ABSTRACT
Despite the severity of the pandemic and a government response widely seen as ineffective, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (AMLO) political support has remained largely unaffected by the crisis caused by COVID-19. In this chapter, we argue that this disconnect is related to the president’s use of a populist political strategy. The high levels of political centralization, a weak connection between policies and discourse, and a moralizing and polarizing rhetoric have made presidential approval a test of loyalty to the president instead of a performance evaluation, thus allowing AMLO to successfully navigate the hardest period of the pandemic.
