What is Andrés Manuel López Obrador's Net Worth?
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a Mexican politician who has a net worth of $500 thousand. Andrés Manuel López Obrador served as the 65th president of Mexico, having been elected in 2018. He succeeded Enrique Peña Nieto, who succeeded Felipe Calderón, who succeeded Vicente Fox. Before that, he served as Head of Government of Mexico City from 2000 to 2005, ran unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2006 and 2012, and established the left-wing populist political party Morena in 2014. During his presidency, López Obrador was praised for promoting public investment in sectors that had been liberalized under previous administrations and for implementing progressive social reforms, but was also criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his failure to curb violent crime and drug cartels.
Early Life and Education
Andrés Manuel López Obrador was born on November 13, 1953 in Tepetitán, Mexico as the oldest son of merchants Manuela Obrador González and Andrés López Ramón. He has several younger siblings, including José Ramiro, Pedro Arturo, and twins Candelaria Beatriz and Martín Jesús. As a kid, López Obrador attended the Marcos E. Becerra school. He later attended middle school in Villahermosa, to which his family moved in the mid-1960s. After high school, López Obrador moved to Mexico City and studied political science and public administration at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Originally at the school from 1973 to 1976, he left to take government positions in his native Tabasco. López Obrador returned to UNAM to receive his degree in 1987.
Political Career, 1976-1999
López Obrador began his political career in 1976 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. He landed his first public position the next year, as director of the Indigenous Institute of Tabasco. In 1984, López Obrador moved to Mexico City to work at the National Consumers' Institute, a federal government agency. At the end of the decade, he joined the new, dissenting left wing of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which eventually became the Party of the Democratic Revolution. In 1994, López Obrador became the Party's candidate for Governor of Tabasco, but lost in the election to Roberto Madrazo. He went on to serve as the president of the Party of the Democratic Revolution from 1996 to 1999.
Head of Government of Mexico City
In 2000, López Obrador was elected Head of Government of Mexico City. During his tenure through 2005, he was popular with the Mexican left due to his handling of crime, infrastructure, and social spending. However, López Obrador was heavily criticized for his response to the lynching of two federal law-enforcement officers in Tláhuac in late 2004. That same year, his state immunity from prosecution was removed after he refused to stop construction on land that had allegedly been expropriated by his predecessor, Rosario Robles.
Getty
First Presidential Runs
During the 2006 elections in Mexico, López Obrador was nominated as the presidential candidate for the Coalition for the Good of All. Ultimately, he was narrowly defeated by National Action Party candidate Felipe Calderón in the most hotly contested election in Mexican history. Despite the Federal Electoral Tribunal identifying multiple irregularities in voting, it denied López Obrador's request for a recount, precipitating mass protests across Mexico.
López Obrador ran for president again in 2012 as a candidate under the Progressive Movement coalition. This time, he lost to the Commitment to Mexico coalition candidate Enrique Peña Nieto. Following his loss, López Obrador withdrew from the Party of the Democratic Revolution and announced that his civil association Morena, which he had founded in 2011, would become a political party. Morena was registered as a political party in 2014, and was led by López Obrador until the end of 2017.
President of Mexico, 2018-2024
López Obrador ran for president a third time in 2018, this time under the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition. The third time proved to be the charm, as he won the election in a landslide victory. During his presidency, López Obrador promoted public investment in sectors that had been liberalized by previous administrations, and implemented numerous progressive social reforms. He earned praise for advancing institutional renewal after decades of social inequality and for working to end corruption. However, López Obrador received criticism for his negligent handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and for his failure to curb violent crime and the ongoing drug war. In 2024, López Obrador was succeeded as president by Claudia Sheinbaum, a member of Morena.
Personal Life
While teaching at the Juárez Autonomous University of Tabasco in the 1970s, López Obrador met sociology student Rocío Beltrán Medina. The pair married in 1978 and went on to have three sons: José Ramón, Andrés Manuel, and Gonzalo Alfonso. Medina passed away in early 2003 due to complications from lupus. In 2006, López Obrador married writer Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, who had worked in the Mexico City government during López Obrador's tenure as the city's Head of Government. They had a son named Jesús Ernesto in 2007.
