On the latest episode of the MODERN MEXICO PODCAST, host Nathaniel Parish Flannery talks to veteran BBC correspondent Will Grant about his new book, ¡POPULISTA! THE RISE OF LATIN AMERICA'S 21ST CENTURY STRONGMAN. During the conversation, Parish Flannery and Grant discuss the differences between populism and authoritarianism and compare and contrast Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, and other modern authoritarian leaders in Latin America. Grant says that one of the leaders that he thinks is most similar to Lopez Obrador is Rafael Correa. "What I see [as a] similarity between their two trajectories is the increasing authoritarianism as time has gone by, their refusal to accept any meaningful criticism as anything but an attack on themselves and their political project. I think they both have dogmatic rhetoric [and] sense that they are simply right. There is very little space politically for reasoned debate. I see similarities there, too," he explains. But he says that Lopez Obrador's embrace of the military is similar to a strategy Hugo Chavez used in Venezuela. "The military is crucial to the populist leader in the Americas and we see that in Lopez Obrador. He’s leaned on them for all manner of tasks that go beyond security. They can get things done in a very satisfying way for the populist. That’s what the military does. They don’t question orders. They just carry them out. For Chavez that was key. Make them politicized, make them loyalists. [Now] we get to see the extent to which AMLO starts doing that to the military," Grant says. Grant says that Lopez Obrador, like many other populists, choose to communicate directly with voters through press conferences, unfiltered by the media. But, he warns, Lopez Obrador doesn't match Chavez's ability to mesmerize a room with his presentations. "Chavez could take to the stage. It was electric and electrifying. He was a rock star. AMLO has never had that in the same way. He inspires devotion. But rhetorically speaking… [AMLO] is like a university professor, one of the guys who just drones on and on," he says. “I think that the bigger question is what kind of precedent Lopez Obrador has set for Mexico. He has proven this strategy of attacking and discrediting critics is very effective. His hyper-polarized rhetoric has really worked for him. He’s been able to maintain a high approval rating. I saw some survey data recently that shows that nearly 70% of respondents in Mexico said they had a positive view of having a powerful leader who is not beholden to congress or elections. Even more alarming, nearly half of survey respondents in Mexico said that they had a positive view of letting the army run the country. So, it certainly seems like there is an appetite for authoritarianism in Mexico," Parish Flannery explains.

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