Sunday was a historic day in Mexico, with a landslide election victory for Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman and first Jewish person to become president of the country.
But as much as this was about Sheinbaum, a decorated climate scientist and mayor of Mexico City from 2018 to 2023, it was also about the most powerful man in the country who will soon be headed for the exit.
The electoral victory of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s successor marks the beginning of the end of a defining figure in Mexico.
He emerged from an area of the country where few national politicians have received acclaim and became president on his third try. He completely reformed Mexican politics and built an entire political party around his enormous personality.
Critics also say he gave too much power to the military and pushed for measures that would undermine democratic institutions, such as the Supreme Court.
However, as he nears the end of his six-year term, López Obrador remains very popular.
After nearly five decades in public life, López Obrador, 70, has said he will retire “completely” after his last day in office on September 30, although some observers believe he will find a way to continue exerting influence. behind the government. scenes.
He has said he wants to spend his days on his family’s ranch in the southern state of Chiapas.
For many in the neighboring state of Tabasco, a bastion of support for López Obrador, and in the small town of Tepetitán, where he was born, Sunday was bittersweet.
Miguel Ángel Solís Burelo, 72, said he was excited to see Sheinbaum win because she was “well prepared” to carry out López Obrador’s agenda. He also said it was “a great joy” to see a woman assume the presidency.
But Solís, who drove a speedboat downriver from the ranch where he works to vote in Tepetitán, admitted he also felt “a little sad” seeing López Obrador near the end of his presidency. Presidents of Mexico are limited to a six-year term by the Constitution.
Kenia Sandoval Salvador, 47, a housewife, said she watched video highlights on social media of López Obrador’s race before going to the polls Sunday in Macuspana, a town also in Tabasco where the president grew up.
“I already feel the nostalgia,” he said.
Born in 1953, López Obrador attended the only primary school in Tepetitán and helped in his parents’ store. He started high school about 40 minutes away, in Macuspana. He finished it and high school in Villahermosa, the capital of the state where his family moved. He went to university in Mexico City, where he later served as mayor.
Sunday’s election was seen by many as a referendum on López Obrador’s leadership, and Sheinbaum’s decisive victory was interpreted as a vote of confidence in the president, his policies and the Morena party.
Antenor Paz Acosta, 75, who works on a ranch in Tepetitán and said he had played baseball with the president as a child, made it clear that he had the current leader in mind, even when he voted for Sheinbaum.
“I am always supporting what Andrés Manuel has done,” Paz said. “Where he goes, so does she.”
During López Obrador’s term, the economy grew, millions of Mexicans were lifted out of poverty, the minimum wage doubled, pensions expanded, and workers’ benefits improved.
But his presidency has also raised concerns. He has been criticized for his “hugs, not bullets” strategy toward criminal cartels that has resulted in more violence. His critics also say that he hindered the country’s health system and prioritized fossil fuels.
López Obrador, known by his initials AMLO, will be remembered by many for his morning press conferences, during which he spent hours almost every day for the past five years sharing his feelings, celebrating his victories and attacking his critics. and attacking journalists. He might seem fiery and folksy.
“López Obrador governed through mornings,” said Blanca Gómez, a Mexican journalist who wrote an unauthorized biography of López Obrador in 2005. “He noticed that people paid attention when he spoke. People believe him. There are people who are going to miss his mornings. And many people will be glad not to hear from him again.”
Although Lázaro Vidal Martínez, 62, a farmer from Tepetitán, normally worked in the mornings, he said he occasionally listened. “I liked that he showed his face every day because other presidents never did that,” he said.
Solís, the ranch worker who arrived by motorboat to vote, said that what he liked most about López Obrador’s presidency were his social welfare programs that helped “those of us who did not receive help or who were not taken into account.” .
He said his pension, for those 65 and older, has quintupled over the years to about $170 each month.
Still, López Obrador should have been tougher on criminal groups, Solís added, although he was generally satisfied with the direction of the country.
“We want the movement to continue,” he said, before boarding his boat to return home.
During campaign visits to Tabasco, Sheinbaum promised to preserve López Obrador’s legacy, prompting applause from the crowd.
In Tepetitán, a town of 1,500 people, what was once his grandparents’ house opened last year as the Casa Obrador Community Museum and displays his bust outside. In Macuspana, a larger city with 31,000 residents, the only reminder is a mural outside the public library.
Not far away, in a cafe in the city’s main square, was Márvel Hernández Gutú, 79, a native of Tepetitán, a lawyer and former state official who has known López Obrador since they were together in a previous political party. He wished López Obrador had done more to develop Mexico in terms of business and infrastructure, especially in Tabasco, one of the country’s poorest states.
“As for his legacy,” Hernández said, “we can’t say that he left us great things because he had the opportunity to do it and he didn’t do it.”
Regardless of their opinions, many said they did not believe López Obrador would suddenly disappear after decades of public life and with his protégé in charge.
“His legacy matters a lot to him,” said journalist Gómez.
To a small extent it will continue in Tepetitán.
During López Obrador’s successful presidential campaign six years ago, Vidal, who said his parents knew López Obrador’s parents, allowed a local artist to paint a mural on the side of his house at the entrance to the city. . Anyone entering or leaving the community would see it.
It has been repainted three times and new decorations have been added each time. Surrounding López Obrador’s face are flora and fauna found throughout Tabasco: howler monkeys, parrots and alligator fish, a local delicacy and a nickname for López Obrador in Spanish.
The mural’s artist died last year, Vidal said, and he hopes another artist can help preserve the memory of the city’s most famous son.
“That mural will remain,” he said.