Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Early life

Andrés Manuel 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.

Personal life

During his early career, 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 López Gutiérrez (born 2007).

During his first presidential run, some news reports identified López Obrador as a Protestant; in a television interview, he self-identified as 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 sports team 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

Member of the PRI

He 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.

Member of the PRD

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 Mexico City (2000–2005)

Election

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.

Political agenda

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.

Response to Tláhuac lynching

López Obrador's popularity diminished after the lynching of two federal law-enforcement officers performing an undercover investigation in Tláhuac in November 2004. The Mexico City Police rescued one agent, but the city's chief of police, Marcelo Ebrard, and federal Secretary of Public Safety, Ramón Martín Huerta, were both accused of not organizing a timely rescue effort. López Obrador's secretary of government, Alejandro Encinas, was criticized for declaring that the lynching should be understood as stemming from indigenous customary law (usos y costumbres). After a thorough investigation, López Obrador gave Ebrard a vote of confidence, despite a request from President Vicente Fox Quesada for him to be relieved of duty. Later, using his constitutional powers, Fox fired Ebrard. At the same time, Martín Huerta, a member of Fox's cabinet, received a reprimand and continued to hold office as Secretary of Public Safety until he died in a helicopter accident. López Obrador later appointed Ebrard as Secretary of Social Development and supported his candidacy in the PRD primaries to run for office as Head of Government of the Federal District in 2006.

Removal of his immunity from prosecution

Elected government officials in Mexico have an official immunity called fuero that prevents criminal charges from being brought against them, which can be removed through desafuero. In 2004, the Attorney General's Office asked Congress to strip López Obrador of his immunity under charges of a misdemeanor (ignoring a court order). The misdemeanor against López Obrador was his refusal to order the cessation of the construction of a private hospital on land expropriated by Rosario Robles (who preceded López Obrador as Head of Government of the Federal District under the Ernesto Zedillo government). Under federal law, any person with criminal charges during the electoral process would not be eligible to run in a presidential election. A legal process begun in 2004 would likely have continued during the presidential campaigns of 2006, ending López Obrador's presidential run.

Although his political opponents argued he should be subject to the same judicial process as anyone else, newspaper editorials throughout the world charged that the desafuero was politically motivated (including The New York Times and The Washington Post), that it undermined Mexican democracy, and that López Obrador's exclusion from the upcoming elections would delegitimize the eventual winner.

After Congress voted to remove López Obrador's immunity, he asked for leave from his post for a few days. President Vicente Fox, wanting to avoid a political crisis and knowing that the decision made by Congress was widely unpopular, appeared on national television in April 2005, stating that the issue would not be pursued further. The controversy closed on a technicality, and López Obrador, despite the removal of immunity, was not prosecuted and thus remained eligible to participate in the 2006 presidential election. Weeks later, Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha resigned.

Public opinion at the end of his term

As Head of Government of the Federal District, López Obrador became one of the country's most recognizable politicians. He left office with an 84% approval rating, according to an opinion poll by Consulta Mitofsky. According to an article by Reforma newspaper, he kept 80% of the promises he made as a candidate.

Presidential campaigns

2006 presidential election

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. An article published by La Crónica de Hoy in March 2006 said that Mexican Bolivarian Circles and students, allegedly assisted by Venezuelan agents, distributed "Bolivarian propaganda in favor of Andrés Manuel López Obrador" throughout cities in Mexico and that such groups were given "economic support, logistics advice and ideological instruction" from the Hugo Chávez government.

Some left-wing politicians and analysts criticized López Obrador for including in his close staff many former members of the PRI who fought against his party in the 1980s and 1990s, such as Arturo Núñez (one of the authors of Fobaproa contingency fund), Manuel Camacho Solís and Marcelo Ebrard. The guerrilla leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), Subcomandante Marcos, said López Obrador was a false left-wing candidate, arguing that he was a centrist candidate. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas did not participate in campaign events but stated that he would still vote for his party, the PRD.

López Obrador's proposals, including his 50 commitments, produced mixed opinions from analysts. The Washington Post wrote that López Obrador used U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as inspiration for his proposals.

On 19 May, Roberto Madrazo, the PRI's presidential candidate, hinted at the possibility of an alliance with López Obrador to prevent National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderón from winning the election after both parties criticized president Vicente Fox for what they saw as illegal support by the federal government for Calderón. A PRD spokesperson said both parties entered an information-sharing agreement regarding the issue. This, combined with calls from high-ranking PRI member Manuel Bartlett (former Secretary of the Interior during the 1988 presidential election fraud) to vote for López Obrador, aroused media speculation that the PRI and the PRD would ally.

