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Agence France-Presse

He is the president of a top US trading and security partner but two of the Democratic candidates for the White House couldn’t name the leader of Mexico.
Asked in a Nevada election forum on Thursday held by the Telemundo channel and the League of United Latin American Citizens, neither Amy Klobuchar nor Tom Steyer could recall the name of the leader of America’s immediate neighbour to the south: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
“I forgot,” said billionaire Steyer, when asked if he could name Mexico’s president.
“No,” admitted Klobuchar, a senator from Minnesota.

Showing them up was Pete Buttigieg – the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and the youngest of the eight candidates battling for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Lopez Obrador … I hope,” he answered, hesitatingly.
None of the other Democratic candidates attended the “Presidential Town Hall” in Las Vegas, ahead of Nevada’s February 22 caucuses for choosing who will face Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.
The event focused on the issues dear to the 32 million Latino voters, many of whom have Mexican roots.
The US president has to spend a significant amount of time with his Mexican counterpart discussing trade, immigration, and drug trafficking issues.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio backs Bernie Sanders over predecessor Mike Bloomberg
Obrador in 2018 became Mexico’s first leftist president in more than 70 years, marking a turning point in one of the world’s most radical experiments in opening markets and privatisation. While campaigning, he said he wanted to build more state-owned oil refineries and encouraged Mexicans to “not to buy abroad, but to produce in Mexico what we consume”.

He gained prominence by leading protests against oil pollution in his swampy native state of Tabasco, though he has not given any indication that he will cancel private oil exploration contracts or pull out of Mexico’s free trade agreements with 44 countries.
“We’ve had enough neoliberalism,” he said during his campaign. “Why don’t they accept that neoliberal policies were a failure, that they only benefited a small minority, impoverished the majority of people, and caused violence?”
Centrist Democrats eye Michael Bloomberg as Joe Biden crumbles
He won a crushing victory in the 2018 elections after two previous, unsuccessful runs for the presidency. He described his victory as a historic “fourth transformation” of Mexico, following independence from Spain, the liberal reforms that broke the church’s dominance in the 1850s and the 1910-1917 revolution.
His predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto, left office with a historically low approval rating, which in several polls ranged from 20 per cent to 24 per cent. Pena Nieto failed to rein in Mexico’s rising homicide rate or deal with thousands of Central American migrants camped out on the border, leaving both intractable issues as the biggest immediate challenges facing Lopez Obrador.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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Which Democratic presidential candidates were unable to name Mexico’s president?

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Photo: EPA

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COLUMBIA, SC - FEBRUARY 11: Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden addresses the crowd during a South Carolina campaign launch party on February 11, 2020 in Columbia, South Carolina. Biden skipped a primary-night event in New Hampshire after the count there showed a distant finish to front runner Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Sean Rayford/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont and 2020 presidential candidate, speaks during the 'Bernie Beats Trump' Get Out The Vote Concert Rally in Durham, New Hampshire, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 10, 2020. The Democratic presidential race took on a new shape a day before the New Hampshire primary, as a national poll showed Bernie Sandersovertaking Joe Biden in first place and Michael Bloomberg surging to third place on a wave of advertising. Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg

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Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been Mexico’s president since 2018 but two Democratic presidential hopefuls couldn’t identify hi
Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer were stumped by the question during a Telemundo summit in Nevada ahead of next weekend’s caucuses



Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been Mexico’s president since 2018 but two Democratic presidential hopefuls couldn’t identify him.


Mexico

Which Democratic presidential candidates were unable to name Mexico’s president?

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been Mexico’s president since 2018 but two Democratic presidential hopefuls couldn’t identify hi Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer were stumped by the question during a Telemundo summit in Nevada ahead of next weekend’s caucuses

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been Mexico’s president since 2018 but two Democratic presidential hopefuls couldn’t identify hi

Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer were stumped by the question during a Telemundo summit in Nevada ahead of next weekend’s caucuses