MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico’s Lower House on Thursday approved a constitutional reform that would allow for referendums to cut short the six-year presidential term, a move opposition lawmakers say opens the door to allowing re-election to the nation’s highest office.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks to the media during a news conference to announce a plan to strengthen finances of state oil firm Pemex, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1, said during the campaign that he would hold a referendum on his performance at the middle of his term and would cut it short if he loses the consultation.

Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party and its allies hold majorities in both chambers of Congress. The constitutional reform received the required support of two thirds of lawmakers in the Lower House. It now goes to the Senate for discussion and a vote.

“These changes will allow the Executive (branch) an intense political campaign in a shameless way in 2021 just when this chamber and 13 governorships are renewed,” said opposition lawmaker Xavier Azuara, from the PAN party.

It is a “path to re-election,” Azuara said.

Recent polls have shown Lopez Obrador has the support of almost four out of every five voters.

The constitutional reform also makes it easier to hold popular referendums, which Lopez Obrador has used to put infrastructure projects and other social programs to a vote by citizens.

That practice has riled markets since the leftist party swept to power last year.

In October, Lopez Obrador pulled the plug on a part-built, $13 billion new airport for the capital after citizens voted down the project.

Only about 1 percent of the Mexican electorate participated in the referendum, and critics slammed the process as unfair. Mexico’s stock exchange and peso tumbled after the decision was announced. </s> TOLUCA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's ruling party fended off a leftist challenger in a major state election seen as a test run for a presidential vote next year, propelling the country's peso currency to its strongest level since U.S. President Donald Trump was elected.

But the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) 3 percentage-point margin of victory in the central State of Mexico, the country's most populous, was a close call for President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose party has ruled it for nearly nine decades.

A narrow defeat will not end, or even dampen, the aspirations of leftists led by veteran Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an early favorite for next year's presidential race as the contender of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party. His young party accused the PRI of vote buying and other dirty tricks, and may launch legal challenges in the weeks to come.

With nearly 98 percent of returns in from polling booths, PRI candidate Alfredo del Mazo had 34 percent of the vote compared with 31 percent for MORENA candidate Delfina Gomez.

"We are going to challenge (the results) at many booths where illegal returns were sent, and we believe that with this we could reverse the outcome," said MORENA secretary general Yeidckol Polevnsky.

In other statewide elections, also held on Sunday, the PRI lost in the western state of Nayarit and narrowly won in Coahuila, which borders the United States.

"The PRI struggled to hold on to the gubernatorial seat in both the State of Mexico and Coahuila, which have traditionally been very favorable electoral battlegrounds, and suffered significant losses in Nayarit and in the municipal election in Veracruz," said Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Ramos.

"This does not bode well for the PRI in the presidential election next year," Ramos added.

Still, markets reacted positively to the news that the PRI was bound to retain power in Mexico State.

The Mexican peso MXN=MXN=D2 gained nearly 2 percent in Monday morning trade, on the setback for Lopez Obrador, a sign of ongoing market distrust of the combative leader who has opposed economic liberalization in Mexico.

The result also gave a boost to OHL Mexico (OHLMEX.MX), the Mexican unit of Spanish construction firm OHL, whose share price rose by as much as 9.5 percent.

Investors fear that Lopez Obrador and other opposition leaders, who have accused OHL Mexico of helping to finance the PRI in the State of Mexico, could go after the firm's lucrative contracts if they are elected to power. OHL Mexico has rejected the allegations.

The PRI is battling widespread anger at corruption and rising violent crime under Pena Nieto as the countdown starts for the July 2018 presidential election.

Lopez Obrador has alleged fraud in past elections, and he vowed to scrutinize the results from every voting booth.

"We will never resort to violence, but we are going to firmly defend this country's democracy," he said in a video message. Gomez, the candidate, said she would not protest the result on the streets.

Known as AMLO, the silver-haired politician earned the ire of many Mexico City residents after the 2006 presidential vote when he brought parts of the capital to a standstill with mass protests, saying he had been robbed of victory by center-right candidate Felipe Calderon.

