MEXICO CITY — Every day at 7 a.m., President Andrés Manuel López Obrador strolls onto a stage in Mexico’s National Palace, clad in a smart suit and tie, and peers out at a room of bleary-eyed reporters and social media personalities. “Buenos días, look alive!” the 70-year-old leader calls out in a gravelly voice.
And the show begins.
Throughout his nearly six-year term in office, López Obrador’s morning media briefings, known as “las mañaneras,” have provided him with a powerful tool: a direct line to his political base, broadcast live on government and local news channels, and streaming online. Without pausing to take bathroom breaks or even a sip of water, the president stands at the podium talking for sometimes more than three hours, often in long, roundabout musings or rambling diatribes, all in simple language that anyone tuning in can understand.
Before he leaves office Monday, the daily briefings, beloved by many supporters and criticized by opponents as full of falsehoods and personal attacks, are emblematic of the particular brand of folksy populism that López Obrador wielded to become one of the most powerful political forces Mexico has seen in decades. It’s a model that his successor and protege, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, will be hard-pressed to emulate.
“The national conversation revolves around him,” said Daniela Lemus, a National Autonomous University of Mexico professor who researches political communication and has written about the briefings. “He is the protagonist of the mañaneras … and what he says becomes the main topic of conversation by the media, day and night.”
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