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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed Monday that he won't attend the Summit of the Americas hosted by President Biden in Los Angeles this week because not all countries in the Americas are invited. López Obrador had previously threatened to skip the summit if the Biden administration didn't invite countries like Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Those countries did not receive invitations over human rights concerns and their "lack of democratic space," a senior U.S. official said Monday. The official said the U.S., as the host of this year's summit, has "wide discretion on invitations, but deeply values and respects...

Leading presidential hopeful López Obrador seeks to broaden his appeal and soften his reputation as a hot-headed populist _________________________________________________________ MEXICO CITY—Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a nationalist who built his career blocking oil wells and railing against the political elite, is trying a third time to achieve what he failed to do twice before: win the Mexican presidency. The 64-year-old leftist candidate is leading in the polls ahead of the July 1 election after trying to reinvent himself with a new party, unlikely allies and as a champion of national unity who doesn’t threaten Mexico’s traditional economic powers. Although once a...

Another election, another surprise. Actually, two elections, in two countries last weekend, with surprisingly pleasant surprises. And in two very large countries: Turkey (population 82 million) and Mexico (119 million), both very important to the United States. In the runup to the Turkish election, speculation in English-speaking publications centered on whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party would get a large enough majority in the parliament to amend the constitution without a popular referendum. The AKP, usually described as mildly Islamist, has been in power since 2002. In some respects it has compiled a record that compares favorably with those...

The credibility of Mexico City's left-wing mayor, Andres Lopez Obrador, as a contender in next year's election for the presidency of Mexico grows stronger by the day. And it is his enemies who have so far proven to be his most bankable asset. Obrador, who will almost certainly be the presidential nominee of the leftist Demo-cratic Revolutionary Party, is a charismatic populist who has a solid base of support among both the urban masses and the rural campesinos, both of which groups remain marginalized and largely cut off from the prosperity of the middle and upper classes. However, it was...