AS explained very well in these pages by Tim Young on September 5, Mexico under outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been remarkably successful in rolling back privatisation, promoting welfare and infrastructure and reclaiming control over natural resources — and also in neutralising the political right and its discourse.

The result was a crushing victory in the June 2 elections for Morena party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman ever to win the presidency, who will take office on October 1.

Equally important, Morena and its allies in the Workers Party (PT) and the Greens (PVEM) won two-thirds of the seats in both houses of the Mexican congress. This exceeded expectations and was a stunning blow to the Establishment: it means that the new congress (which has already taken office on September 1) can pass constitutional amendments.