Mexico’s Presidential Front-Runner Stirs Firestorm With Ex-Fugitive Senate Pick
- Lopez Obrador places union leader Gomez on senate list
- Gomez Urrutia once probed for allegedly bilking $55 million
Business Elites Ignore Obrador Despite His Lead in Polls
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Mexico’s leftist presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stirred up a hornets’ nest of social media outrage by listing a one-time fugitive union leader as a possible Senate pick ahead of July’s general election.
The Twitter storm began over the weekend when Lopez Obrador’s Morena party placed Napoleon Gomez Urrutia among those who would become senators through proportional representation, meaning he’d win through voter support for Morena and not direct election. Gomez Urrutia has been living in Canada since at least 2008, when Mexico requested an extradition order for him to face charges of bilking $55 million in union funds.