (born 2007).
During his first presidential run, some news reports identified López Obrador as a Protestant; in a television interview, he self-identified as a Roman Catholic. In March 2018, he declared, "When I am asked what religion I adhere to, I say that I am a Christian, in the broadest sense of the word, because Christ is love and justice is love."
López Obrador has held a variety of nicknames throughout his life, including El Molido, El Americano (The American), La Piedra (The Rock), El Comandante (The Commander), and the most popular among them is El Peje, named after the common Tabasco fish, the pejelagarto.
A baseball fan, his favorite sportsteam is the St. Louis Cardinals.
López Obrador was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2019.
On 24 January 2021, he announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Early political career
López Obrador joined the PRI in 1976 to support Carlos Pellicer's campaign for a Senate seat for Tabasco. A year later, he headed the Indigenous People's Institute of Tabasco. In 1984, he relocated to Mexico City to work at the National Consumers' Institute, a federal government agency.
López Obrador resigned from his position with the government of Tabasco in 1988 to join the new dissenting left wing of the PRI, then called the Democratic Current, led by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. This movement formed the National Democratic Front and later became the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
In 1994, he ran for the governorship of Tabasco but lost to PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo. López Obrador gained national exposure as an advocate for the rights of indigenous people when, in 1996, he appeared on national TV drenched in blood following confrontations with police for blocking Pemex oil wells to defend the rights of local indigenous people impacted by pollution.
He was president of the PRD from 2 August 1996 to 10 April 1999.
Head of Government of the Federal District (2000–2005)
On 2 July 2000, he was elected Head of Government of the Federal District, a position akin to that of city mayor for the national capital district, with 38.3% of the vote.
As mayor, López Obrador implemented various social programs that included extending financial assistance to help vulnerable groups in Mexico City, including single mothers, senior citizens, and the physically and mentally challenged. He invested in housing and schools, created old-age pensions, and expanded services. He also helped found the first new university in Mexico City in three decades, the Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México.
López Obrador hired former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani to craft a zero-tolerance policy that would help reduce crime in Mexico City.
He directed the restoration and modernization of Mexico City's historic downtown, which has 16th- and 17th-century buildings and many tourist spaces. He led a joint venture with billionaire businessman Carlos Slim Helú, a native of downtown Mexico City, to expropriate, restore, rebuild, and gentrify large parts of the area, creating shopping and residential areas for middle- and upper-income residents.
López Obrador used fiscal policy to encourage private sector investment in housing. He granted construction firms tax breaks and liberalized zoning regulations, leading to the construction of more condominiums and office buildings during his tenure than during any other period in Mexico City's history. New high-density condos emerged in the upscale neighborhoods of Polanco and Lomas de Chapultepec.
To improve traffic flow on the city's two main inner-city roads, Periférico and Viaducto, he added sections of second stories to the Anillo Periférico. He renovated about 10% of those roads. The Metrobús, an express bus service based on the Curitiba model, was built down Avenida Insurgentes, cutting through the city some 20 km from north to south.
First presidential run, 2006
In September 2005, the PRD nominated López Obrador as presidential pre-candidate for the 2006 general election. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas declined to participate in the internal elections when polls showed López Obrador as the clear favorite.
Until March 2006, polls showed him as the presidential frontrunner; however, his numbers had declined by late April.
On 6 July 2006, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) announced the final vote count in the 2006 presidential election, resulting in a narrow margin of 0.56 percentage points (243,934 votes) of victory for his opponent, Felipe Calderón. López Obrador appealed the results, claiming widespread irregularities, and demanded an election recount. (A generalized recount is only to be carried in extreme circumstances, according to Mexican Electoral Tribunal Jurisprudence S3ELJ14-2004.) On 8 July 2006, López Obrador called for nationwide protests to ask for a national recount, stating "the government would be responsible for any flare-up of anger after officials rejected his demand for a manual recount of Sunday's extremely close vote." However, on 5 September 2006, the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) ruled that the election was fair and that Calderón was the winner and would become president.
Second presidential run, 2012
López Obrador ran again as the PRD, Labor Party, and Citizens' Movement candidate under the coalition Movimiento Progresista in the 2012 presidential election.
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The election was won by Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, with 38.2%, to 31.6% for López Obrador. López Obrador did not accept the preliminary results, as most votes had not been counted. Subsequently, he claimed vote buying and other irregularities and demanded a full recount by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). The IFE found irregularities but confirmed the results on 6 July. López Obrador rejected this announcement and filed a complaint to invalidate the election. He alleged vote-buying, spending above election regulations, illegal fundraising, and vote fraud. On 30 August, the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary formally rejected his complaint.
2018 presidential campaign
López Obrador participated again in the 2018 presidential election, his third presidential run. In the election, he represented MORENA, the left-wing Labor Party (PT), and the socially conservative right-wing Social Encounter Party (PES) under the coalition Juntos Haremos Historia. Pre-election polls indicated he had a double-digit lead over candidates Ricardo Anaya, José Antonio Meade, and Jaime Rodríguez Calderón.
