Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly known by his initials AMLO, was the 65th President of Mexico, serving a single six-year term from 1 December 2018 to 1 October 2024. Born in Tepetitán, Tabasco, on 13 November 1953, he began his political career in the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) before joining the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), under whose banner he served as Head of Government of the Federal District (Mexico City) from 2000 to 2005.

After narrowly losing the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections, López Obrador founded the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), which was registered as a political party in 2014. He won the 2018 election decisively with roughly 53% of the vote, becoming the first left-of-center president in Mexico's modern democratic era.

His administration was framed around what he called the "Fourth Transformation" (Cuarta Transformación), promising to root out corruption and reduce inequality. Key policies included:

• Expansion of cash-transfer social programs for the elderly, students, and farmers
• Cancellation of the partially built Texcoco airport and construction of the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), opened in 2022
• Construction of the Tren Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula and the Dos Bocas refinery
• Strengthening of the state oil company Pemex and the federal electricity utility CFE
• Creation of the National Guard in 2019 as a militarized public-security force

On foreign policy, AMLO maintained a non-interventionist posture, often invoking the Estrada Doctrine. He renegotiated NAFTA into the USMCA (T-MEC), which entered into force on 1 July 2020, and managed a complex migration relationship with the Trump and Biden administrations.

Critics highlighted weakening of autonomous regulators, militarization of civilian tasks, and persistently high homicide rates. He was succeeded by his political ally Claudia Sheinbaum, who won the June 2024 election.