"The lengths that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador goes to challenge the result will have an important bearing on his presidential candidacy," said Nicholas Watson of Teneo Intelligence.

Prosecutors are probing the circumstances of piles of pig heads dumped on Saturday near MORENA offices and at polling stations in several municipalities.

Also under investigation were telephone threats and fake electoral literature warning of attacks - tactics used to dissuade people from voting.

Encompassing many populous neighborhoods on the edge of Mexico City, the State of Mexico is home to one in eight Mexican voters and it has long been a source of strength and financing for the PRI.

Del Mazo, however, had a poor showing compared to his predecessors despite his family's dominance in the state's politics. He secured barely half the share of vote and a fraction of the margin of victory that the current governor won six years ago with the backing of Pena Nieto, himself a former governor of the state whose own popularity has since plunged.

Failing to put a stop to corruption scandals and struggling to tame brutal gang violence has cost the party dearly.

Mexico's attorney general's office said on Sunday a former state governor for the PRI, Roberto Borge, had been arrested at Mexico's request in Panama on corruption charges. Borge, an ex-governor of Quintana Roo, encompassing the resort of Cancun, has previously denied wrongdoing.

Lopez Obrador's State of Mexico campaign was hurt by a failure to ally with others in the opposition and references by rivals to crisis-hit Venezuela, which the PRI argues mirrors his economic model. He denies the accusation.

The campaigner has opposed the opening of Mexico's energy sector to private capital, a key reform under Pena Nieto, but no longer vows to reverse it.

Linking Lopez Obrador to late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has helped rivals beat him to the top job in two previous bids at the presidency.

Victory for Lopez Obrador in 2018 could push Mexico in a more nationalist direction at a time of tension with the United States, with U.S. President Donald Trump riling Mexicans with threats to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement and build a border wall. </s> In a landslide victory, leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador triumphed over his rivals Sunday night, securing an estimated 53 percent of the vote after a campaign focused on some of Mexico’s most pressing concerns. Some of the factors that accompanied his success, such as the rapid rise of his new party and the populist rhetoric, bear similarities with other seismic political disruptions in recent years.

But while López Obrador may be yet another political star who won against the establishment, his rise was facilitated by distinctively Mexican circumstances — which the 64-year-old was able to capitalize on more effectively than his contenders.

“The corrupt regime is coming to its end.” (López Obrador, June 27)

Throughout his campaign, the future Mexican president repeatedly promised to eradicate the nation’s corruption problem and struck a chord with voters.

“Voting is the only tool we have to ensure that this corrupt system changes,” López Obrador voter Luis Valdepeña Bastida, 51, told my colleague Joshua Partlow.

Mexico’s corruption index has further deteriorated in recent years and the country now ranks 130th out of 180 nations.

While 2014 marked a hopeful year on many fronts — with corruption, crime rates and drug deaths on record low levels — the situation has worsened over last three years. López Obrador turned the reversal of odds into a rallying cry, focused on disadvantaged voters.

Whereas there were under 16,000 homicides in 2014, the number had increased to over 20,000 by 2016 and nearly 30,000 homicides last year.

Fighting drug violence was one of López Obrador’s most frequently repeated campaign promises, even though the then-candidate came up with an unusual solution: an amnesty for some individual involved in the drug business, primarily farmers found guilty of planting marijuana and opium poppy.

The use of illegal drugs has been on a steady rise since the early 2000s, and López Obrador has appeared open to the legalization of certain drugs.

After years of declining economic performance and worsening corruption, young voters in particular — who make up almost 40 percent of the country’s voting-age population — have grown weary of the more established parties and politicians, turning to López Obrador instead who addressed some of their core issues:

“The state will cease to be a committee at the service of a minority and will represent all Mexicans, rich and poor." (López Obrador, July 1)

According to data by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), younger Mexicans have higher levels of education than their parents but are still “disadvantaged in terms of income, wealth, jobs and earnings.” Tapping into younger voters’ dissatisfaction with that discrepancy, López Obrador specifically targeted younger voters during his campaign, promising them jobs and other educational schemes to confront the cartels’ recruitment drive.