López Obrador won the election on 1 July 2018 with 53% of the popular vote–the first candidate to win an outright majority since 1988, and the first candidate not from the PRI or its predecessors to do so since the Mexican Revolution.
In terms of states won, López Obrador won in a landslide, carrying 31 out of 32 of the country's states.
Presidency (2018–present)
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In his first year, López Obrador's approval ratings were high, approximately the same as previous administrations at the same point in their terms. Despite that, there has appeared to be little progress on issues on which he campaigned, which critics pointed out. The Economist criticized his first year as lacking in statecraft and abundant in theatrical gestures. In August 2019, Bloomberg News did an extended interview with López Obrador. The China Global Television Network did a short special assessment of López Obrador's first year in office.
He argues his presidency is the "Fourth Transformation" in Mexican history, with the first three being the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821), the War of the Reform (1857–1861), and the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). He invokes imagery likening his presidency to the work of Jesus Christ, with concern for the less fortunate being a top priority under López Obrador. Direct communication with the electorate has become a key feature of his presidency. He holds daily briefings (mañaneras) broadcast on state media.
López Obrador stated that citizen forums, consultations, and referendums would be a key part of his decision-making process. Such consultations have been held on major infrastructure projects such as constructing a new airport, an oil refinery, an electric plant, and the Mayan Train. Other consultations have been held on various social issues, and more are planned for the future.
In 2022, he held a referendum on his presidency, winning with more than 90% of the votes but with a low turnout rate of around 18 percent, far below the 40 percent level needed for the poll to be legally binding. Other consultations held in 2018 and 2019 also enjoyed widespread support (70% or more), but were criticized for low turnout (2% or less) and other reasons.
Morning Consult's Global Leader Approval Rating Tracker, which evaluates the approval rating of 13 world leaders weekly, positioned López Obrador as the second-highest net approval rating as of February 10, 2022.
During his presidency, López Obrador frequently preferred social media blogs and news sites at his briefings and often answered questions only from them. He has also frequently criticized environmentalists, non-governmental organizations, regulatory agencies and social media companies, the latter for alleged political bias.
Anti-corruption
A top priority during López Obrador's campaign was his pledge to end corruption. In 2018, Mexico was on par with Russia at 138 (of 180 countries), according to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. López Obrador has made high-profile gestures against corruption, but his critics see them as not getting at the core issue. He stated his administration will no longer employ the agency designed to uncover corruption in government spending, the National Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection (INAI), citing its complicity in covering up high-profile scandals such as the Odebrecht case. Enrique Krauze has criticized López Obrador's move, saying "Now there is absolutely no transparency in the use of public money, and, at the same time, the awarding of contracts to companies owned by the president's friends."
López Obrador's anti-corruption efforts have concentrated in five areas: illegal fuel sales known as Huachicolero, accounting methods and tax fraud, illegal outsourcing, judicial corruption, and money laundering. The Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera on 27 December 2019, announced that it has opened investigations into four former governors. In August 2019 Rosario Robles was sent to prison for her involvement in the MXN $7,760 million (US$420 million) "Master Scam" (Spanish: Estafa Maestra), and charges against former Pemex officials such as CEO Emilio Lozoya Austin and union leader Carlos Romero Deschamps. In October 2019, a justice of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) was forced to resign due to irregularities involving an irregular bank deposit worth MXN $80 million (US$4 million).
Despite initial praise from human rights group Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) in October 2019 regarding Lopez' ambitious plan, which introduced anti-corruption prosecutors both at federal and state levels through an independent National Anti-Corruption System, its 2021 report concluded that, while the structure of the System could theoretically work, it had been essentially crippled by the lack of independence or any real autonomy, amongst other factors.
Education
In 2019 López Obrador consolidated some projects to support the educational system in Mexico, some of them being the creation of one hundred public universities and the approval of the reforms to articles 3, 31 and 73 of the Mexican Constitution, about education, in which parents, teachers and authorities participated. That same year, he also implemented the scholarship program "Bienestar Benito Juárez" in all educational levels of public service, in order to encourage the permanence of students and also reverted the Education Reform implemented during the Peña Nieto administration, replacing it with one that would guarantee free education at all levels.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, face-to-face classes were suspended since March, in order to avoid contagions of the disease. In August, the president signed an agreement with the television networks Televisa, TV Azteca, Imagen Televisión and Grupo Multimedios so that preschool, primary and secondary school students could begin receiving classes and educational content on television. In 2021, a protocol was announced with which students could gradually return to face-to-face classes, but only in those states that were on a green light of the epidemiological traffic light during the COVID pandemic. The exchange between Delfina and Moctezuma was officially carried out on 15 February. The return of face-to-face classes since the beginning of the pandemic took place on 7 June in Mexico City, San Luis Potosí and Aguascalientes, and on the 14 of the same month in the State of Mexico. However, this return was silently canceled again when cases of children infected with COVID-19 began to be registered inside schools.
