Comments in support of
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Mayor of Mexico City

There are instances where it almost seems one could take a comment about Edi Rama (winner of World Mayor 2004) or a comment about Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico City (runner up) who, like Mr. Rama, received more than 5,500 votes, and delete the names, and be unable to tell which of the two men it is about.  The sincerity and strength of these comments by supporters of AMLO are no less moving and informative than those of Mr. Rama’s. 

The language barrier, again, sometimes means there can be no suspicion of writing to impress, or to impress about anything but the subject. 

The greater the context in which Mr. Obrador is viewed, the greater the differences between it and Mr. Rama’s appear – it could be said that the large scale obstacles Mr. Obrador faces, or that many maintain he faces, show little sign of waning – but his supporters in his city (and they are vastly in the majority) clearly feel they know him personally.  Indeed, it would seem inseparable from their reasons for supporting him.

Comments
Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
He has the moral integrity and the political skills to have presided over the transformation of the biggest city in the world, in order to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants, in a country where rapacity and dishonesty used to be for years and years the every day standards; and he also accomplished that task in a very hostile atmosphere of special interests, and surrounded by very powerful political enemies, such as the current president Fox and former president Carlos Salinas de Gortary.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
I want to vote for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mayor of Mexico City because I think he represents the new face of progressive politics in Mexico. A brillant mayor who puts emphasis on social issues (like giving welfare to elder people, pregnant women, low income students), while supporting the construction industry to generate jobs for the middle and lower classes, and joining forces with the business community to make investments in government programs. He’s the subject of an impeachment trial as a direct result of the actions of the federal government of the president, Vicente Fox, because he’s the leading pre-candidate in the polls (he has, like, 55-65 per cent of approval nationwide).

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Please, you gotta give Andres Manuel this award to make awareness in the international community about a possible coup d'etat in the local government of Mexico City.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)is the greatest modern revolutionary of Mexico City. He has changed the perpectives citizens had about Mexico City. His humanitarian way of approaching the city’s problems has created in the people new hopes and expectations. His main concern is with the elderly people, who had been forgotten by former PRI governments, and now are taken into consideration as an important part of the Mexico City population. The single mothers and the youth – in these areas AMLO has created a foundation to help women, and constructed in different city districts sixteen senior high schools that help to increase the level of education, and in the same way has created a new state university. The most important decision he made was the investment in the reconstruction of the city with Mexican currency and the reactivation of the economy through construction.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
I have been living in the United States for about 30 years, but being born in Mexico makes me extremely proud to endorse the name of Andres Manuel Obrador as the best mayor in the Americas and, very possibly, in the world. You see, Mexico City is the biggest city in the world and, regardless of your party affiliation, it is extremely difficult to govern a city of that size. And Mr. Obrador and his team, considering [that they had] the resources of a third world city, with uncompromising honesty and intelligence managed to improve very substantially the quality of life of more than 20 million people. HE DESERVES TO BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF MEXICO.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
He has been good to people, has made some good changes, supported the poor, the elderly, has made people to trust him, unlike the rest of the politicians here. He will most likely be the next President of Mexico, but the ruling PRI-PAN parties have made it clear that he won’t, just because they “think” that he will be like Chavez in Venezuela, but that’s because whenever he makes some good things for people they label him as populista. Bottom line, he cares for people, he’s humble and he’s willing to face the parties that have ruled in Mexico since long ago without fear of being killed, such as happened to presidential candidate Colosio back in 1994: he got killed because he wanted to change things as well. Good luck to AMLO! He might not be World Mayor, but surely will be Mexico’s next president.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Mr. Lopez Obrador has implemented many actions in favor of the lower socioeconomic population, which in Mexico represents a majority.  As citizens of one of the largest cities in the world, we know it has not been easy. We admire him for his courage to go against old and corrupt systems as well as the ruling party in Mexico. Besides, after a really short history of democracy in Mexico City, our right to elect our mayor is about to be violated.  Mr. Obrador is being accused of opening a road to a hospital, and might lose all of his political rights.  Therefore, we would lose the best mayor we have ever had.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
I think, since Mexico City has had the right to choose its government, there has been a commitment between the two parts: people and governor. Before that, this city was a mess. Lopez Obrador is a real hope for all of us just because he is not deaf to the voice of the majority. He has begun to do things right.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Because he is a sensible man and I think that he can change the economy and the political situation for México. He is different, and helps poor people. He practices disciplined politics for the city. Fox and the bankers’ men are afraid of López Obrador, because he would be able to do many things for his country.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the first governor of México City to work for the welfare of all kinds of people. He is helping the poor people, but his work (such as the second level of the main avenues in our city, or the conservation of the “historic downtown”) is good for the middle class and for the economy in general.   In other words, México City is the first place in all the federation to be made to work in spite of the economic crisis in our country.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
(My English is not very good but I will try the best.)
He really tries to govern for the people, especially the poorest. Among other things, he established universal pensions for old people, grants for poor students, free transport for disabled and old people and economic help for non married women and widows. Also he opened the first new public university in almost 20 years and numerous high schools, and restored the historical center of the city, which  really was a shame [before]. He also proved to be an honest man, and substantially reduced the cost of public works and equipment (like new metro cars) in comparison with former mayors.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Mr. Lopez-Obrador has gained lots of fans here in Mexico City, mainly because, for the very first time in our history, we have an honest and brave politician taking care of the mess that prevails in the capital. His work is comparable to the great effort that other governors (presidents) in Latin-America are doing in their countries: Alvaro Uribe in Colombia and Lula da Silva in Brazil.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
He is a devoted Mayor who begins his journey at 5:00 am with a meeting with the supervisors of all the areas of his government. Then at 6:00 am he holds a press conference every day so that he can be in touch with the people. He has developed social programs for elder people and single mothers, and has provided free books, notebooks, pencils and so on to every child in the public primary schools in the city. He built a second level in some of the main avenues so the traffic in the most populated city in the world could be mitigated, and has remodelled the Historical Center (downtown), so that beautiful areas at risk of being fully destroyed by pollution and neglect are now protected again. He has organized as well free cultural events on a massive scale, and we have had access to artists from around the world which otherwise would have been impossible to see. (Last weekend, 1,200 people enjoyed a musical concert at the Zocalo: the evening did not have a single accident.) Also, he has implemented an austere regime, so that he has not even bought himself a new car: he is an honest man, a thing that is not usual to see in Mexico City! He is really popular, and that is the reason the Mexican politicians want to remove him from his post, in order that he cannot run for president in the 2006 elections. People love him so much it is certain that he would win in spite of the crooked Mexican politicians and their electoral frauds. I think that he is doing the best job, and that element should be measured also in light of the hostile political environment in which he is working, because the federal government has been trying to block every initiative he presents (and even the president reduced the budget for Mexico City so that Lopez Obrador had trouble implementing his policies: but that did not stop the Mayor of Mexico City). In a country with a past made with corruption and treason, it is good to see also a Mayor who has always denounced the traffic of influence. Anyway, that is why I think Andres Manuel deserves the award.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
In decades of corruption, Mr. Obrador is the first honest mayor in Mexico City. And he truly works for his city when we see him begin the labor at 5:00 o'clock. If he would spend the time in cabarets, really he couldn’t stand up at that hour in the morning. He has an innovative vision to help people and to upgrade the city services in spite of the opposition and murmurs of other politicians who see in him an honest and powerful opponent

