Eliminating Corruption No Easy Task For Amlo

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also known as Amlo, has been elected Mexican president after a landslide victory in Sunday's election. The 64-year-old has vowed to change the way his country is fighting its war against drugs, improve life for the poor, rejuvenate the economy and eradicate corruption. That last point is one of the most pressing issues in Mexico and it may also prove difficult to tackle. At his final campaign rally, Amlo said that "we will get rid of this cancer, that is destroying this country".

The scale of the challenge facing the new president is evident from Transparency International data published last year. When asked about whether they had paid a bribe to access basic services over the past year, 51 percent of Mexicans polled said they had. That is the highest level of corruption in Latin America and the Caribbean with the second-highest rate recorded in the Dominican Republic at 46 percent. By comparison 16 percent of Argentinians and 11 percent of Brazilians said they had paid a bribe over the past 12 months.