Mexico’s former president, who governed from 2018 to 2024, says he’s content with his political retirement. In recent remarks, he explained that stepping away from public life was a deliberate choice, not a setback.
He emphasized that he deliberately avoided becoming what Latin Americans call a “caudillo”—a strongman leader who dominates politics long after leaving formal office—and that he had no interest in acting as a hidden hand pulling strings from behind his successor’s government.
During part of the same address, he also touched on historical episodes involving foreign interventions in Mexico, referencing past invasions by France and the United States. Those conflicts, including the mid-1800s French intervention and the 19th-century war with the US that cost Mexico roughly half its territory, remain touchstones in Mexican political rhetoric about sovereignty and foreign interference.
By framing his own retirement against that backdrop, the former president appeared to be drawing a contrast between leaders who cling to influence and those who, in his telling, step back once their term ends.
For the full remarks and additional context on the speech, read the original report from Reforma.
Source: 'No quise ser caudillo, ni poder detrás del trono' (Reforma).
Image: Photocapy, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).