Easy Does It Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tabasco

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was born on November 13, 1953, in Tepetitan, Tabasco. He studied political science at Mexico City's Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), one of the country's most renowned institutions. Even though Lopez Obrador studied at UNAM between 1973 and 1976, he did not complete his thesis until 1987. This has been used by his detractors to criticize his lack of seriousness and discipline. His supporters argue that he used his time in local politics to build the thesis. Lopez Obrador served in various roles in Tabasco's local government during the 1970s.

In addition to being one of Mexico's 32 states, Tabasco is also the name of a famous vinegary hot sauce created by Edmund McIlhenny. The original red peppers brought to McIlhenny were from Tabasco, which led to the sauce being named that.

Answer: Governor

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador began his political career very early in his life. He joined the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (or PRI) in the 1970s. At the time, PRI was the ruling party in Mexico, and it essentially had unlimited political control of the entire country. This of course set the stage for major political corruption across government branches and especially within the executive branch of the federal government. AMLO worked in several political roles within his home state of Tabasco, such as being designated a representative for Indigenous peoples and as campaign coordinator for Enrique Gonzalez Pedrero (who would eventually become governor of Tabasco).

In 1988, after holding a brief post in a federal consumer protection agency, Lopez Obrador joined a faction of the PRI party that was unhappy with the way presidential candidates were being selected. This began a left-wing switch that would end up becoming a new left-wing party separate from PRI. AMLO, as a candidate for the Democratic Front of Tabasco, lost the 1988 Tabasco gubernatorial elections against PRI candidate Salvador Neme Castillo, who supposedly won over 78% of the vote. Lopez Obrador denounced that the elections were fraudulent, and these claims are widely believed to be true. This experience would set the stage for a lifetime of complaints (some legitimate, some not) about election fraud throughout AMLO's political career.

Answer: Issuing driver's licenses without expiration dates

Following the 1988 Tabasco gubernatorial elections, AMLO's political career took off as he became a nationally-recognized figure. AMLO became the state leader for the PRD party, and ran another unsuccessful campaign for governor of Tabasco in 1994. Once again, Lopez Obrador claimed that the elections he lost were fraudulent, this time due to alleged illegal campaign spending and other voting irregularities by his PRI party opponent, Roberto Madrazo. Similar to his claims from 1988, there appeared to be some merit to his allegations of rigged elections. In 1994, Lopez Obrador led a massive protest that temporarily prevented Madrazo from taking his oath of office as governor. Coupled with a "caravan for democracy", these protests launched Lopez Obrador into the national spotlight and eventually led to him becoming the PRD party national leader.

Lopez Obrador became his party's candidate for Mexico City's "Jefe de Gobierno", a role equivalent to the post of governor, but commonly referred to as mayor. Even though his PRD party lost the 2000 presidential elections, AMLO won the local Mexico City race, despite initially not fulfilling residency requirements needed to run for office. During his six-year term as mayor, Lopez Obrador built a long viaduct over one of Mexico City's busiest roads and implemented several populist social programs. He also established a "permanent driver's license" program, where the Mexico City government issued driver's licenses with no expiration dates. Among others, this program was one of the reasons why AMLO had extraordinarily high approval rates as Jefe de Gobierno, which would propel him to his first candidacy for president of Mexico in 2006.

The Estela de Luz was a monument built by the federal government in the late 2000s; the Electoral College does not exist in Mexico; and free boxing lessons to the public were promoted by administrations that succeeded AMLO.

Answer: Felipe Calderon

Following a popular run as Mexico City's mayor, Lopez Obrador decided that it was his time to run for the highest office of all: president of Mexico. His campaign began in August 2005, in the midst of very public hostilities with the incumbent president, Vicente Fox. AMLO would famously tell President Fox "callate chachalaca", or "shut up chatterbox", referencing the very loud bird of the same name. Lopez Obrador ran as the PRD party candidate, against PRI's Roberto Madrazo (who previously defeated AMLO in Tabasco state elections) and PAN's Felipe Calderon, a former energy secretary under the Fox administration. The 2006 presidential campaign was one of the most contentious ones of recent history, since both AMLO and Calderon launched aggressive advertising crusades against each other. Calderon's commercials were aimed at scaring the population about a future AMLO presidency. Calderon's ads included the slogan "un peligro para Mexico" or "a danger to Mexico" referring to Lopez Obrador, and compared the latter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Several high-profile business organizations and chambers also contributed to the ad campaign against AMLO, sensing that his left-wing policies could bring trouble if he won.

On election night (July 2, 2006), the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) was unable to declare a winner because the results were too close to call. Calderon and AMLO were virtually tied, so the IFE announced it would need additional time to finalize the count. A few days later, IFE announced that Felipe Calderon would be the next president of Mexico, after winning by a margin of 0.62% over Lopez Obrador. AMLO would not accept these results, which would set off one of the most memorable post-election events in the country's recent history.

