Mexico finance minister resigns, clearing way for presidential run

Mexican finance minister Jose Antonio Meade resigned Monday, clearing the way for a potential presidential run that many pundits are calling the ruling party's only chance to hang onto power. Meade, who is being touted as a top contender for the July 2018 election, will be replaced by Jose Gonzalez Anaya, who heads state oil company Pemex, President Enrique Pena Nieto said in a national address.
His departure comes as speculation hits fever pitch over who will be the presidential candidate for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), whose popularity is in the doldrums as Pena Nieto approaches the end of his term. Meade is not a member of the PRI, having previously served as a minister under its top rival, the National Action Party (PAN).
But many Mexicans both in and outside the ruling party see him as the best hope to defeat the current front-runner in the presidential race, the leftist firebrand Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The PRI changed party rules in August to allow non-members to stand as its presidential nominee, clearing the way for Meade to run.
The party has yet to officially name its candidate, traditionally chosen in an opaque back-room process. Pena Nieto did not mention the election but wished Meade "the greatest success in the project he has decided to undertake." "He's a good man, with a vocation for public service and a deep love of Mexico," said the president, who is barred by term limits from standing again.
Two-time presidential runner-up Lopez Obrador - widely known by his initials, AMLO - has emerged as the candidate to beat in the race next year. His populist message has generated a swell of support in a country fed up with politics as usual after years of surging crime and lackluster economic performance under both the PRI and PAN.
But critics call him a radical leftist who will steer Mexico down a path like that of crisis-torn Venezuela. The rest of the opposition is deeply divided, however. Some political analysts say Meade, a 48-year-old lawyer and economist, could bring the right mix of outsider status and cross-party appeal. Meade earlier served as foreign minister and social development minister under Pena Nieto, and was energy minister and finance minister under Felipe Calderon, who was president from 2006 to 2012.