Politics: AMLO campaigns, Morena struggles

MEXICO - Report 29 Jun 2020 by Guillermo Valdes and Francisco González

With a drastic worsening of economic, political, public health and social conditions potentially jeopardizing his party’s chances next year, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador unofficially began campaigning, with visits to the states beginning June 1, many months before candidates for public office are allowed to begin competing. It is unclear why he has made this decision at this point, less than two months after he suspended trips to the provinces and at a time when the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and a dramatically deepening recession demand his undivided attention. Perhaps that is precisely the point, to create a distraction from mounting Covid-19 infections and deaths and massive job losses.

But if there is one thing President López Obrador knows about, it is how to organize a campaign, especially considering he spent almost two decades and three presidential election cycles uninterruptedly bidding for his current job. He has also been shuffling members of his administration, most notably in recent days replacing the Banco de Bienestar (Bank of Wellbeing) head, the key piece in being able to directly deliver the cash transfers at the heart of his priority social programs and one of the administration’s most precious political-electoral assets.

However, his governing Morena party may prove to be something of an Achilles' heel in his plans to defend his congressional majority in next year’s midterms and expand his governmental control to more governorships and municipalities. Born as an amorphous mix of currents and politicians from across the entire political spectrum, united entirely by the political coattails of the current president, weak structures that served to build the upstart party from 2015 onward were largely gutted as Morena’s sweep of the 2018 elections thrust the most experienced members into public service, leaving the organization to wither into its current dysfunctional self. Meanwhile, some on the far left are developing projects of their own, while some prominent Morena politicians appear to be hedging their bets by backing new parties to win nationwide ballot status.

Now read on...

Register to sample a report

Register