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News > Latin America

Mexico: AMLO Says No to Presidential Bodyguards

  • Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

    Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador | Photo: Reuters

Published 4 July 2018
Opinion

"Those who fight for justice have nothing to fear (...)The people will protect me," AMLO said.

Mexico's newly elected President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO, refused federal protection during a meeting with current President Enrique Peña Nieto, at the National Palace.

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Mexico: AMLO, Pena Nieto Meet to Discuss Transition, Recall Referendum

AMLO, who won the election with a historic 53% of the votes, was offered the requisite presidential protective detail but declined the offer. The president-elect left the meeting with Peña Nieto and entered the front seat of a Volkswagen Jetta, surrounded by supporters but no bodyguard in sight.  

“There’s going to be a real change, a deep change. It will be a radical change, but nobody should be scared,” Lopez Obrador stated following the meeting with the current president.

Though the most recent electoral campaign was one of the deadliest in Mexico's history, with over 130 killings recorded in less than 200 days, AMLO had rejected military protection.

"I will not use the services of the presidential general staff, I will not be surrounded by bodyguards, those who fight for justice have nothing to fear (...) The people will protect me," he said in March address.

Lopez Obrador's approach to security is one of the proposed outstanding changes in his government plan, in which his mandate has proposed the removal of military forces from the streets through a training and professionalization plan for the police.

Scholarships for young people, pensions for seniors and the revision of previously awarded oil contracts will also be among the priorities for his administration.

AMLO will take office on Dec. 1.

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