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For Mexico's New President, Power Comes With Symbolic Change

By Benjamin Russell

Why Andrés Manuel López Obrador turned the presidential palace into the people’s house.

MEXICO CITY – Vanessa Rendón and her father were among the first to cross the gates leading to the presidential palace inside Chapultepec Park. Before Saturday morning, few Mexicans had even seen photos from inside Los Pinos, where Mexico’s presidents have lived since the 1930s.

But on Dec. 1, Los Pinos opened to the public with a live outdoor broadcast of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s swearing-in as Mexico’s president. Keen to signal a break with what he calls the excess of the political class, López Obrador (known as AMLO) has turned the palace into a museum and cultural center...

Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.

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