As Mexico’s first leftist leader since the country started its transition to multiparty democracy more than three decades ago, López Obrador will now be judged on whether he can deliver on those far-reaching promises.

Mexico’s next president thinks Trump is ‘erratic and arrogant,’ and a lot else

Trump said North Korea was ‘no longer a nuclear threat.’ His spies disagree. </s> MEXICO CITY — Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed a landslide victory in Mexico’s presidential election on Sunday, upending politics with promises to fight violence and corruption.

“I’m very aware of my historical responsibility,” López Obrador told throngs of supporters in Mexico City’s central square. “I don’t want to go into history as a bad president. Now we are going to transform Mexico.”

Earlier in a speech to reporters, López Obrador pledged to seek “a relationship of friendship” with the United States, Mexico’s largest trading partner.

The 64-year-old former Mexico City mayor, who will take office on Dec. 1, is expected to move the country in a more nationalist direction.

“We have witnessed today a very profound reshaping of the country’s political map.”

López Obrador has pledged to reduce the country’s economic dependence on its powerful northern neighbor, but also said he hopes to persuade President Donald Trump to help Mexico and Central America develop so as to contain illegal immigration to the U.S.

Mexico’s current president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has quarreled with Trump over trade and immigration. The first high-level contact between López Obrador and the White House is likely to be a phone call later on Monday. Trump tweeted his congratulations Sunday night, saying, “There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!”

Earlier Sunday, Trump raised the possibility of taxing cars imported from Mexico if there are tensions with the new government.

According to a quick count by the electoral authority, López Obrador won 53 percent to 53.8 percent of the vote — more than double the total for his nearest rival. His allies were also forecast to win majorities in the Senate and lower house, according to a prominent exit poll.

The nationwide election effort was marred by violence, with an estimated 130 politicians killed in the course of the campaign across the country. For over a decade, the Mexican military has also been waging a war against hugely powerful drug cartels.

“We have witnessed today a very profound reshaping of the country’s political map,” Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Ramos told Reuters. “The balance of power at the federal and local levels has definitely shifted to the left, with unclear implications for the near-term policy direction.”

Ruling party candidate José Antonio Meade conceded the election earlier on Sunday, saying his rival bore the responsibility of the next government and wishing him well.

Mexico City was the scene of jubilation, with supporters honking their horns to the tune of “Viva Mexico!” and waving Mexican flags. Thousands heeded López Obrador’s call to gather in the sprawling main square known as the Zocalo, with many dancing to mariachi music.

“This is the change we needed,” said supporter Mario Alvarez, 40.

“AMLO was the right choice. Mexico is corrupt. It won’t be easy, but it’s a start,” he added, referring to López Obrador by his initials, a widely used nickname.

Emilia Gutierrez, 34, was smiling as she rode her bike to the Monument to the Revolution to celebrate with fellow López Obrador supporters.

“It’s the first time the country feels happy,” she said. “It’s about what he represents. So many doors have been closed in Mexico. Now one opens.”

His victory highlighted the widespread discontent with outgoing Peña Nieto’s ruling centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which has governed Mexico for 77 of the past 89 years. Peña Nieto also congratulated López Obrador Sunday, saying, “He and his team will have the support of the Mexican government to make an orderly and efficient transition.”

López Obrador is no stranger to political campaigns. This was his third consecutive attempt to win the country’s highest office. Mexican presidents sit for one six-year term and are prohibited from holding office again.

López Obrador has pledged to combat inequality, improve pay and welfare spending, and run a tight budget but has been vague on policy details. Around half of the Mexico’s population of 124 million live in poverty.

He has also promised to root out widespread corruption.

“Whoever it is will be punished, I include comrades, officials, friends and family members,” López Obrador said Sunday. “A good judge begins at home.”

He has shunned the typical trappings of office and said that he will live in his own home, turn the official residence into an arts center, sell the presidential plane and cut his salary.

