There are many reasons to dislike Mexico City’s mayor Andrés López Obrador. He is a populist and a nationalist with retrograde ideas on economic policy. Amlo, as the mayor is known, believes in democracy but centralizes power in his own hands. He is personally honest, but surrounded himself with crooks. Yet to even consider barring the country’s most popular politician from running in next year’s presidential election shows how insecure Mexico’s ruling elite has become. His impeachment will begin Thursday on charges that he ignored a court order stopping the city from building a hospital access road on private land.
Mexico is Latin America’s biggest economy and one of just three in the region with an investment grade rating. But its political sophistication lags far behind Brazil, Colombia or Chile. The Revolutionary Institutional Party ruled Mexico for 71 years until the current conservative government of President Vicente Fox took office in 2000. Removing Amlo from the race would ensure the PRI’s return to power.
He has promised a campaign of civil disobedience if he is removed from office and prevented from running for president. Markets are in turmoil as well they might. Economic upheaval often coincides with government changes. The next government’s legitimacy would suffer if Amlo is barred from the election. Mexico is no banana republic, so it should stop behaving like one. It cannot hope to evolve into a modern and sophisticated state until its politicians grow up.