Mexico president marks 1 year in office with party, protests

Thousands of Mexicans have packed into the capital’s central square to celebrate President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s first year in office, while thousands more marched down the city’s main avenue to protest violence and other ills in the country

Thousands of Mexicans packed into the capital’s central square Sunday to celebrate President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s first year in office, while thousands more marched down the city’s main avenue to protest violence and other ills in the country.

The mood in the Zocalo was festive, with an orchestra from the president’s home state of Tabasco playing tropical music inspired by Cuban sounds while scantily clad women danced next to them. Revelers donned masks bearing López Obrador’s likeness in what supporters have dubbed AMLOFest, a play on the president’s initials.

Polls show that more than half of Mexicans support the way López Obrador is running the country, despite rising homicide rates and a floundering economy that’s flirting with recession.

In a speech, the president tallied his achievements so far, such as the rollout of new social programs aimed mostly at helping the young, elderly and indigenous. The World Bank estimates that one of three Mexicans lives in poverty.

“There still hasn’t been economic growth like we want,” he conceded, “but I insist there’s a better distribution of wealth.”

On the Paseo de la Reforma boulevard, meanwhile, protesters dressed in white expressed anger and frustration over increasingly appalling incidents of violence, a stagnant economy and deepening political divisions in the country.