On Saturday, July 1, around 250,000 people gathered at Zócalo square in Mexico City to celebrate five years since the presidential victory of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). The citizens called AMLO’s victory as “the triumph of the people,” hailed the good work done by the AMLO government, and expressed their support for the Fourth Transformation of the country, led by AMLO’s ruling Morena party. This rally comes as the Morena Party is picking a new candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.
Since assuming office, AMLO has taken significant steps in strengthening Mexico’s sovereignty and challenging the hegemony of the United States. The president nationalized the country’s lithium and has promised energy self-sufficiency by 2024. AMLO also led the charge in boycotting US President Joe Biden’s Summit of the Americas over the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Mexico under AMLO has also been a fierce opponent of the US blockade of Cuba, and has materially supported the socialist island nation in times of disaster.
AMLO’s administration has also made enormous strides in uplifting poor and working people in Mexico. “Currently, at least 30 million households directly benefit from a Welfare Program or a portion, however small, of the national budget. And the remaining five million households that live in better conditions have also benefited, because our economic policy has improved the purchasing power of families and strengthened the domestic market,” AMLO declared at Zócalo square.
“When I became President, the minimum wage was 88 pesos (USD 5) a day, now it is 207 pesos (USD 12) and on the border, it is 312 pesos (USD 18), that is to say, an increase in real terms of 89% — something that has not been seen in the last 40 years,” he added. Under AMLO’s presidency, unemployment reached a historic low.
Additionally, as a consequence of increased investment in public sectors and social policies, the general crime rate decreased by 22% at the federal level.
At the closing of AMLO’s speech, he said, “We must not stray from our ideals and principles, and never forget two phrases pronounced by Benito Juárez and Ricardo Flores Magón, which are the very essence of our political work: ‘With the people, everything; without the people, nothing’. And ‘only the people can save the people’.”