Answer: Met with U.S. President Bush to seek his help

The result of the contested presidential election of 2006 turned out to be as dramatic as its campaign season. With razor-thin margins making the difference between candidates Calderon and Lopez Obrador, the latter candidate's party and his supporters refused to accept the outcome of the election. Since it was no secret that the incumbent government led by President Fox disliked AMLO, and because Mexico was no stranger to real electoral fraud taking place, AMLO's concerns were not dismissed outright by a large sector of the population. Rather, his claims of fraud were given some legitimacy through studies of data that showed legitimate discrepancies in vote counts, as well as articles by outlets like "The New York Times" and "The Guardian" backing up the existence of legitimate claims.

Despite presenting his case, AMLO lost with both the independent electoral institute that ran elections (IFE) and the country's highest specialized election court, the TEPJF tribunal. AMLO instead refused to accept his loss and continued a prolonged protest, which included his call to supporters to flood the streets of Mexico City. On July 30th, 2006, about a month after the election took place, AMLO called on his supporters to install giant tents throughout Paseo de la Reforma, one of Mexico City's busiest and most important roads. The move created chaos and uncertainty and is remembered infamously (depending on who you ask) to date. In December, when Felipe Calderon was set to be sworn into office, AMLO held a parallel ceremony declaring himself as "legitimate president" while members of his party attempted to block Calderon from taking office. Eventually, Calderon was sworn in and became president for the 2006-2012 term. Though the way AMLO reacted to his loss led many to think of him as a dramatic "clown", it also boosted his popularity and set the stage for his future attempts to run the country.

Answer: Enrique Pena Nieto

The year 2012 saw another dramatic Mexican presidential election take place, after 6 years of Felipe Calderon's government. Under Calderon, there were major successes in areas like the economy and infrastructure, but his time as president was also marked by the bloody consequences of the "war on drugs" that Calderon declared against Mexico's cartels and organized crime. In this context, AMLO returned to the political scene with the events of the 2006 election still fresh in the memory of many Mexicans. This time, AMLO ran against Josefina Vazquez Mota (a veteran politician from the PAN party and former Secretary of Education), Gabriel Quadri (of the lesser-relevant party Nueva Alianza), and Enrique Pena Nieto (the then-governor of the State of Mexico who represented the PRI party). Pena Nieto's term as governor saw several controversies take place, including the murder and alleged cover-up of a little girl's death. Nevertheless, Pena Nieto's image was one of his greatest assets, with his campaign being centered around his looks and relative youth.

The election took place on July 1, 2012, with violence and shootings taking place in ballots across the country. Later that night, Pena Nieto would claim he was the winner of the election. Lopez Obrador once again called the election "fraudulent". This time, he alleged that Pena Nieto's PRI party had engaged in buying votes through grocery store gift cards, but the evidence he brought forward was not enough. The PRI party conversely accused AMLO of fabricating these claims, given his long history of claiming he had been a victim of election fraud. Pena Nieto was eventually declared the official winner and sworn in months later. This meant the return of the PRI party, which held power for most of the 20th century and had only spent the last two presidential terms outside of the highest office.

Answer: Maroon

AMLO founded MORENA, which stands for "Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional" or "National Regeneration Movement" in 2011, in preparation for the 2012 elections. However, it was not until 2014 that the organization officially gained registration as a political party. Lopez Obrador's two consecutive presidential election losses in 2006 and 2012 created internal strife in the PRD party. While one side insisted that AMLO was still the best man to lead the party, another faction of the party thought it was time to move on from Lopez Obrador. Among other things, this conflict led to AMLO and his followers to leave PRD and create a new left-wing political movement. The name "Morena" serves not only as an acronym but as a reference to the Catholic Virgin of Guadalupe (likely no accident, since Mexico is an overwhelmingly Catholic nation). MORENA's logo was presented simply with the party's name in lowercase, and the text in maroon color. The color would become significant because when AMLO finally won the election in 2018, the entire federal government's image would controversially rebrand to match his party's maroon color.

MORENA was formed by AMLO and his most loyal supporters such as Marcelo Ebrard, who would serve as mayor of Mexico City and then in several political roles in AMLO's federal government. Though the party was underestimated by the political class, it would soon be evident that MORENA was a real threat to Mexico's political status quo.

