Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Party Affiliation: Juntos Haremos Historia

Born: Macuspana, Tabasco, 1953

Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a third-time presidential candidate. He was previously defeated by Felipe Calderón in 2006 and by Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012. A graduate in political science from UNAM and the son of merchants, he began his political career in his home with PRI. In 1988, he joined the trend toward the party’s far left, headed by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas. This trend, inspired by the traditional Latin American left, would culminate in 1989 with the founding of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), of which AMLO, as López Obrador is known by his followers and the media, became national president in 1996.

In 2000, López Obrador became the mayor of Mexico City, one of the most populous cities in the world. From there, he would jump to the presidential elections of 2006, which he lost to Calderón by a narrow margin. López Obrador never acknowledged his opponent’s victory and created a symbolic shadow government that was backed for days by thousands of protesters who paralyzed the capital and planted uncertainty among citizens and foreign investors.

He ran again for the presidency in 2012 on the PRD ticket but was defeated by Peña Nieto. Two years later, in 2012, he founded the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), the party with which he will compete against Ricardo Anaya, José Antonio Meade and Margarita Zavala on July 1.

Considered by his ideological rivals as a representative of left-wing populism that has played a leading role in the political life of Latin America in the 21st century, and as a populist conservative for the traditional left, AMLO heads all the polls carried out to date.