Presidential Candidate Kicks Off Campaign, Promising Mexico Will No Longer Be a Piñata for Foreigners

CIUDAD JUAREZ — Presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador kicked off his campaign Sunday in this prosperous but troubled border city, promising supporters higher wages, a tariff-free trade zone and a country that will "no longer serve as a piñata for foreign governments."Lopez Obrador said that isn't giving up on President Donald Trump and "his despicable attitude toward Mexicans," but said he won't tolerate Mexico and its people being trampled. The three-time presidential candidate began his campaign facing the Monument of Benito Juarez, the 19th-century liberal president with a nationalistic approach of indigenous heritage who Lopez Obrador models his candidacy after. "We begin our campaign here where our homeland began," he said. "Juarez represents a glorious past, but also the present day, grave, national problems of our country."Lopez Obrador said voters on July 1 should choose him over political parties that have governed Mexico for much of the past century amid scandals, corruption and violence.  Continue reading...