Mexico’s president breaks with tradition in quarrel with scrappy opposition upstart

By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president has vowed to continue campaigning against the opposition front-runner for the 2024 presidential elections, breaking a longstanding tradition of presidents staying out of the race to succeed them. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s target is Xóchitl Gálvez. The plain-spoken Gálvez hasn’t been nominated yet by opposition parties, but has been gaining momentum. Parties are still in primary season and the official campaigns have not yet formally started, so López Obrador’s criticism of Gálvez’s candidacy may not be illegal. But it breaks with a decades-long tradition of presidents avoiding public comment on the race to elect their successor.