Exhausted after sixteen long hours of traveling by bus from the state of Chihuahua, in the north of the country, a man dressed in a two-piece suit and decked out with a huge head of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (“AMLO”) , the Mexican president, jovially walks through the streets of Mexico City. An activist of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the left-wing party that “AMLO” created in 2011, he considers “important to be with the president” this Saturday March 18 because, as the Head of State said, “love is paid for with love”.
Like him, tens of thousands of“obradoristas”also known as “AMLOvers”, flocked to downtown Mexico City, responding to the president’s call for a massive rally in Zocalo Square to commemorate 85 years since the nationalization of oil. An opportunity for the charismatic leader to enjoy a walkabout and show the opposition the strength of his political movement.
For more than an hour, in front of a compact crowd who came to listen to him and applaud him, AMLO displayed all his talents as a speaker. His speech, a mixture of a lecture on history and a eulogy of his tenure, was punctuated with sound bites that are guaranteed to have an effect on the audience – “I don’t lie, I speak with the truth” –, but also nationalist symbols – “Mexico is not a protectorate of the United States” –attacks against his adversaries – “the oligarchs will not return to power” – and declarations of principles that are dear to him such as social justice.
“Looks like a rock star”
AMLO excels in this exercise. From the podium installed in front of the National Palace, and under the slogan “Humanism and saving the nation”, he harangued the crowd by making them react with “yes” or “no” to the words “interventionism”, “oligarchy”, “social discrimination”, “racism”, “democracy”, “honesty” or “equality”, and concluded in apotheosis with three “Viva Mexico” which galvanized the audience.
“I feel proud when I listen to it, it gives me goosebumps”says a retired teacher who drinks the words of the president, sitting on a stool in the middle of the crowd. “Looks like a rock star, right? »enthuses a forty-year-old from the province. “I feel that he represents me; he educates us in politics, every time we ask him a question, he answers with historical facts”, he adds.
For a week, the state apparatus and that of Morena had been involved to ensure the success of the event. Local party branches mobilized bases and organized transport logistics from the thirty-two states of Mexico. Ministers, governors, legislators and intellectuals of the party promoted the event, while the services of the capital installed giant screens in the streets of the historic center.
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