Latin America
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Mexicos New Left president!!!
Mexico has a new president after Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won a landslide victory in the weekend's election.
The former mayor of Mexico City secured more than 53 per cent of the vote and will take over from current president Enrique Pena Nieto.
The 64-year-old president-elect, who is sometimes called "Almo", led opinion polls throughout his election campaign which saw him promise to clean up crime and cut corruption.
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However the leftist Mr Lopez Obrador has also run on a nationalist platform - something which critics believe could further decay the already-strained relations between Mexico and the US.
During his final campaign speech on Wednesday, Mr Lopez Obrador said: "The new president of Mexico will have moral and political authority to demand everyone behaves with integrity and make honesty a priority as a way of life."
National laws prevent Mr Pena Nieto from running for president again, however his credibility has fallen in recent years following allegations of embezzlement and conflicts-of-interest levied at seniors members of his party.
Mr Lopez Obrador, who maintains a friendship with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2006 and 2012.
Despite his success, he hasn't confirmed many policy details. However he has vowed to reduce inequality and improve welfare spending while running a tight budget.
Speaking to reporters after his win, Mr Lopez Obrador identified corruption as the "principal cause" of inequality and the criminal violence that has affected Mexico for years, and said he would spare no one in his commitment to root it out.
"Whoever it is will be punished, I include comrades, officials, friends and family members," the 64-year-old said. "A good judge begins at home."
He also promised in a speech to respect civil liberties and said there will be "no dictatorship" under his government.
However, he reiterated a campaign promise to revise energy contracts issued to companies by the current administration for signs of corruption, warning that anomalies would be addressed by Congress and taken to national and international tribunals.
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Mexico's crime rates have soared in the runup to the election. Since September, 130 political workers and candidates have been murdered in the country.
Mr Lopez Obrador will also be tasked with turning around the country's many former holiday spots, such as Acapulco, which have been blighted by crime and gang activity in recent years.
He will also inherit the border dispute with Donald Trump, who controversially told Mr Pena Nieto that Mexico would be forced to pay for his proposed boarder wall between the two countries.
President Trump tweeted his congratulations to Mr Lopez Obrador, saying he looks "forward to working with him".
The president-elect has also suggested more referendums might be held to resolve contentious issues, such as whether or not to continue Mr Pena Nieto's strategy of opening Mexico's oil and gas industry to private companies.
Commentators have suggested Mr Lopez Obrador's success in the election was in part due to his rivals attacking each other during their campaigns, giving him a huge lead.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Jose Antonio Meade and Ricardo Anaya, an ex-leader of the centre-right National Action Party (PAN), regularly traded words with one another while apparently ignoring the rise of the new president-elect.
Mr Lopez Obrador will now become Mexico's first leftist president since the end of one-party rule in 2000.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8426241.html
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Originally Posted by Mexiñol
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