When Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — better known simply as AMLO — was elected with a wide majority in 2018 he promised to take a different approach to the war on drugs, including demilitarizing the anti-drug mission, and legalizing some drugs, like marijuana. He also said he would offer scholarships and increase educational opportunities to youth to keep them out of organized crime. While he has done some of these things to some degree, organized crime and corruption have increased in Mexico since his election. And, despite that, he remains quite popular with a roughly 60% approval rating with two years left in his one six-year term.
We sit down again with Florida Gulf Coast University political scientist, Dr. Rick Coughlin, who specializes in Mexican politics to get an update on the situation south of the border.