Addressing accusations of authoritarianism, López Obrador told tens of thousands of supporters last week that there would be no dictatorship. He promised to respect the separation of powers, freedom of the press and the independence of the central bank. </s> News of the day from around the world, May 6

Quarantined ship: Authorities in Curacao on Monday said 318 people aboard a Church of Scientology ship docked in the Dutch Caribbean island will remain quarantined until they determine how many might be infected with measles. Dr. Izzy Gerstenbluth said a team of health officials took 277 blood samples and sent them to the Netherlands. He expects results on Tuesday or Wednesday. The 440-foot Freewinds ship was previously quarantined in St. Lucia after a female crew member was diagnosed with measles.

Panama election: Panama’s Electoral Court has declared opposition candidate Laurentino Cortizo the winner of the country’s presidential vote. The court said Cortizo of the Democratic Revolutionary Party won 33%, with 95% of ballots counted from Sunday’s vote. Cortizo, a cattle rancher, will formally be named president-elect on Thursday. “I call on all Panamanians to join in a national effort to correct the country’s path, rescue the country and get the economy on the right track,” Cortizo said Monday. Second-place candidate and businessman Rómulo Roux of former President Ricardo Martinelli’s Democratic Change party won 31% of the vote. The campaign focused on corruption and slowing economic growth in the Central America trade and financial hub and turned into the tightest presidential contest in recent years.

North Macedonia vote: Stevo Pendarovski, the presidential candidate backed by North Macedonia’s center-left government, won the presidency in a runoff election with a conservative rival. State election commission chief Oliver Derkorski announced late Sunday that Pendarovski had won with 51.8% of the votes. Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, the candidate favored by the conservative opposition party, got 44.5%. The election was seen as a test of the government’s pro-West policies. Pendarovski backed the government deal with Greece that renamed the country in exchange for NATO membership, while Siljankovska criticized it. The presidency is a mostly ceremonial position, with some powers to veto legislation.

Mexico crash: An executive jet flying 13 people from Las Vegas crashed in northern Mexico, authorities said Monday. An air search located the downed plane in a remote mountainous area near Ocampo on Monday, the Coahuila state government said in a statement. “There were no survivors seen,” the statement said. Local media reported the plane was carrying three crew members and 10 passengers. The jet left Las Vegas on Sunday and had been expected in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey. Local media reported the passengers were returning from a weekend trip that included seeing the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight.

Brunei human rights: Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said a moratorium on capital punishment is in effect for new Shariah criminal laws including stoning people for gay sex and adultery that sparked an international outcry. The United Nations has called the laws implemented April 3 “draconian,” while the U.S. and several other countries have urged Brunei to halt its plans. Celebrities including George Clooney, Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres have rallied for a boycott of nine hotels in the U.S. and Europe linked to Brunei. Even before 2014, homosexuality was already punishable in Brunei by a jail term of up to 10 years. The new laws say those found guilty of gay sex can be stoned to death or whipped. Thieves face amputation of a right hand on their first offense and a left foot on their second. </s> Anti-establishment leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be sworn in as Mexico's next president on Saturday -- a dramatic change in direction for a country fed up with corruption, poverty and crime.

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The man widely known as "AMLO" is promising a sweeping "transformation" after 89 years of government by the same two parties.

And he appears to have the mandate he needs to deliver it: he won a landslide victory in the July 1 elections, together with strong majorities in both houses of Congress for his coalition -- led by the party he founded just four years ago, Morena.

It was the biggest win for any president, and the first for a leftist, since Mexico transitioned to a multi-party democracy in 2000.

But the sharp-tongued, silver-haired leader inherits a sticky set of problems from his unpopular predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto.

They include endemic corruption, gruesome violence fueled by the war on drug cartels, and the caravan of 6,000 Central American migrants camped at the US-Mexican border -- not to mention the minefield that diplomacy with Mexico's giant northern neighbor has become under President Donald Trump.

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Lopez Obrador, a 65-year-old former protest leader and Mexico City mayor, has been short on specifics regarding his plans for all of the above.

Critics accuse him of being an authoritarian radical.

