Trump and Mexico’s Lopez Obrador discuss immigration, trade during first call

Mexico’s new president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would pursue friend and foe alike in a crackdown on corruption after voters handed him a powerful mandate for government with a landslide election victory on Sunday.

“They will inherit the talks where they are – now at a standstill, largely given US recalcitrance to compromise with its neighbours”, she said, noting that Mexico has imposed its own retaliatory tariffs and the new administration would likely follow the same approach.

Lopez Obrador, 64, successfully tapped voters’ anger over a seemingly never-ending series of corruption scandals and horrific violence that left a record 25,000 murders a year ago – an orgy of bloodshed fueled by the country’s powerful drug cartels. Mexico had a record 25,000 murders past year, Yahoo News reported.

But on Monday, Lopez Obrador told Milenio TV Mexico will seek to remain in NAFTA and that he respects the existing Mexican team renegotiating the trade pact.

For numerous 89 million eligible Mexican voters, Sunday’s election was a referendum on the country’s political elite and its economic direction, as well as the tenure of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who was limited to a single six-year term.

“I think he’s going to try and help us with the border”. “There is going to be an orderly but also deep change, because we are going to banish corruption, the main problem facing Mexico”. Lopez Obrador also spoke of support for migrants and said the most forgotten and humble people of Mexico will be given preference in his government.

Even so, the peso weakened around 1 per cent against the dollar and Mexico’s S&P/BMV IPC benchmark stock index was also down nearly 1.5 per cent as exit polls showed Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party performed strongly in the elections, which were also for members of Congress.

Some see Obrador as a new champion for the poor.

Some have drawn parallels between AMLO, who is 64 years old, and President Donald Trump. “At last, a change”.

Sunday was the first time that an independent candidate appears on the ballot.

Other voters are not as enthusiastic.

Lopez Obrador’s coalition is also within striking distance of a congressional majority – a coup for a party contesting its first national elections.

“We are absolutely certain that this evil is the principle cause of social inequality and of economic inequality”, he said.

Lopez Obrador, who will take office on December 1, won more than 53 per cent of votes in Sunday’s election, preliminary results showed, more than double the votes of his nearest rival.

Jose Antonio Meade of the ruling Institutional Revolution was said to be in third.

Jaime “El Bronco” Rodriguez fought for attention with a horse-mounted “everyman” campaign and by tossing out policy bombs like his proposal to cut off the hands of public officials caught stealing.

Why is the election ‘historic?’

It is also the first time Mexicans living overseas can vote for down ballot races like senators. In both of Lopez Obrador’s previous two presidential losses he alleged fraud.

The PRI, which dominated Mexican politics for almost the entire 20th century and recaptured the presidency in 2012, was set to suffer heavy losses not just for the presidency but in other races as well.

“We’re looking at a shift in Mexican politics”, he explained.