Economy
López Obrador's energy policy has prioritized the state over the market. Petroleum is at the center of his strategy, with the construction of a refinery in Tabasco, and has essentially banned private investment in the sector. There was low or flat economic growth in his first year of office. He implemented a minimum wage increase of 16.21% in 2019 before uplifting the wage increase to 20% the same year. The coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause lasting damage to the economy, with some critics arguing López Obrador has not effectively planned and responded to economic uncertainty, with the peso falling in the first months of the pandemic. López Obrador made good on his promise to cancel the building of a new airport (Texcoco Airport) to serve Mexico City, with $13.3 billion already spent. Instead, the Felipe Ángeles International Airport was reworked to replace it.
The trade deal with the U.S. and Canada was ratified by all three nations and went into effect in July 2020. López Obrador traveled to the U.S. to sign the agreement, but Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of the third partner, Canada, did not attend, claiming the coronavirus as the reason. Trump and López Obrador signed the agreement at the White House. With the COVID-19 pandemic, remittances from Mexicans in the U.S. have fallen. In addition, with the U.S.-Mexico border increasingly difficult to cross, Mexicans in the U.S. are now aging and dying, often being buried in their hometowns and villages.
His 2023 federal budget prioritized the funding of social programs, including a boost to pensions for older adults and infrastructure projects concentrated largely in southern Mexico. According to José Olivares of The Intercept, leaked intelligence documents indicate the U.S. government is displeased with the Mexican state prioritizing social spending over furthering U.S. interests, such as "investments needed to address bilateral issues with the US, such as migration, security and trade."
Foreign policy
On 7 November 2023, López Obrador called for a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war.
Immigration and U.S. pressure
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The Trump administration in the U.S. pressed for building a wall on Mexico's northern border, and it also implemented measures attempting to stem the flow of migrants from Central America and other regions of the world. Although López Obrador expressed sympathy with migrants during his campaign, when the number of migrants surged, the U.S. threatened his government with trade sanctions, which led him to solidify the southern border. Government forces broke up migrant caravans heading through Mexico to the U.S. At the northern border, Mexico is now the stopping point for migrants sent back to Mexico by U.S. immigration authorities awaiting adjudication of their asylum claims. Citing widespread corruption, López Obrador dismantled the Federal Police and incorporated elements of it into the recently created National Guard, which has been employed to stop Central American immigrants at the southern border.
Environment
Early in his presidency, López Obrador declared in February 2019 that his government would no longer fund environmental NGOs. Around 6.2 billion Mexican pesos (around USD$321 million at the time) in funding was cut.
In 2020 he cut funding to Mexico's national parks service, the National Commission of Protected Areas (CONANP), by 75 pecent and also cut 75 percent of the budget of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH which oversees more than 100,000 heritage and archaeological sites, museums and monuments.
Over the six years of his presidency, López Obrador's government continued to cut funding for environmental protection. Between 2018 and 2023, Mexico's environment department received 35% less money than under the previous government, according to an analysis of Mexico’s 2024 budget, including funding cuts to the environmental department of US$510 million (9 billion pesos) or 11% in 2024.
Plans for historical commemorations
Major historical commemorations took place in 2021. The events are the founding of Tenochtitlan (although the date of its founding is often given as 1325); the 1521 fall of Tenochtitlan; and the 1821 consummation of Mexican independence. The Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral is being repaired, along with other colonial-era buildings in advance of the commemorations. During conmemorations, he apologized in the name of Mexico to indigenous peoples and Mexicans of Chinese descent for historical abuses. López Obrador invited King Felipe VI of Spain and Pope Francis to Mexico for the commemorations, and asked them to apologize for the conquest of America. The Pope declined the invitation, saying he had apologized in 2015.
Midterm elections 2021
In June 2021 midterm elections, López Obrador's Juntos Hacemos Historia coalition lost seats in the lower house of Congress. However, his ruling coalition maintained a simple majority, but López Obrador failed to secure the two-thirds congressional supermajority. The main opposition was a coalition of Mexico's three traditional parties: the PRI, the PAN and the PRD.
Awards and honours
National honour
Mexico: Grand Master and Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (1 December 2018).
International honors
Guatemala: Great Collar of the Order of the Quetzal (5 May 2022).
Honduras: Grand Cross of the Order of José Cecilio del Valle (6 May 2022).
Cuba: Medal of the Order of José Martí (8 May 2022).
Awards
- World No Tobacco Day Award by the World Health Organization, in 2022.
Places named after López Obrador
In October 2019, López Obrador said he wanted to retire in peace once he left the presidency and did not want any streets or statues named for him. Nevertheless, on 18 July 2020, the newspaper El Universal published a list of places that bear his name:
- López Obrador Street, Tezonttila, Xochimilco, CDMX (since 2003)
- Avenida López Obrador, San Vicente Chicolapa de Juarez, Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico
- A neighborhood in Arcelia municipality, Guerrero
- An alley in La Montańa de Guerrero, Acapulco, Guerrero
- A street in San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec, Oaxaca
- A street in La Concepción, Veracruz
See also
In Spanish: Andrés Manuel López Obrador para niños
- History of Mexico
- History of democracy in Mexico
- Politics of Mexico
