On Monday, for the final time, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador strode as much as the rostrum on the Nationwide Palace and addressed the group of newshounds together with his trademark greeting.”Just right morning,” he stated. “Let’s move!”For 6 years directly, López Obrador has begun every weekday like this, with a 7 a.m. marathon information convention broadcast national.The mañaneras, because the briefings was recognized, have been famously lengthy and regularly rambling. Over the direction of 2 and even 3 hours, López Obrador, 70, would tout his achievements, disparage his enemies and another way set the schedule for the day — as tens of millions of Mexicans listened in at house. He by no means as soon as took a seat or a drink of water.Now, after 1,438 consecutive information meetings, in keeping with govt tallies, AMLO, as López Obrador is well known, is after all stepping off the level.
Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum is flanked via Protection Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval, left, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador right through an Independence Day army parade on the Zocalo, Mexico Town’s major sq., on Sept. 16, 2024. (Felix Marquez / Related Press)His ultimate mañanera, held the day ahead of he palms over energy to incoming President Claudia Sheinbaum, marked the top of an technology right through which López Obrador remodeled Mexican politics largely via difficult the tactics leaders of the previous had communicated with citizens.A leftist populist, López Obrador cared little about what political professionals, industry leaders or international diplomats considered him, insisting that his energy got here from the pueblo, or the Mexican folks.For citizens, a lot of whom be mindful lifestyles beneath the Institutional Modern Birthday party, which managed Mexico with an iron grip for greater than 70 years, the president’s willingness to publish to questions day by day gave him and his govt the illusion of overall transparency.In 2019, as an example, within the aftermath of the army’s failed arrest of accused Sinaloa drug trafficker Ovidio Guzmán, the president thrust his protection secretary onstage to stand a barrage of inquires from newshounds.Learn extra: What a 1,000-mile railway around the Yucatán jungle says about Mexico’s outgoing president Many citizens favored López Obrador’s folksy taste and off-the-cuff musings. One by no means knew when he would possibly veer right into a 20-minute mirrored image at the Mexican Revolution, or sing their own praises the amulets that he believed had safe him from COVID-19.However critics stated he used the mañaneras to push propaganda and spin incorrect information, accusing him of planting newshounds to invite softballs. López Obrador dodged queries that he did not like. When his assertions have been challenged, he brushed aside the grievance offhand, announcing “I’ve different knowledge,” and shifting on.Political analyst Jesus Silva-Herzog Marquez, writing in Reforma newspaper on Monday, stated López Obrador had used the day by day briefings to create “a cult of character” beneath which there used to be no room for dissent. “He compressed all public dialogue right into a infantile dichotomy: patriots in opposition to traitors,” Silva-Herzog wrote. “He canceled complexity.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is proven right through a Dec. 18, 2020, information convention on the presidential palace in Mexico Town. (Marco Ugarte / Related Press)The briefings regularly took a theatrical and now and then vitriolic flip as López Obrador assailed a spread of goals, together with the rich elite, which he complained had ruled the rustic for many years, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Management, which he accused of meddling in Mexico’s home affairs.In contemporary weeks, he criticized the U.S. ambassador to Mexico for publicly opposing the president’s plan to overtake the justice gadget. He trashed the Spanish crown for its “vanity” in now not responding to a letter he despatched the king hard an apology for the colonial invasion of Mexico. He blamed the U.S. for sparking contemporary violence between factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel after it arrested two most sensible cartel-linked figures this yr.Regardless of the content material of the scoop meetings, there used to be no denying that they have been efficient in drumming up improve a few of the president’s base. Officers say 10 million folks watched or listened to the published on a daily basis. López Obrador leaves place of work with an approval ranking of just about 80%.On Monday, he walked onstage in a cumbersome black peacoat.However as a substitute of taking questions, he gave an summary of what he perspectives as his management’s accomplishments.Learn extra: Mexico is in turmoil over an intensive constitutional trade driven via the president right through his final days in officeGraphs he introduced confirmed that the minimal salary had just about tripled and that poverty had fallen via a number of issues. Below López Obrador, Mexico had observed document remittances and had develop into the highest buying and selling spouse of the USA.Moderate annual homicides had dipped from their height, he stated, failing to say that extra folks died via violence right through his time period than beneath another president.”I devoted myself to serving the folk,” López Obrador informed the newshounds accumulated ahead of him. “I believe very proud and glad that we took care of everybody, we listened to everybody, we revered everybody, however we gave choice to these maximum in want.”He stated his govt had put into follow a concept that he popularized right through his 2018 presidential marketing campaign: “For the nice of all, the deficient first.”Ahead of he left, a three-piece band performed conventional songs and the president’s press secretary screened a video that documented López Obrador’s lengthy adventure from neighborhood organizer within the southeastern state of Tabasco to the president of the rustic. As he watched, López Obrador teared up.Sheinbaum, the previous mayor of Mexico Town, will likely be sworn into place of work Tuesday morning. Some of the many questions soaring over her is solely how a lot she’s going to emulate López Obrador, who has been her political mentor for 20 years.A local weather scientist via coaching, Sheinbaum is extra of a technocrat than her predecessor, and extra digital camera shy. However her aides say she’s going to proceed López Obrador’s custom of day by day morning information meetings — with one adaptation: They’ll be shorter.Particular correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico Town contributed to this record.Join Crucial California for information, options and suggestions from the L.A. Instances and past to your inbox six days every week. This tale initially gave the impression in Los Angeles Instances.
