This article is adapted from AQ’s print issue on piracy | Leer en español | Read our special report on Brazil’s new government
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is off to a rocky start. In his first two months in office, uproar over a controversial security proposal and the fallout from a plan to stop fuel theft – which led to gas shortages throughout the country – have hogged the headlines. But AMLO’s six-year term is just getting started and he has in fact made some progress in pushing forward key elements of his platform, including support for unemployed young people and major cuts to the public workforce. And of course he remains very popular.
In its new issue, Americas Quarterly takes a close look at Mexico’s new leader, from the books he reads to the people he listens to. Historian Lorenzo Meyer discusses how AMLO rose from rural southern Mexico to become one of the most consequential figures in the country’s modern history. We also identify what AMLO wants to accomplish – and the opposition figures that could get in the way of his “fourth transformation.”