Sixty-five years ago, Andrés Manuel López Obrador was born in Tepetitlán, a town in the municipality of Macuspana, nestled between tropical forests and rivers of the state of Tabasco.
He is the firstborn of a wealthy provincial family. His parents: Andrés López Ramón and Manuela Obrador. Don Andrés López, son of Veracruzan peasants, worked many years in the exploration of oil wells; while Mrs. Manuela Obrador is the daughter of an important Spanish merchant in the region.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador studied Political Science (Ciencias Políticas) in Mexico City, at the Autonomous University of Mexico: UNAM, because back then, there was no such college degree in Tabasco.
When he obtained his college diploma it was 1977, he got his first job: he was appointed coordinator of the Chontal Indigenous Center in Tabasco. There he lived for six years, in a hut with indigenous people of the region.
He was recently married to Rocío Beltrán (now deceased) and his eldest son, José Ramón, who was barely 1 year old.
He began his political career in 1977 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Tabasco and eventually became the party’s state leader.
In 1989, he joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and was the party’s 1994 candidate for Governor of Tabasco (he lost).
He was the national leader of the PRD between 1996 and 1999. In 2000, he was elected Mayor of Mexico City.
In 2006 he was the presidential candidate representing PRD, Movimento Cuidadano and Partido del Trabajo political parties. He received 35.31% of the vote and lost by 0.58% to Felipe Calderón Hinojosa from the PAN. López Obrador subsequently alleged electoral fraud and refused to concede, leading a several months long takeover of Mexico City Paseo de la Reforma and Zócalo in protest.
AMLO was candidate for the second time in the 2012 presidential election representing again the PRD, Movimento Cuidadano and Partido del Trabajo political parties. Once again he finished second with 31.59% of the vote. He left the PRD in 2012, and in 2014 he founded the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) his own political party, which he led until 2017.
López Obrador was a candidate for the third time in the 2018 presidential election, representing the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition, and finally won the election with a vast majority.
Andres Manuel López Obrador (RMT)
The president-elect will officially take office on Saturday, December 1st, 2018 for a six-year term.
Often described as a populist and a nationalist, López Obrador has been a nationally relevant politician for more than three decades.
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