ALSO READ: Trump criticizes GM for making cars in China

And despite his promises of fiscal responsibility and business-friendly policies, the markets are fearful for the future of Latin America's second-largest economy: Mexican stocks and the peso have plunged in recent weeks.

Dismissing such fears, Lopez Obrador is promising a presidency like no other in Mexican history.

Vowing to lead his anti-corruption, pro-austerity drive by example, he plans to forego the presidential residence and live in his modest home, sell the presidential jet and fly commercial instead, cut his own salary by 60 percent, and eliminate the presidential security detail.

- Change in style - After taking the oath of office, Lopez Obrador will head to Mexico City's central square, the Zocalo, to receive a chieftain's staff and give a speech -- it's the same place where he celebrated his election victory in July 2018, as seen here. [AFP/File / PEDRO PARDO]

His inauguration will also look different from that of any previous president.

After taking the oath of office and slipping on the presidential sash before Congress -- the usual ceremony -- Lopez Obrador plans to go to Mexico City's central square, the Zocalo, to receive a chieftain's staff, in a colorful new take on a traditional indigenous ceremony.

A massive crowd of supporters is expected at the square where, in between a series of concerts by famous musicians, Lopez Obrador will give a second speech from the National Palace.

That long-disused seat of power is where the new president plans to install his offices -- sending a message on the kind of change he represents.

With a history that dates back to Aztec times and walls covered in murals by iconic painter and communist Diego Rivera, the palace is a far cry from the current presidential headquarters, Los Pinos -- a sprawling complex that sits in a leafy park, isolated from the bustle of the capital.

The guest list includes a host of regional presidents -- one of whom, to the chagrin of Mexico's conservative opposition, is crisis-torn Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro -- King Felipe VI of Spain, and US Vice President Mike Pence, accompanied by his boss's daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump. Map of the US-Mexico border -- Donald Trump is pressuring new Mexican leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to accept a deal to keep asylum-seeking migrants in Mexico while their claims are processed in the United States. [AFP/File / AFP]

President Trump, who is at the G20 summit in Argentina, has struck up a surprisingly warm relationship with Lopez Obrador so far -- though the migrant caravan threatens to interrupt that honeymoon.

The American president is pressuring Lopez Obrador to accept a deal to keep asylum-seeking migrants in Mexico while their claims are processed in the United States.

Lopez Obrador's foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, is due in Washington on Sunday for talks on the issue with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

ALSO READ: US to sign free trade deal in Argentina </s> MEXICO CITY — When Andrés Manuel López Obrador takes the reins of governance on Saturday, he will be the most left-wing president Mexico has had in its modern history — and at a time of growing frustration among Mexicans and high expectations for change.

Tired of the rampant corruption that plagues all levels of government, as well as sky-high violence, Mexicans voted overwhelmingly for AMLO, as López Obrador is known, giving him a landslide victory.

During his campaign, López Obrador vowed to crack down on corruption, called for economic austerity and pledged to slash his own salary — ditching the presidential jet is also in his plans — and cap other public officials’ pay. López Obrador, 64, a former Mexico City mayor, criticized his opponents during the campaign, calling them “the mafia in power.”

Some have even compared López Obrador to Donald Trump for insisting on putting national concerns first. Mexico is Latin America’s second-largest economy and a major trading partner of the U.S.

Many Mexicans have high expectations for López Obrador, who is limited to one six-year term, with no shot at re-election. A recent poll by the newspaper El Financiero indicated he has a 66 percent approval rating, while outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto has only 26 percent.

“His supporters are looking for him to be the president of a new era in Mexico," said Jason Marczak, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. "He will also face the challenge of having to deliver quick wind for supporters who are incredibly anxious and eager of what his presidency might be."

Many crimes committed go unpunished in Mexico, where the murder rate is at a record high. Corruption and crime are not new, but AMLO capitalized on it as a left-leaning populist, campaigning on curbing violence by tackling poverty and inequality.

In Mexico, even those who did not vote for him are expressing hope that he will bring positive change.

