Mexico’s AMLO sweeps to power in historic left-wing landslide

Bloomberg

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was elected as Mexico’s first left-wing president in recent times, riding a public revolt against rampant crime, corruption and poverty and handing
a crushing defeat to the business-friendly parties who’ve run the country for decades. The peso dropped.
The earliest figures announced by the electoral board gave Lopez Obrador 53 percent of the vote. Ricardo Anaya, leader of a right-left coalition, had about 22 percent and Jose Antonio Meade, the candidate of the incumbent PRI party, took 16 percent.
Long before those official results began to emerge, exit polls had showed Lopez Obrador so far ahead of his two main rivals that they conceded defeat — and congratulations had begun to pour in from foreign leaders, including Donald Trump. “I look very much forward to working with him,” the US president, who’s repeatedly lambasted Mexico for sending illegal migrants and drugs across the border, said on Twitter.
In a televised address later, Lopez Obrador promised “deep changes” and said that while he’ll respect all Mexicans, “we’ll give preference to the poorest, and to the forgotten.”
But he made a point of allaying market concerns too, promising to respect the central bank’s autonomy, avoid raising taxes in real terms, and stay within “legal channels” as he reviews oil deals approved under the outgoing president, Enrique Pena Nieto.
Then he headed for Mexico City’s historic centre, where a huge crowd of jubilant supporters was waiting for him. “We’ll fulfill all our promises,” he told them. “We won’t fail you.”

‘In Question’
Defeated in the last two presidential votes, Lopez Obrador now has a mandate unmatched by recent Mexican leaders to take the country in a new direction. He’s promised to govern as a pragmatist and says he won’t nationalise companies, or quit Nafta. Still, his procession toward victory has alarmed many investors and business leaders.
Markets have had plenty of time to prepare for an AMLO win.

Mexico City poised to elect first woman mayor: Exit poll
Bloomberg

Mexico City is likely to have elected a woman mayor for the first time, choosing a candidate from the left-wing Morena party, according to exit polls from El Financiero.
Claudia Sheinbaum’s win was widely expected, as she has been leading polls. The 56-year-old scientist previously served as head of the Tlalpan neighborhood in southern Mexico City.
Candidates from the left or left-led coalitions have controlled the mayor’s office in the capital since the 1990s.
Sheinbaum would become the first woman chosen by voters to lead Mexico City.
Rosario Robles was the interim head of the capital’s government in 1999 and 2000 after leftist Cuauhtemoc Cardenas stepped down to become the presidential candidate of the PRD. Sheinbaum was the environmental secretary under Lopez Obrador when he was mayor.