After AMLO's Astounding Victory In Mexico, Can He Deliver On His Promise For Change?

In Mexico, President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is the first leader with an outright majority in Congress in 20 years. On Sunday, he also won by the largest margin since the country's transition to democracy.

But the world seems confounded by traditional media tropes on Latin America when it comes to understanding who AMLO is and what to expect from his administration. His brand of populism is not quite that of Donald J. Trump, for example, and he is a leftist leader, but he is unlikely to become the next Hugo Chavez. 

AMLO was voted in as a result of profound discontent with the long reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) — many have seen the election as a referendum on current President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose administration has been plagued by corruption scandals and human rights violations.

In his inaugural speech, AMLO summed up his political project by saying "For the Good of All, But First the Poor", and announcing he would not construct a dictatorship. But as he has promised to deliver change from within the parameters of the existing legal system — one controlled by oligarchic groups — the bigger risk is perhaps his inability to deliver on his promises. 

As Katherine Corcoran writes: "The real fear should be that another six years will pass, and the needle on both issues will remain stuck. Just look at AMLO’s predecessors, all of whom promised to tackle the same problems".

AMLO is yet another blow against the political establishment, but one that Mexico probably really needed. The problem now is whether his revolutionary and ideological stances can be channeled through real policies and effect change for those Mexicans he gave voice to during the election.