Nevertheless, Mexican media blared apoplectic prophesies that AMLO would be the Second Coming of Hugo Chavez, with mass nationalizations to follow. (The hysteria was parroted in the New York Times, not coincidentally, owned by Mexico's richest man.)
I can tell you, AMLO is way more Bernie Sanders than Hugo Chavez (and I've known all three).
Both AMLO and Sanders were mayors who ran their cities as what I'd call, "Pothole Populists." It's get-the-job-done socialism with the emphasis on social not -ism.
AMLO proved he could tamp down corruption, keep a stingy hold on budgets while increasing pensions and providing education grants. Mayor AMLO, unlike a certain Mr. Trump, completed major city infrastructure projects--all out of the savings from cutting waste and corruption.
But unlike Bernie, who did his good works in the mean streets of Burlington, Vermont, AMLO worked nothing less than a miracle in Mexico City, which is bigger than New York and ten times as ungovernable.
(And like Bernie, AMLO is a working class kid who worked in the social movement trenches: Sanders as a SNCC organizer in Chicago, while Lopez Obrador spent six years living with, sharing the lives of and fighting for the poorest Mayan families.)
But they are stealing it right now
Let's not get carried away with our democracy high. This election is being stolen as I write.
Not the presidency. AMLO's poll lead of 52% to 25% for his nearest competitor, is just too much to steal. But every seat of the Mexican Congress is up for grabs, and the Powers that Be, the laughably named Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the right-wing National Action Party (PAN) are fighting for their lives -- and sometimes they fight with bullets.
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