Graciela Romero, a business owner in a middle-class Mexico City neighborhood, is a supporter of the center-right PAN party. Her top issue is the economy, and she's upset that she has had to increase the price of the fruits and vegetables she sells to counter rising fuel prices.

“We are a rich country, yet we pay so much for gasoline,” she said.

López Obrador plans to revive Mexico’s oil industry by building a new refinery.

Nearly all of Mexico’s massive fuel imports come from the U.S. The refinery is also part of his agenda to focus on projects in the county’s more impoverished and underdeveloped region in the southeast, including his home state of Tabasco.

Jesús Hernández Tolentino, 48, a taxi driver from Mexico City, rents the car he uses for work at $15 a day. After paying for gas, his daily income is around $11. He said the price of gasoline was going up under the government of Peña Nieto.

“López Obrador has mentioned he is going to build a refinery and that the price of gasoline is going to decrease, and that is what we are hoping for,” Tolentino said. He has supported López Obrador’s political party since it was founded in 2014 and voted for him in all three elections he ran in.

Nervous investors have watched López Obrador’s transition period closely. Weeks before taking office, markets were rattled by announcements that the incoming administration would cancel a partially built $13 billion airport and impose limits on bank commissions.

The rise of López Obrador comes at a time when Latin America has been moving towards right-wing leaders.

López Obrador campaigned for over 15 years as a leftist, defending the poor and was elected under his own political party. Traditionally Mexican politics were dominated by three parties: the centrist PRI, the conservative PAN, and the leftist PRD.

But it was the MORENA party that won Lopez Obrador a landslide victory. His MORENA party also won a majority in Congress, allowing him more freedom to change policy.

“He has enormous power,” said Eric Olson, a director at the Seattle International Foundation and advisor to the Woodrow Wilson Center. “Hopefully, he will use it for the good. But those are always risky situations as well.”

A key move to help combat corruption would be to have an independent attorney general, said Olson.

“That proposal has been on the table for a long time. But it’s not clear yet whether he will accept that the attorney general will be independent of the president,” he said.

A new NAFTA deal — called United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) — reached in October cleared a major obstacle for López Obrador, allowing him to focus on his domestic agenda. López Obrador had been a critic of the 1994 NAFTA, saying it had not done enough to improve the lives of Mexican workers.

But recognizing the importance of economic and financial-market stability, he praised the renegotiated USMCA deal.

How López Obrador handles relations with Trump, who has sparred with Mexico over calls for a border wall, will be closely watched.

The recent migrant caravan, that has resulted in over 5,000 Central Americans camped out in a sports complex in Tijuana, recently presented López Obrador with a difficult task — appease Trump while upholding his position of defending the poor.

AMLO signaled on Tuesday he would be willing to house the migrants on Mexican soil while they apply for asylum in the U.S. — something Trump has demanded.

He also called on Trump to contribute to development projects to help create jobs in Central America to help stem the flow of migrants.

If Central American migrants continue to make their way to Mexico in large numbers for years to come, it could erupt into a political crisis for López Obrador.

But for the majority of Mexicans, Central American migrants are not top of mind.

Vanessa Calderón, 22, a third-year medical school student, has already decided she does not want to have children as she weighs what she sees around her and what she thinks is coming.

“There is going to be more insecurity, more unemployment, and I think more violence and intolerance,” said Calderón.

She did not vote for López Obrador, though most of her family did. Yet, she is still hopeful.

“With him, we hope there is change," she said. "I, as a young person, do not expect anything from the Mexican government because each time, we go from bad to worse.”

Olson said López Obrador “has created enormous expectations by talking about his government as the ‘fourth great era in Mexican history.’ When you talk in that kind of grandiose way, you worry that expectations are too high.”

Christopher Alvarez reported from Mexico City, and Carmen Sesín from Miami. </s> Updated at 4 a.m. ET

Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who campaigned partly on a platform of standing up to President Trump — will become Mexico's next president after easily outpacing his two main rivals.

With about a third of the votes counted, López Obrador was polling about 53 percent to 24 percent for conservative candidate Ricardo Anaya and 15 percent for Jose Antonio Meade of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) party.

