MEXICO CITY â âWomen and children to the centre,â a woman shouts repeatedly, reacting to another rumor that supporters of Mexico President AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador were planning to attack the anti-government protest camp in Mexico Cityâs main ZĂłcalo square. No attack ever came.Supporters of LĂłpez Obrador, also known as AMLO, arrived later in well-managed waves, separated by riot police and metal barriers from the recently-installed camp of the National Front Against AMLO, or FRENA, which sits in front of the presidential palace. The camp is the most visible of a number of recent developments that seek to challenge AMLO, one of Mexicoâs most popular presidents.AMLO maintains significant popularity, seeing a slight rise to 62 percent in September, though significantly below the 77 percent popularity he saw when he was elected in December 2018 with over 53 percent of the vote. His party, Movement for National Regeneration or Morena, won in every single state of the republic, bar one. Ricardo Anaya, his rival from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), gained only 23 percent of the vote in the same election. Two days after FRENA set up camp in the ZĂłcalo on 19th September, Anaya announced his return to political life, calling AMLOâs government âdisastrousâ. Former PAN president Felipe CalderĂłn is also trying to register a new political party, MĂ©xico Libre, or Free Mexico, which Mexicoâs electoral commission rejected in early September due to suspicions over funding. Another public challenge to AMLOâs presidency came on in mid October, with the creation by the president of a prominent business umbrella group called COPARMEX of a ânew movementâ called SĂ por MĂ©xico, or Yes for Mexico.Alongside FRENAâs street protests, Anaya and CalderĂłnâs return to political life and SĂ por MĂ©xico, efforts by Mexican conservatives to form a broad opposition to AMLOâs government are growing. The presidentâs political party Morena has maintained a steady popularity, suggesting it is the presidentâs character that is contributing to his slight drop in popularity, not his partyâs politics. His confrontational personality and a string of controversies have added to criticism of the president, though he has largely gone unchallenged, some argue.âThere is no clear opposition. There are many complaints. There are many claims. But nothing exists in a coherent wayâ, said Alejandro Ănimas, a professor of political science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). âPolitical parties have refused to occupy the space for one reason or another. Among the chief criticisms of AMLO are his governmentâs handling of the COVID-19 crisis, rising levels of violence and a shrinking economy, with some predicting the Mexican economy.) will slump by between eight and 13 percent.As of October 13, Mexican government figures estimate 95,615 deaths and 821,045 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country, though the true extent of the countryâs crisis is likely much worse). The president has been heavily criticized for his initially blasĂ© attitude - he initially urged Mexicans to âlive life as normalâ and extolled the use of religious amulets against the virus. â[President] AndrĂ©s Manuel has to be seen in the global historical contextâ, explained Fernando BelaunzarĂĄn, a former politician for the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, which AMLO was a member of before forming Morena.He said AMLO was from âthe same litterâ as right-wing populists US president Donald Trump, UK prime minister Boris Johnson, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, and also Venezuelaâs president, left-winger Nicolas Maduro.âTheyâre illiberal populists. And AndrĂ©s Manuel is an illiberal populist. He is taking advantage of this indignation with the status quo to empower himself tremendously,â BelaunzarĂĄn argued.The president is also accused of further militarizing the country with the creation of the National Guard, a military-style police force. While the National Guard has been deployed by AMLO in operations against organized crime, it has also been heavily criticized by human rights organizations for its use against migrants, especially on Mexicoâs southern border.Other controversies centre on ambitious infrastructure projects, including the cancelation of a partially-built $13bn airport to be replaced by a different, new airport near Mexico City; and plans for an $8bn oil refinery in Dos Bocas, which critics say is economically unviable and environmentally destructive.Also under fire are plans for the Train Maya railway project through the Yucatan peninsula, and the Interoceanic or TransĂstmico megaproject which aims to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a high-speed rail link and continuous industrial zones in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz.Critics say both projects will irreversibly damage ecosystems, lead to exploitation of resources by Mexican and multinational companies, and especially harm indigenous communities.In Mexico City, FRENA hopes to provide an oppositional voice to AMLO, though its camp remains modest: an organizer told VICE News that on an average day there are 680 tents and 980 protestors filling half of the ZĂłcalo square.âItâs a movement which is peaceful, non-violent, but which is very firm in what we want. Itâs nonnegotiable: señor, resign! Everything is worse than it was beforeâ, Gilberto Lozano, businessman and FRENAâs founder told VICE News, predicting that FRENA could maintain the camp in Mexico city for between three to four years.FRENA has so far received messages of support from ex-presidents Vicente Fox and CalderĂłn, both of whom were members of the conservative PAN.CalderĂłn remains a contentious figure in Mexico, particularly for his decision in 2007 to launch a militarized crackdown on drug trafficking organizations; the so-called âwar on drugsâ which he admitted at the time is âunwinnableâ. The crackdown launched by CalderĂłnâs and continued by his predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto, has seen at least 275,000 people killed, at least 61,000 people forcibly disappeared and an estimated 345,000 people internally displaced.This year, after two years under AMLO, the country is on track to see its most violent yet.âHe thinks kisses and hugs are the way to get away from criminalityâ, said protestor Claudia Prevost, an English-language teacher from Celaya in the state of Guanajuato, referring to AMLOâs public policy of âhugs not bulletsâ as a way to confront violence in the country.Soaring levels of homicides tied to organized crime and the drug trade are combined with an epidemic of femicides that continues to see women murdered with impunity, which has led to violent protests across the country.But there is little common ground between FRENAâs social conservatism and many of the feminist groups who regularly protest.Despite denials of being religiously conservative, public displays of Catholicism were prominent in FRENAâs camp, with dozens of people kneeling and praying at regular intervals, sometimes in Latin, as well as literature distributed which pleaded for divine intervention to stop âJudeo-Masonicâ and communist plots. Many analysts also argue the president is in fact much closer to FRENAâs social conservatism than either would publicly admit."The president is deeply conservative, even if he calls others conservatives. It seems to be simply a way of trying to categorize others as the ârivalââ, Ănimas said.While it remains to be seen if FRENA can extend its influence into wider Mexican society, BelaunzarĂĄn argues that AMLO caused its rise.â[AMLOâs] logic of confrontation, of social polarization, has created his nemesis. FRENA is kind of a mirror of the president and his discourse, in which practically all the traits he has are replicated on the opposite side,â the ex-politician said. Regardless of the similarities between AMLO and Mexicoâs conservatives, it is unlikely the president will opt for a conciliatory approach to their criticisms.Cover: President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during a press conference at the National Palace in late September. The president is facing more pushback from conservative groups, who object to his handling of the COVID-19 crises, insecurity and the economy. Credit: Hector Vivas/Getty Images.
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