Channelling national pride, Mexican front-runner to campaign by U.S. border

APRIL 1, 2018 / 1:18 AM / UPDATED 10 MINUTES AGO
Channelling national pride, Mexican front-runner to campaign by U.S. border
Lizbeth Diaz



CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico’s presidential front-runner launches his campaign close to the U.S. border on Sunday amid tension over U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to put up a wall between the countries.

If leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wins the July 1 election, he is expected to be less accommodating towards Trump than the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has been lagging in polls because of anger over its failure to contain violence and graft.

His three-month campaign starts in Ciudad Juarez, a tribute to the city’s namesake Benito Juarez, the 19th century Mexican president from indigenous roots whose exiled government resisted a French colonialist intervention from the unruly border city.

Lopez Obrador recently criticized President Enrique Pena Nieto for “governing with recipes sent from abroad,” but he has lately softened his opposition to the government’s policy of allowing foreign investment in the oil industry.

More:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mexico-election/channelling-national-pride-mexican-front-runner-to-campaign-by-u-s-border-idUKKBN1H80XE?rpc=401&

LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142027456