"The tendency favors Andres Manuel López Obrador," Anaya told his supporters minutes after Meade also conceded. "I recognize his triumph."

Pre-election polls had shown López Obrador, a 64-year-old former mayor of Mexico City, as a heavy favorite and exit polls indicated the trend in the early count was almost certain to hold.

López Obrador's calls for transforming Mexico by ousting the "mafia of power" and his advocacy for the poor held strong appeal. In addition, his nationalistic appeals, including a promise to defend Mexicans against U.S. bullying also helped win votes.

The candidate, who goes by the nickname AMLO, even published a book, Oye, Trump ("Listen Up, Trump") aimed squarely at the U.S. president. Even so, as Reuters notes, "López Obrador's nationalism, stubborn nature and put-downs of rivals have drawn comparisons" to Trump.

Trump congratulated the apparent victor in a tweet Sunday night, saying he looked forward to working with him.

As NPR's Carrie Kahn notes, López Obrador "says he's going to cut the perks and corruption from the top and give that money and savings to the bottom — raising salaries, pensions for the elderly, scholarships for the young."

The New York Times writes that the outcome of Sunday's election "represents a clear rejection of the status quo in the nation, which for the last quarter century has been defined by a centrist vision and an embrace of globalization that many Mexicans feel has not served them."

That banner for that vision has been carried by Mexico's long dominant PRI party and its outgoing president, Enrique Peña Nieto.

Exit polls forecast gubernatorial wins for allies of Obrador's Morena party in four of the eight state races being contested, as well as the capital, Mexico City, according to The Associated Press.

Mexico's central state of Guanajuato was expected to go to the conservative National Action Party, the AP says. </s> MEXICO CITY — Andrés Manuel López Obrador took the reins of governance here on Saturday, becoming the most left-wing president Mexico has had in its modern history — and assuming office at a time of growing frustration among Mexicans and high expectations for change.

In his first speech to Congress, Lopez Obrador pledged “a peaceful and orderly transition, but one that is deep and radical ... because we will end the corruption and impunity that prevent Mexico’s rebirth.”

Tired of the rampant corruption that plagues all levels of government, as well as sky-high violence, Mexicans voted overwhelmingly for AMLO, as López Obrador is known, giving him a landslide victory.

During his campaign, López Obrador vowed to crack down on corruption, called for economic austerity and pledged to slash his own salary — ditching the presidential jet is also in his plans — and cap other public officials’ pay. López Obrador, 64, a former Mexico City mayor, criticized his opponents during the campaign, calling them “the mafia in power.”

Some have even compared López Obrador to Donald Trump for insisting on putting national concerns first. Mexico is Latin America’s second-largest economy and a major trading partner of the U.S.

Many Mexicans have high expectations for López Obrador, who is limited to one six-year term, with no shot at re-election. A recent poll by the newspaper El Financiero indicated he has a 66 percent approval rating, while outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto has only 26 percent.

“His supporters are looking for him to be the president of a new era in Mexico," said Jason Marczak, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. "He will also face the challenge of having to deliver quick wind for supporters who are incredibly anxious and eager of what his presidency might be."

Many crimes committed go unpunished in Mexico, where the murder rate is at a record high. Corruption and crime are not new, but AMLO capitalized on it as a left-leaning populist, campaigning on curbing violence by tackling poverty and inequality, which he vowed to uphold in his speech on Saturday.

In Mexico, even those who did not vote for him are expressing hope that he will bring positive change.

Graciela Romero, a business owner in a middle-class Mexico City neighborhood, is a supporter of the center-right PAN party. Her top issue is the economy, and she's upset that she has had to increase the price of the fruits and vegetables she sells to counter rising fuel prices.

“We are a rich country, yet we pay so much for gasoline,” she said.

López Obrador plans to revive Mexico’s oil industry by building a new refinery.

Nearly all of Mexico’s massive fuel imports come from the U.S. The refinery is also part of his agenda to focus on projects in the county’s more impoverished and underdeveloped region in the southeast, including his home state of Tabasco.

