DESPITE the alarming advance of the far right in Argentina and Ecuador and its continued stranglehold on Peru, Mexico’s progressive stance grows stronger as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Amlo) approaches the end of his six-year term and left presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum opens up a 30-point lead in the polls for the June 2 elections.

The right is divided and disorientated: there is no shortage of would-be Javier Mileis in Mexico, spouting extremist rhetoric, lies and insults, but their appeal is limited to the hard-core conservative vote. Their candidate, Xochitl Galvez, although a woman of popular origin, is hampered by her long career in the right-wing PAN (National Action Party; Partido Accion Nacional) and her repeated inconsistencies, alternating between radicalism and conciliation. 

Denunciations of Amlo for “dictatorship” and “corruption” just arouse bemused contempt in most people who see the first honest and competent government in generations. With just over four months to the elections and eight months till the architect of this extraordinary positive transformation of national life retires from politics for good (Amlo insists that on October 1 he will retire to his home in Palenque and avoid political life completely), the idea of a return to the avarice, arrogance and hypocrisy of the old regime is inconceivable.