On 28 May, after López Obrador discounted any such alliance because the PRI and PRD political tendencies could not be reconciled, Roberto Madrazo indicated that his comments were misunderstood and that he would not step down or endorse any other candidate.

2012 presidential election

López Obrador ran again as the PRD, Labor Party, and Citizens' Movement candidate under the coalition Movimiento Progresista in the 2012 presidential election.

In November 2011, López Obrador announced some of his economic proposals:

Job creation: A sustained 6% growth rate to generate the new 1.2 million jobs needed each year.

Austerity: Reducing salaries of government officials and unnecessary spending, saving around US$30 billion a year.

Progressive fiscal reforms: López Obrador said the people who make less should pay a smaller percentage of taxes than those who make more money.

No new taxes or increases on existing taxes: López Obrador plans to focus on ending fiscal privileges.

Competition: End monopolies; any private citizen who wants to participate in media, television, and telephony should be able to.

López Obrador had been a firm critic of Felipe Calderón's crime strategy and promised to reduce military presence on the streets, offering reparations to victims of the Mexican drug war and emphasizing the protection of human rights in the country. López Obrador proposed a single police command that would gradually assume the activities of the Mexican Navy and the Mexican Army, as well as a single intelligence agency to tackle the financial networks of criminal organizations. The new police force would promote "civic and moral values". He promised to increase the salaries and benefits given to law enforcement officials throughout Mexico. His security strategy comprised ten proposals, but all of them had the main theme: organized crime cannot be tackled if the government is responsible for the erosion of human rights.

He also stated that if elected, he would reject any intelligence activity from the United States, including money and weapons in aid. This policy would stop the operations in Mexico of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Drug Enforcement Administration, including the use of drones. But it could also discourage U.S. aid to Mexico (US$1.6 billion since 2008). The proposal intended to appeal to discontent over U.S. actions in "Operation Fast and Furious", where ATF agents were involved in a gun-walking scandal.

Creation of Morena (2012–2014)

Following the 2012 presidential election loss, López Obrador told a rally in Mexico City's Zócalo on 9 September 2012 that he would withdraw from the Democratic Revolution Party "on the best of terms". He said he was working on founding a new party from the National Regeneration Movement ("Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional" in Spanish), or Morena, for its acronym in Spanish. A couple of days after his departure from the PRD, federal deputy Ricardo Monreal stated it was a "divorce for convenience", and that López Obrador did the most responsible thing to avoid polarization of the country. According to polls and surveys, in 2012 most of the Mexican public had a negative view of the establishment of Morena as a political party. On 7 January 2014, Martí Batres, president of Morena, presented the documentation to the INE to be acknowledged political party.

In 2014, López Obrador revealed why he left the PRD, stating, "I left the PRD because the leaders of that party betrayed the people, they went with Peña Nieto and approved the Pact for Mexico, which is nothing more than a Pact against Mexico. I can not be in a party where tax increases were approved, and it was approved that they would increase the price of gasoline every month. Gasoline in Mexico costs more than in the United States, the salary in Mexico is the lowest in the entire North American continent, and instead of asking for wage increases, the PRD rose to the podium to ask for an increase in the price of gasoline, it's an embarrassment." After Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas criticized him for forming his political party, on 7 July 2014, López Obrador posted on social media that, "PRD leaders and most of its legislators voted for the fiscal reforms [raising taxes and gas prices] and with their collaboration they paved the way for privatization of the oil industry." On 10 July 2014, the INE approved Morena as an official political party to receive federal funds and participate in the 2015 legislative elections.

2018 presidential election

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.

In 2018, the Mexican publication Aristegui Noticias criticized Vicente Fox for what it characterized as "extreme" verbal insults on Twitter towards López Obrador's crackdown on institutional corruption.

On 24 June 2017, the PT agreed to fight the 2018 election in an electoral alliance with Morena; however, the coalition had not officially registered with the National Electoral Institute (INE), the country's electoral authority. For Morena, the alliance consolidated after the withdrawal of the PT's candidate Óscar González Yáñez, who resigned his candidacy and called for votes in favor of Delfina Gómez Álvarez, the standard-bearer in the state elections of the State of Mexico in 2017.

In October 2017, at PT's National Congress, as party president Alberto Anaya was reelected to another 6-year term, PT formalized its coalition with Morena.