Jesús Hernández Tolentino, 48, a taxi driver from Mexico City, rents the car he uses for work at $15 a day. After paying for gas, his daily income is around $11. He said the price of gasoline was going up under the government of Peña Nieto.

“López Obrador has mentioned he is going to build a refinery and that the price of gasoline is going to decrease, and that is what we are hoping for,” Tolentino said. He has supported López Obrador’s political party since it was founded in 2014 and voted for him in all three elections he ran in.

Nervous investors have watched López Obrador’s transition period closely. Weeks before taking office, markets were rattled by announcements that the incoming administration would cancel a partially built $13 billion airport and impose limits on bank commissions.

AMLO tried to assuage those worries in his inaugural address.

“I promise, and I’m a man of my word, that the investments of foreign and international investors will be safe, and we will even create conditions that will allow them to get good returns,” he said, “because in Mexico there will be honesty, rule of law, clear rules, economic growth and confidence.”

But he made clear his agenda trying to narrow the nation's inequality.

“We are going to govern for everyone, but we are going to give preference to the most impoverished and vulnerable,” Lopez Obrador said. “For the good of all, the poor come first.’”

The rise of López Obrador comes at a time when Latin America has been moving towards right-wing leaders.

López Obrador campaigned for over 15 years as a leftist, defending the poor and was elected under his own political party. Traditionally Mexican politics were dominated by three parties: the centrist PRI, the conservative PAN, and the leftist PRD.

But it was the MORENA party that won Lopez Obrador a landslide victory. His MORENA party also won a majority in Congress, allowing him more freedom to change policy.

“He has enormous power,” said Eric Olson, a director at the Seattle International Foundation and advisor to the Woodrow Wilson Center. “Hopefully, he will use it for the good. But those are always risky situations as well.”

A key move to help combat corruption would be to have an independent attorney general, said Olson.

“That proposal has been on the table for a long time. But it’s not clear yet whether he will accept that the attorney general will be independent of the president,” he said.

A new NAFTA deal signed on Friday at the G20 meeting — called United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) — cleared a major obstacle for López Obrador, allowing him to focus on his domestic agenda. López Obrador had been a critic of the 1994 NAFTA, saying it had not done enough to improve the lives of Mexican workers.

But recognizing the importance of economic and financial-market stability, he praised the renegotiated USMCA deal.

The first foreign dignitaries that Lopez Obrador greeted as he took office were U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump.

“I want to say that since July 1, the day I was elected, I have received respectful treatment from President Donald Trump”, Lopez Obrador said.

How López Obrador handles relations with Trump, who has sparred with Mexico over calls for a border wall, will be closely watched.

The recent migrant caravan, that has resulted in over 5,000 Central Americans camped out in a sports complex in Tijuana, recently presented López Obrador with a difficult task — appease Trump while upholding his position of defending the poor.

AMLO signaled on Tuesday he would be willing to house the migrants on Mexican soil while they apply for asylum in the U.S. — something Trump has demanded.

He also called on Trump to contribute to development projects to help create jobs in Central America to help stem the flow of migrants.

If Central American migrants continue to make their way to Mexico in large numbers for years to come, it could erupt into a political crisis for López Obrador.

But for the majority of Mexicans, Central American migrants are not top of mind.

Vanessa Calderón, 22, a third-year medical school student, has already decided she does not want to have children as she weighs what she sees around her and what she thinks is coming.

“There is going to be more insecurity, more unemployment, and I think more violence and intolerance,” said Calderón.

She did not vote for López Obrador, though most of her family did. Yet, she is still hopeful.

“With him, we hope there is change," she said. "I, as a young person, do not expect anything from the Mexican government because each time, we go from bad to worse.”

Olson said López Obrador “has created enormous expectations by talking about his government as the ‘fourth great era in Mexican history.’ When you talk in that kind of grandiose way, you worry that expectations are too high.”

Christopher Alvarez reported from Mexico City, and Carmen Sesín from Miami. The Associated Press contributed to this report
Voters in Mexico elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador as their new President in a landslide victory. Additionally, 128 senators and 500 deputies were also chosen.