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
I consider that Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador should win, because of his excellent results. His administration is interested in supporting education and old people, and [providing] assistance to children. He has defined a different option for the people of Mexico City; he is not married to the idea of the Washington Consensus. He believes that the State can and must control the economic areas that are strategic, such as Pemex [oil company] and the CFE [Federal Electricity Commission], mainly.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
He is worried about the social conditions of elderly people, and he also is worried about the young people, that they should have an education. He is on the way to building more public schools for low income people. I like him because he is a humble man.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
I think Andrés Manuel López Obrador should win the title World Mayor 2004 because he has proven to be ethically consistent and has fulfilled the expectations of Mexico City’s inhabitants.  Because of Mexico’s history, we need politicians like him to stop corruption and to fight for an ideal to make things better. 

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
He should win because he is working in his office since early in the morning every day.  He receives newspaper reporters every day, and is ready to answer their questions, and at the same time he informs them about the things that are being done around the city to improve life. He helps very poor people by giving them some economic help so that children can obtain books and other things important to attend school; he helps poor old people by giving them some economic help every month; he created a kind of public subway library so that people can read while waiting for the subway – they can pick up a book at one station, and leave it when they get off; he is building a road to facilitate access to a hospital mainly for poor people; he has shown to the Fox government that he has not committed any illegal acts, as the government intends to present to the public; he understands that México and its resources are to benefit Mexicans, and not foreign governments and companies; his daily speeches bring hope to improve life in this country, and punishment to those who have stolen and are stealing from this country. He is humble, and ready to listen to people and to receive advice from those who know better and can suggest more effective actions in matters he does not know about, such as, for example, in relation to environmental aspects. He is the only one who can prevent a national economic disaster.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
At this moment, maybe he is the only man in Mexico that can have control of  huge Mexico City. On the other hand, because the Mexican President (Vicente Fox) doesn’t like him for the 2006 presidential elections, the political climate in Mexico is not good at this moment. It is an extra difficulty for the AMLO ‘performance’, but really he is an honest person. I believe in him. I trust him.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Andres Manuel is for most of us “the Little Sunshine of Hope”, he really is. All we need is Hope... Hope, Hope. Hope for the unattended, the single mothers, the old people, the poor people. A very intelligent woman, a professional journalist, has told us that the best virtue of Andres Manuel is his kindness. I agree with her.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a man with high ideals of democracy for his country and with consciousness of justice, he hears the people he is working for, especially the poor and the victims of brutal neoliberalism, and has been fighting against [the tendency] to sell his nation to foreign capitals. Now, especially this year, he has been suffering political brutality from all the goverment forces [that seek] to eliminate him from the next elections.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Andrés Manuel should win because he is an honest man who has done a lot of good things to help the people who most need help, like senior citizens, single mothers, handicapped people. People trust him because he has proved his honesty, and that’s why the Federal government is trying to attack him; his popularity and achievements are dangerous for corrupt people. Sorry about my English, in Spanish I could express myself in a better way.

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Well, aside from physical infrastructure work (which he has done admirably), giving hope to the hopeless and redistributing resources to where they are more sorely needed is already a change in the country (not only in Mexico City), where he instils renewed hope and confidence. 

Supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador:
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the first politician in México who really does something about the people. Many years ago, the politicians were only administrators of the México City goverment, but now López Obrador is doing a lot of things for the people and for the city. The last mayor who did that was Carlos Hank González, about 30 years ago. That’s why López Obrador will win the World Mayor [contest] and will be the next President of México.