Andés Manuel López Obrador: New Mexico president wants friendlier relations with US and Trump

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Fresh on the back of an historic landslide victory, the newly elected president of Mexico has said he plans to seek out friendlier relations with the United States in order to “reach an understanding” with its neighbour.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador became the first presidential candidate in modern Mexican history to attract more than half of the vote, after running a campaign focused on domestic issues. He promised to combat record levels of violence, while also rooting out corruption and bolstering a sluggish economy.

During the campaign, Mr López Obrador did not pull punches when discussing US President Donald Trump, who has regularly attacked Mexico since his presidential campaign. But with both men seemingly happy to use the clean slate provided by the election, the pair have started – at least superficially – talking about working together once the Mexican takes his office.

Shortly after the election, Mr Trump tweeted a congratulatory note to Mr López Obrador, saying, “I very much look forward to working with him. There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!”

Mr Trump then spoke with Mr López Obrador on Monday morning for about 30 minutes about trade, border security and the possibility of a Mexico-US trade deal. The US president said after the call it was a “great talk”

“I think the relationship will be a very good one,” he added.

Mr López Obrador, for his part, signalled that he planned on taking a more conciliatory tone to begin his presidency, and said that he would like to develop “friendly relations” between the United States and Mexico given what has been quite a fraught 18 months.

The Mexican president-elect said in an interview with the Televisa news network that Mr Trump’s tweet on Sunday night “was very respectful. That is what we always want to maintain with the US government, that there be mutual respect”.

“We are never going to disrespect the US government, because we want them to respect us,” Mr López said.

“At the appropriate moment, we are going to get in touch, to reach an understanding.

“We are conscious of the need to maintain good relations with the United States,” he added.

Since Mr Trump took office – and during his 2016 election campaign – he has railed against Mexico on issues including trade and immigration. He began his campaign for the presidency by decrying immigrants coming to the US through Mexico as “rapists” and saying that Mexicans are bringing drugs and crime to the US.

He has largely stood by those comments in word and in spirit since then, and has further exacerbated tensions between the two countries by imposing billions of dollars in tariffs that target Mexico, among other countries.

The Trump administration has defended those measures, saying the they are needed to offset trade imbalances between the two countries.

In response, Mexico has retaliated by adding import taxes on American staples including pork, cranberries, apples, and bourbon that US companies would like to sell to Mexican vendors.

Mr López Obrador – who, like Mr Trump, has been critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) between the US, Mexico and Canada – was able to gain popularity among the likes of farmers and working class voters in part by looking like he would not be afraid to confront Mr Trump.

Mr López Obrador won comparisons to Mr Trump for his populist, nationalist rhetoric and sometimes touchy personality – as well as his past scepticism about the trade deal.

But he said he supports reaching a deal on renegotiating Nafta with the US and Canada. The talks have been stalled over the Trump administration’s demands for higher US content and a “sunset clause” in the 1994 trade agreement.

Mr López Obrador said he will propose that his own team of experts be included in the talks, and he will make that proposal in a meeting on Tuesday with current President Enrique Pena Nieto.

The new leader told Televisa he will respect the current team of negotiators and let them continue representing Mexico until he takes office on 1 December.

He said he wants to have information on what is being discussed and “to help as much as we can.”

However, Mr López Obrador, a 64-year-old former mayor of Mexico City, has many more concerns than just his relationship with Mr Trump and the economic behemoth to the north.

He inherits a Mexico that has a shaky economy at best, at least recently, and he has promised a non-violent revolution that would lift up the poor while curtailing the inequality that has plagued the country through years of sluggish economic growth.

Mr López Obrador, who has been described by critics as a “Mexican Hugo Chavez”, also faces the heavy task of tackling Mexico’s record levels of violence, much of which is related to drug cartels.

The rate of violence has reached peak levels, and 2017 saw the highest rate of homicide since the peak year in the country’s drug war in 2011. A total of 29,168 people were murdered in Mexico last year,compared to 27,213 in 2011. The 2017 rate was the most homicides recorded since at least 1997, when comparable tallies first began to be made.

Mr López Obrador has said that he would have daily meetings with his security cabinet during his time as president to determine how to combat that epidemic of violence. He said that the security cabinet would be operating under a “unified command” during his presidency.

That violence has even impacted campaigns, and this years’ election was the deadliest in years, with more than 130 political candidates or party workers killed since September.

Associated Press contributed to this report