Answer: Yes

By 2018, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had already established himself as one of the most recognizable politicians in Mexico's modern history. He started out in Tabasco with the PRI party, got involved in local government, ran for state office, and allegedly suffered election fraud. Then, he became a leader within the more left-wing PRD party and became mayor of Mexico City, after which he unsuccessfully ran for president twice, and then he founded his own political party: MORENA. It seemed like the only thing missing to culminate AMLO's career was the presidency, so he ran for a third time in 2018. Though AMLO had always sympathized with (or exploited, depending on who you ask) the poorest segments of Mexico's population, the 2018 election reached an unprecedented level of social bitterness against the political class. This feeling was partly justified, given that the PRI and PAN parties which had collectively been in power for about a century, were known for endemic corruption from top to bottom. Many people in Mexico lived under extremely frail economic conditions, and the political class did not seem interested in fixing it.

Among other factors, AMLO's ability to capitalize on the country's widespread hatred of the status quo helped him win the 2018 election. This time, he ran as the MORENA party candidate against Ricardo Anaya of the PAN party, Jose Antonio Meade of the PRI party, and independent candidate Jaime Rodriguez Calderon. Calderon had very slim chances of winning, but Anaya (a young federal deputy with a solid political career) and Meade (a career politician who served as the head of multiple federal agencies like the Foreign Ministry, Energy Ministry, and Treasury Ministry) were thought to be strong contenders to beat AMLO. On July 1st, 2018, it became clear very quickly that the Mexican people had overwhelmingly elected AMLO as their president, with over 53% of the vote. While AMLO got 30 million votes, runner-up Anaya only managed to get 12 million. MORENA candidates also won multiple state elections on that day, which essentially gave the party full control over the government for the next 6 years.

Answer: Canceling Mexico City's new international airport

One of the reasons why Lopez Obrador became so popular in Mexico, to the point of achieving a landslide presidential victory in 2018, was that he was a very outspoken critic of Mexico's ruling parties and their policies. While some of his criticisms certainly had merit, it seemed to a significant portion of the country that others were attention-seeking remarks to "fan the flames" of social resentment.

In 2007, then-President Felipe Calderon inaugurated Terminal 2 of Mexico City's International Airport (AICM), since the only existing terminal was getting too overcrowded and was operating to its maximum capacity. Even with that project, the airport continued to be a source of headaches for the millions of travelers who went through the AICM daily. In the next administration, under President Enrique Pena Nieto, it was proposed that the existing airport would be demolished and a brand new, world-class airport would be built to replace it. Mexicans were skeptical of this proposal because any such project immediately raises suspicions of corruption in a country that has been plundered by politicians for decades. However, the consensus among experts was that the new airport was needed to assuage safety and comfort issues. The project was already in development by the time Pena Nieto left office in 2018. Unfortunately, AMLO had a completely different idea of what to do with this project. According to AMLO, the environmental impact of building the new airport would be inadmissible (despite the fact that construction had already started and large bodies of water and vegetation in that area had already been removed). In October 2018, when AMLO importantly had not yet taken office, an unofficial election dubbed as a "citizen consultation" was launched by an AMLO-affiliated group of academics to put to a vote whether the new airport should be built, or whether the new airport should be canceled in exchange for building a mini-airport in an existing military base. Though the consensus was that the new airport was the best choice, the results of this dubious poll favored canceling the new airport. Crucially, only about 1 million people voted, which is barely representative of Mexico's 100 million+ population. Regardless, AMLO took this poll as all the evidence he needed, and immediately after he took office, the new airport project was permanently canceled.

AMLO and his supporters insist that this was the best course of action, but it was hard to see things that way when the old airport remained overcrowded, the military base that was turned into an airport barely had any flights, and the tax money charged to passengers to use the Mexico City Airport was redirected to paying back contractors that had already agreed to build the new facility. It remains one of AMLO's most controversial decisions, even after his term ended in 2024.

Answer: Claudia Sheinbaum

As Lopez Obrador's six-year term came to an end, there was speculation about who would be his party's next candidate in the June 2024 presidential elections. After years with Lopez Obrador as the undisputed and absolute leader of his MORENA party, it was unclear who would succeed him. Ultimately, the main contenders were Secretary of the Interior Adan Augusto (whose title was similar to a vice-president), Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, and Mexico City's Head of Government Claudia Sheinbaum. All three were close collaborators of President Lopez Obrador. Many thought Ebrard was the better choice as a less polarizing figure, but the MORENA party ultimately chose Sheinbaum as their candidate. It is largely believed that President Lopez Obrador personally selected Sheinbaum to succeed him.

She won the June 2024 elections with more than 58% of the vote by defeating Xochitl Galvez (the candidate for the center-right "Fuerza y Corazon por Mexico" alliance) and Jorge Alvarez Maynez, of the Movimiento Ciudadano party. Sheinbaum made history by becoming the first female president of Mexico, and took office on October 1, 2024. The ceremony took place at the Mexican Congress, with Lopez Obrador symbolically handing her the presidential sash that the Mexican president traditionally wears in official ceremonies and other important events.