Leftist Leader Lopez Obrador Accuses President Pena Nieto of Orchestrating Smear Campaign Agencia EFE
go to original May 1, 2017

Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor and two-time presidential candidate, barely lost the 2006 presidential election to the PAN’s Felipe Calderon and blamed his second-place finish in the 2012 vote on corrupt practices by the victorious PRI. (Alto Nivel)

Leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto of being a “vulgar street gang leader” and alleged the head of state was behind a smear campaign targeting him.

“I have information that you ordered the government secretary, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, to hand over the videos to the El Universal newspaper,” the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) leader said in an open letter to Peña Nieto.

On April 24, the Mexico City daily El Universal published images from a video showing Veracruz state legislator Eva Cadena, a Morena member, accepting a payment of 500,000 pesos ($26,500) allegedly intended for Lopez Obrador, the party’s founder and a leading contender for the presidency in 2018.

Cadena, who is running for mayor of Las Choapas, Veracruz, posted an apology on her Facebook page, acknowledging that she made a mistake and contending she was snared in a “very cowardly” scheme to smear Lopez Obrador.

The state lawmaker said the money “was a donation for the movement,” but she “decided to return” the funds after concluding that the contribution should not have been made in cash.

Lopez Obrador said in the letter that Peña Nieto was trying to harm him and accused the president of acting in a “low political and moral” manner.

Read the rest at Latin American Herald Tribune

Related: Andrés Manuel López Obrador: Mexico Will Wage a Battle of Ideas Against Trump (The Washington Post)

Related: Leftist Lopez Obrador on Top of Poll for 2018 Presidential Race (teleSUR)

Related: Looking Back to the Anti-AMLO Political Discourse, His “Populism” Has Been Attacked in the Past (The News)

Related: Can Andrés Manuel López Obrador and MORENA Unite the Mexican Left and Forge a Citizens’ Revolution Ahead of the 2018 Presidential Election? (NACLA)

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