Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), a Center-Left Mexican politician, has retaken the lead in the upcoming presidential election, to be held July 2, 2006. According to the poll, he leads his closest rival, the UltraConservative Felipe Calderon, 34% to 31%.
http://www.milenio.com/...
Why is this important to Kossacks?
(i) AMLO is a center-left politician who has much in common with the Democratic Party.
http://www.amlo.org.mx/
Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles, invited AMLO to Mexican Independence Day festivities last year. Howard Dean chose AMLO's WarRoom to hold his press conference when he (and other Democrats) visited Mexico City last year. Arturo Valenzuela, who was a Special Assistant to President Clinton, has also been seen in AMLO's WarRoom.
more.....
(ii) AMLO's fiscal policy resembles that of President Clinton's, while Felipe Calderon's (his closest rival) espouses Bush's Supply-Side Economics. Calderon vows to continue the same policies that have been in place since 1982. These policies have resulted in annual real economic growth per capita of 0.6% from 1982-2002, and 0.8% growth from 2000 to 2005. Not only has Calderon vowed to continue the failed policies of the past, but he has also promised to institute a Flat Tax, which would further worsen the distribution of income in that country.
AMLO believes that Mexican can grow at a faster rate, and, like Rubin, realizes that the government must play a significant role in the economy in order to ensure the well-being of all segment of society. While Mayor of Mexico City, AMLO collaborated with Carlos Slim, the third richest person in the world, to revitalize Mexico City through the use of Empowerment Zones.
(iii) Dick Morris and other GOP strategists attempted to swiftboat AMLO, in the same way they did against Senator Kerry.
http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/...
Also, in the same way that the Wall Street Journal used its editorial pages to vilify President Clinton during his tenure, the same paper has attempted to discredit AMLO. Mary Anastacia O'Grady, a RightWing columnist, has written many columns attacking AMLO and praising Calderon. Calderon also engaged in push-polling against AMLO, spreading vicious lies about him, in the same way that Bush did so against McCain and Kerry.
(iv) AMLO left the mayoralty of Mexico City with an 84% approval rating, unprecedented for any mayor in the Americas.
http://www.noticias-oax.com.mx/...
He initiated a Roosevelt-like pension program for the City's senior citizens, and also left his mark with public works. He financed these projects largely by cutting local govt. bureaucracy. During his five years, debt increased at a rate of only 3.8% per year. While crime remains a problem in Mexico City, its does so throughout the country.
(v) Felipe Calderon is an extremist RightWing politician, who, if elected, would work with the GOP to further impose RightWing dogma on its citizens. Calderon often cites the Bible during his campaign speeches, and has publicly stated that he does not believe scientists who state that the morning-after pill does not induce abortion. As in the US, the upper echelon of the Catholic Church in Mexico is engaged in a surreptitious campaign in favor of Calderon, asking its followers to vote for the candidate that is "Pro-Life".
Recently, we have learned that Calderon's brother-in-law, Diego Zavala, benefited from millions of dollars in government contracts during Calderon's brief tenure as Secretary of Energy. Moreover, when Calderon was head of another government agency, he attempted to award himself an Autoprestamo (loan) of 3.1M pesos to buy a home. He refrained from doing so when the scandal made the headlines, however.
Kossacks, for these and many other reasons, it is important that we support AMLO in the upcoming election. AMLO and Calderon are very different politicians, coming from diametrically opposed positions. AMLO is center-left, while Calderon is Right-Wing. AMLO believes in science, while Calderon publicly disputes it. AMLO believes that with the right economic policies, Mexico can grow more than 0.6% a year, while Calderon vows to continue with the same policies that have resulted in such growth.
Most importantly, AMLO is supported by the Democrats, while Calderon is supported by the Republicans.