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Mexico’s ruling party chose the son of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for a senior role on Sunday, in a sign the leftist leader will continue to influence public life after he steps down.
López Obrador is in his final weeks of a six-year term that has polarised Mexican politics and concentrated legislative power in his party. His handpicked successor, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, will replace him as president in October.
In a conference centre in the capital on Sunday, Sheinbaum and party delegates emphasised “unity” as the younger generation of leadership was chosen.
Andrés López Beltrán, the president’s second-eldest son, has for years worked closely for his father behind the scenes and from next month the 38-year-old will take up the administrative position of organisational secretary for the Morena party.
“We all know that he [Obrador] will remain present in this party with his example, with his legacy. Our job running this secretariat will be to keep that legacy, that line,” López Beltrán said of his father to a cheering audience.
López Beltrán, who keeps a low public profile and has not given speeches or interviews, has alongside his brothers been the subject of numerous investigations linking them or close friends to alleged corruption in public contracts. The president and his sons have strenuously denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
The choice of López Beltrán, known as Andy, is seen as a way for the president to have greater influence over his successor and position his son for a future run at the presidency.
“It screams ‘I want to stay in power for the next 12 years’,” said Joy Langston, a professor at the Centre for International Studies at the Colegio de México. “It speaks of this powerful dark cloud that is hanging over Sheinbaum in the near future.”
Founded as a civil society group to help López Obrador’s 2012 presidential campaign, Morena now controls the presidency, a working supermajority in both houses of congress and two-thirds of governorships.
Morena’s members refer to the party as a “movement” but few dare to publicly disagree with the president, who has 60 per cent approval ratings and a devoted base among lower-income voters.
Through the transition Sheinbaum stuck close to her mentor, physically in his farewell tour across the country, and rhetorically in her statements.
Some of Sheinbaum’s supporters paint her as a more moderate, technocratic leader than the president, with debate in the media over whether she secretly disagrees with some of his policies.
But the presence of López Obrador’s son, the possibility of recall referendums, and the placing of loyalists in influential positions will make it hard for her to stray too far from the path he has set, analysts said.
The choice of López Beltrán for a role managing party structures cements the perception that Morena is based around the president himself. In office López Obrador raised the minimum wage and social programmes, while at the same time empowering the military and slashing the capacity of the state bureaucracy.
Some members of Morena have already suggested that López Beltrán could be the party’s candidate for the 2030 election, complicating Sheinbaum’s efforts to control her own legacy.
Others say his presence, if she keeps him on side, could be an asset amid potentially fierce jostling for control within the party. Leading Morena officials have made clear that keeping the ruling coalition together will be its biggest task.
“Our challenge is unity,” said senate president Gerardo Fernández Noroña. “People are already talking about 2030, so we have to be careful on that to not be divided.”