At first, there was speculation about the possibility of a front grouping all the left-wing parties: Morena, the PRD, PT, and the MC. However, López Obrador rejected any agreement due to political differences, especially after the 2017 State of Mexico elections, where the candidates of the PRD and MC continued with their campaigns and refused to support the Morena candidate. At the end of November 2017, the leaders of Morena and the PES announced that they were in talks to form a possible alliance: Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes, president of the PES, said: "We don't negotiate with the PRI, we have two options, go alone or with Morena."

On 13 December 2017, PES joined the coalition between Morena and the PT, and it was formalized under the name Juntos Haremos Historia (Together We Will Make History). Following the signing of the agreement, López Obrador was appointed as a pre-candidate for the three political groups. It was a partial coalition that supported López Obrador as the presidential candidate and divided the legislative elections between the three: Morena chose candidates in 150 federal electoral districts (out of 300) and 32 Senate rates, while the PT and the PES each nominated 75 candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and 16 for the Senate.

Presidency (2018–2024)

Exercise of political power

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—including LGBTQ rights and amnesty for low-level drug offenders. In 2020, a judge in Campeche issued an injunction against the Mayan Train, citing its approval in a "simulated consultation".

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. In 2024, a video on his official YouTube channel showing him revealing the phone number of a New York Times reporter who had investigated his associates' connections with drug traffickers was taken down by the site, prompting him to accuse the platform of censorship and being taken over by conservatives.

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 December, he announced Delfina Gómez Álvarez as the new secretary of Public Education, replacing Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, who would become Mexico's ambassador to the United States. 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, little student presence, and the beginning of a third wave of infections by the disease. Despite this, the president announced that the return of face-to-face classes would be "rained, thundered or lighted" in August, one of his motivations being to avoid the supposed "addiction to video games" that kids have today.

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."

Response to the COVID-19 pandemic

According to Los Angeles Times, the initial response by López Obrador's government was as late as March 2020 and was met with significant criticism. The president continued to hold rallies, be tactile with crowds, and downplay the threat of coronavirus to Mexicans' health and the Mexican economy. When COVID-19 arrived in Mexico, the government ramped up preparedness. The healthcare system is undergoing reforms to lessen the possibility of corruption and to shift from the existing insurance system to a universal one. In March 2020, López Obrador pledged to donate a quarter of his salary to help the country weather the pandemic.

As of 25 January 2021, 1,763,219 people have contracted the virus and 149,614 have died.

Crime and the drug war

Rates of crime remain high in Mexico and conflict and violence of drug mafias has not been stemmed. The number of murders nationwide in 2019 was over 34,000. Although the rate of women's murders is only about 10% of that number, femicide (murders of women specifically because they are women) has risen and resulted in major demonstrations in early 2020.

López Obrador initially backed away from the policy of taking out mafia heads. His policy was not a harsh crackdown, offering "abrazos, no balazos"" ("hugs, not gunshots"), which confused and demoralized the security forces. He then gave the army nation-wide control of security.

A high-profile situation developed in Sinaloa in October 2019 when Ovidio Guzmán López "El Ratón", son of imprisoned drug mafia head Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, was captured by a small government force. The mafia responded there with a shootout on the Culiacán city streets, resulting in the government freeing Ovidio Guzmán.

On 5 January 2023, after six months of planning and vigilance, another military operation took place that resulted in Oviedo Guzmán being captured once more, this time successfully, resulting in another fight between the Mexican military and the Sinaloa Cartel on the streets of Culiacán. This all resulted in the deaths of 10 soldiers and 19 members of the cartel, along with the arrests of 21 other alleged members, without civilian casualties, according to official reports. Most of these deaths occurred during the initial shootout between the military and the Sinaloa Cartel while Guzmán was being detained. Obrador claimed that the authorities acted "with responsibility" to protect the civilian population and that the operation was done without any involvement from the U.S. government.

Ovidio Guzmán has now been moved to the "Altiplano" maximum security prison in the State of Mexico. He's expected to be eventually extradited to the U.S. per request of the U.S. government since September 2019. Still, he will remain in Mexico while various legal proceedings take place, as the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard reported. On the same day, Ernesto Alfredo Piñón de la Cruz "El Neto", leader of the violent criminal organization affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel known as "Los Mexicles", was killed by state and federal police while trying to flee from his residence during a police raid in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, just four days after violently escaping prison. López Obrador has acceded to U.S. requests to extradite criminals to the U.S.

