It seems we are entering a great transition phase. Every day there is more evidence that the existing political system is irreversibly breaking down, something effectively exploited by backers of the Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) campaign. AMLO, after 12 years of uninterrupted labor, today maintains an increasing advantage over all competitors in the campaign for the Presidency of the Republic. The seven main pollsters in the country (IPSOS, El Financiero, Mitofsky, GEA-ISA, Parametrics, SDP News and the Barometer Electoral Bloomberg) remarkably coincide in their projections: support for the three candidates oscillates between 27 and 40 percent for AMLO, while for Anaya support is measured between 21 and 24 percent; and for Meade, between 15 and 24 percent. The latest poll, from Barometer Elecctoral Bloomberg, also shows a clear upward trend for AMLO and a stagnation in the other two candidates. In addition, the tremendous social, moral and institutional crisis the country is suffering under has totally upturned into the electoral game and has broken, divided or diminished the forces that maintain the system. In spite of so many contradictions, disagreements, equivocating or mistaken decisions, and allowing several known scoundrels and opportunists to climb aboard the victory wagon, Morena continues its consolidation as the country’s first electoral force, even in entities where its presence was nil or almost non-existent (Guanajuato , Sonora, Nuevo León, Chihuahua and Jalisco). The abundant anger of huge sectors of Mexicans take the same political route.
Of the many unusual and surprising events on the campaign trail – thousands of miners marching through the streets of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, an address t8,000 indigenous people in Zacapoaxtla, Puebla, endless talks to peasant organizations – the high point has been the ninety minute interview AMLO granted to Milenio Tv. The interview, unusual in itself, attracted particular attention as it opened a public dialogue between the nation’s most recalcitrant and reactionary media group (with newspaper, television, radio and other outlets) and the candidate of the left. Millenio has been for years the main bastion of journalists and intellectuals openly and fiercely opposed to anything that even smells of the left, and López Obrador in particular. Two bitter enemies, two extreme points of view confronting each other for 90 minutes, turned out to be a strange interlude in a country where fear, conspiracy and censorship still dominate the mass media. The video went viral on social networks and remained the subject of the moment (trending topic) for almost two days .
Within 48 hours the video had over a million views, and today has over two million, with more than 23 thousand comments. A sampling of the comments shows that 92 percent of viewers considered AMLO the victor. That translates into about 10 million votes!
Sober, serene and mature, in measured and clear tones the candidate revealed a deep knowledge of each problem with which he was presented, his sure grasp of details decisive in the contest. AMLO captivated by his ability to parry, joyfully, with his opponents. His six inquistors were some of the most conspicuous representatives of a world that refuses to see reality, and from whose conceptions a Mexico that has been heading towards collapse has been built. They make up the conservative sector opposed to any change, an attitude built on the self-deception of those who live and inhabit a small bubble remote from the reality of the country and the world. The newspaper elites of the capital, the Condesa intellectuals (blame Enrique Krauze) were shown up as ones who have never set foot in the rich mosaic of real Mexico. An undercurrent to the debate was the peceived expectation that they would show the audience that AMLO is a madman, a wannabe messiah, a utopian, a dreamer, a demagogue who does not know how to put his hallucinations into practice. After 90 minutes the audience was convinced precisely the opposite. That same hidden intention, which at times sprouted into fury (Carlos Marín), was given its maximum expression in the rabid comments and personal attack Vicente Fox launched after the meeting (http://tv.milenio.com/politica / vicente-fox-andres -manuel-lopez-obrador-amlo-pension-presidentes- millennium-news_3_1144115600.html).
The debate video is a document of great importance, because it offers an appropriate synthesis of the thought of AMLO, and allows us to clearly appreciate the attacks the candidate will endure during the coming months of the presidential election.
It is also a prelude to the official debates that will take place. If the candidate of the left maintains the same calmness and forcefulness that he showed that night and concentrates on presenting his positions to the citizens, especially his solutions to corruption and insecurity, he will has a smooth path to the Presidency.
The Mex Files 
Great post! Again, thanks for covering the election. I’m going to watch the video.
Long ago, in my former career, I met with a Mexican political consultant to fund managers (which is what I was). His view of AMLO was that he was misbranded as a leftist, being more (in the consultant’s view) a pragmatist who wasn’t tied to ideology when formulating policy. Let’s hope that’s the case.
Also I’d note that my former CDMX landlord, a businessman and avowed capitalist, is also a big AMLO supporter and claims that corruption in CDMX was at a nadir when AMLO left.
So let’s hope AMLO can push Mexico forward. There’s so much that needs to be done, and the country has so much potential. It just needs for the political class to not be so parasitic, and then the country could fly.
Saludos,
Kim G
Redding, CA
Where we eagerly await your next post.