Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a Mexican politician who has been the 65th president of Mexico since 1 December 2018.
Born in Tepetitán, in the municipality of Macuspana, in the south-eastern state of Tabasco, López Obrador graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1986 following a hiatus from his studies to participate in politics. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science. He began his political career in 1976 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Tabasco. His first public position was as director of the Indigenous Institute of Tabasco in 1977, where he promoted the addition of books in indigenous languages and the project of the Chontal ridge. In 1989, he joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and was the party's 1994 candidate for Governor of Tabasco. He was the national leader of the PRD between 1996 and 1999. In 2000, he was elected Head of Government of Mexico City. In 2012, he left the PRD, and in 2014, he founded the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), which he led until 2017. He was elected president after a landslide victory in the 2018 general election.
Often described as a center-left, progressive, populist, and economic nationalist, López Obrador has been a national politician for more than three decades. During his presidency, he has fostered public investment in sectors that were liberalized under previous administrations and has implemented a number of progressive social reforms. Supporters have praised him for promoting institutional renewal after decades of high inequality and corruption. Critics have claimed that his administration has stumbled in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and attempts to deal with drug cartels and other crime, has antagonized Mexican democratic institutions, and that the economy had already faltered before the pandemic. López Obrador's government has also been criticised for failing to combat violence against women in Mexico and its high rate of femicide, which has risen dramatically since 2018.