Response to femicide and women's activism

López Obrador's government has been criticized for failing to combat violence against women in Mexico and its high rate of femicide, which has risen since 2018. López Obrador has been accused of being slow to respond to women's demands to act on the issue of femicide. After a particularly well-publicized femicide of a kidnapped girl, women marches spiked nationally; as a result, the Head of Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum (who is also a member of Morena) announced new measures to prevent further femicides in the city, while López Obrador also announced a package of new measures to address the issue. Soon after, women's groups called for two days of action, a massive demonstration in Mexico City on International Women's Day (8 March), following by a strike on 9 March 2020. The Mexico City demonstration had some 80,000 participants. On Monday, 9 March 2020, the second day of action was marked by the absence of women at work, in class, shopping and other public activities. The "Day Without Us" (Día Sin Nosotras) was reported in the international press along with the previous day's demonstrations.

Foreign policy

On 7 November 2023, López Obrador called for a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

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.

In March 2023, López Obrador was sharply critical of some "hypocritical" Republican lawmakers, in particular Dan Crenshaw and Marjorie Taylor Greene, for introducing bills that would authorize the U.S. military to invade Mexico and attack drug cartels, declaring that "we remind those hypocritical and irresponsible politicians that Mexico is an independent and free country, not a colony or a protectorate of the United States."

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was forced to resign amid allegations of fraud in October's presidential election, fled Bolivia during the night of 11 November 2019 on a plane for Mexico, which offered him asylum. Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said his country decided to grant asylum "for humanitarian reasons, and given the urgent situation faced in Bolivia". AMLO had Mexican government airplane sent to pick him up.

López Obrador defended former U.S. president Donald Trump against a potential indictment, saying that "Right now, former President Trump is declaring that they are going to arrest him. If that were the case...it would be so that his name doesn't appear on the ballot." The same month, he criticized the United States, saying the country is "anti-democratic" in seeking to arrest Julian Assange and deny Trump an opportunity to seek re-election. He also referenced the allegations that the U.S. is responsible for the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, saying, "If we are talking about acts of violence, how is it that an award-winning journalist in the United States claims that the US government sabotaged the gas pipeline from Russia to Europe?" and criticized the fentanyl epidemic in America.

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 percent 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.

2021 midterm elections

In the 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 a two-thirds congressional supermajority. The main opposition was a coalition of Mexico's three traditional parties: the PRI, the PAN, and the PRD.

Post-presidency (2024–present)

After leaving office on 30 September 2024, López Obrador largely withdrew from public political life and returned to his ranch in Palenque, in the southern state of Chiapas.

On 1 June 2025, López Obrador briefly reappeared in public to vote in the 2025 judicial elections, held following the judicial reform enacted during his presidency. He cast his ballot at a polling station in Palenque and described his participation as a civic duty, while reiterating his support for his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum.

López Obrador generally maintains a low public profile, per longstanding Mexican tradition that former presidents fade into the background so as not to appear to interfere with their successor. However, he has occasionally commented on public affairs. In January 2026, he criticized the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro during a United States operation, describing the action as a kidnapping and a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. In March 2026, he called on Mexicans to donate funds to send humanitarian aid to Cuba amid an economic and energy crisis on the island.

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.

Ig Nobel Prize in medical information (Satirical award), (shared with Jair Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, Alexander Lukashenko, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladimir Putin, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow) (2020)

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:

Publications

López Obrador, Andrés Manuel (1986). Los Primeros Pasos, Tabasco, 1810-1867. Villahermosa, Tabasco: Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco. OCLC 21117234.

—————————————— (1988). Del esplendor a la sombra: la República restaurada, Tabasco 1867-1876. Villahermosa, Tabasco: Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco. OCLC 48297841.

—————————————— (1990). Tabasco, Víctima de un Fraude. Mexico City: Nuestro tiempo. OCLC 651573248.

—————————————— (1996). Entre la Historia y la Esperanza: corrupción y lucha democrática en Tabasco. Mexico City: Grijalbo. OCLC 906604879.

—————————————— (1999). Fobaproa, expediente abierto: reseña y archivo. Mexico City: Grijalbo. OCLC 654341802.

—————————————— (2004). Un proyecto alternativo de nación: hacia un cambio verdadero. Mexico City: Grijalbo. ISBN 9685956979.

—————————————— (2005). Contra el desafuero: mi defensa jurídica. Mexico City: Grijalbo. ISBN 9685957908.

—————————————— (2007). La mafia nos robó la Presidencia. Mexico City: Grijalbo. ISBN 9789707802155.

—————————————— (2008). La gran tentación: el petróleo de México. Mexico City: Grijalbo. ISBN 9789708105651.

—————————————— (2010). La mafia que se adueñó de México... y el 2012. Mexico City: Grijalbo Mondadori. ISBN 9786073100694.

—————————————— (2012). No decir adiós a la esperanza. Mexico City: Grijalbo. ISBN 9786073113434.