It took a while. But finally, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (pictured), known to one and all by his initials Amlo, has been elected president of Mexico, Latin America’s second biggest economy and one of the United States’ closest allies. Third time lucky for Amlo; he was trounced in 2016, and lost by a whisker six years before that. Now he has his revenge.

In the election last Sunday he destroyed his two main opponents, Ricardo Anaya of the National Action Party (PAN) and José Antonio Meade of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Between them, these two parties had ruled Mexico for decades. So Amlo’s extraordinary victory marks a significant break with the past.