Andrés Manuel López Obrador won Mexico’s Presidential election last night, marking the first time a far-left candidate has been elected in the nation since the 1980s.
Obrador dominated the vote, with 15.7 million choosing him, or 53.7% of voters in Mexico. The center-right candidate who came in second place took in less than half the votes, or 6.6 million (22.6%). An independent candidate placed third, with 4.5 million votes (14.5%). Obrador campaigned against the rampant crime present in his country as a result of drug-fueled cartel violence and addressed issues of corruption and poverty.
And while that’s all great, Leftist ideas always sound good on paper (and only on paper), Obrador has proposed giving amnesty to the nation’s drug cartels, which are responsible for over 100,000 deaths in Mexico since 2007. Normally that’s not the kind of behavior you reward with amnesty. When it comes to his anti-poverty stance, I think we’re all aware how all other Leftist attempts at combating poverty in Latin America have gone.
Obrador also campaigned on outsourcing his citizen’s problems by making them our problem. At a rally, Obrador called illegal immigration to the United States a “human right,” and encouraged more to cross the southern border. “And soon, very soon — after the victory of our movement — we will defend all the migrants in the American continent and all the migrants in the world,” Obrador said, adding that immigrants “must leave their towns and find a life in the United States.” He then said that immigration is “a human right we will defend.” (RELATED: Top Mexican Presidential Candidate Calls for Mass Migration to the U.S.).
Obrador has said that he believes President Donald Trump is “erratic and arrogant,” but promised to “build friendly ties.” Trump congratulated Obrador on his win on Twitter.
Congratulations to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on becoming the next President of Mexico. I look very much forward to working with him. There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2018
Despite the friendly comments, it’s going to be hard for the two to find common ground, given that combating illegal immigration was the foundation of Trump’s campaign, while illegal immigration as a “human right” was part of Obrador’s. And frankly, when Mexico’s government is encouraging their citizens to illegally immigrate to the U.S., there’s absolutely nothing for us to negotiate, regardless of how friendly our relationship with Mexico is.
Obrador’s victory just adds more urgency to the long-existing need for a border wall.
Despite Obrador’s hostile comments, President Trump has taken the high road and knows how important it is to establish a positive working relationship with our neighbor to the South. Hopefully, the two leaders can establish a relationship that benefits the U.S. and Mexico.
