Outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday gave the final edition of his marathon morning press conferences jokingly known as “The AMLO Show,” which dominated the news landscape.
According to an official count, the indefatigable 70-year-old gave 1,438 such appearances, lasting between two and three hours each weekday morning from 7:00 am.
“I’m leaving very happy, also because tomorrow I will be handing over the presidential sash to an exceptional woman,” the veteran leftist said, referring to president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum.
A close Lopez Obrador ally, Sheinbuam will be sworn in on Tuesday as Mexico’s first woman president, and has pledged to give her own version of the daily event.
During six years of appearances, Lopez Obrador never sat down or took a sip of water while on stage. He was only absent for a few days on the two occasions when he contracted the coronavirus.
He was the “first president in history to give daily conferences, and no one in the world has followed his example,” said Luis Estrada, director of the communications consultancy Spin who views the appearances as “propaganda.”
With more than 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, Lopez Obrador used the daily fixture to announce policy, speak directly to the Mexican people, criticize his predecessors and attack his critics, including the news media themselves.
He accused reporters who dared to contradict him of being “at the service of vested interest groups.”
Bypassing traditional media
Most of the questions put to Lopez Obrador at the daily appearances “were planted or asked by friendly journalists,” said Pamela Starr, professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California.
“Where they were really important was not in being traditional press conferences, but in a way for Lopez Obrador to set the agenda every day and take that ability out of the hands of the media and to be able to communicate directly with his people,” she told AFP.
Dozens of journalists and social media communicators waited excitedly Monday for possibly their last chance to talk to Lopez Obrador, who has vowed to leave politics and retire to his ranch.
“It’s an honor to be with Obrador!” a couple of followers declared.
The silver-haired anti-establishment politician widely known by his initials “AMLO” won a landslide election victory in 2018 in a country fed up with corruption, crime and poverty.
He leaves office due to the country’s single-term limit with an approval rating of around 70 percent — the envy of leaders around the world.
On his last day as head of state, Lopez Obrador signed into law two constitutional reforms he championed, including one that controversially places the National Guard under the command of the military.
He had promised not to say much at his last press conference, but in the end spent almost 80 minutes presenting a long list of what he considered his government’s main achievements.
More jobs had been created during his term than in European countries or the United States, while a murder rate largely linked to drug violence had dropped by 19 percent, the first fall since 2000, he said.
According to figures from the interior ministry, however, there were almost 200,000 murders during Lopez Obrador’s term, more than under the previous three presidents.
When he finally stopped talking, the celebration began with regional Mexican music.
“You agreed to bring breakfast,” Lopez Obrador, whose government was marked by austerity, reminded journalists before giving his watch to be raffled off among members of the audience.