Leftist in Mexico has seen results from Colombia and Peru and says Chavez not his model

Washington Times:

Aides to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador say that if elected next month, the leftist presidential candidate will govern more like Theodore Roosevelt -- whose economic policies featured trust-busting and progressive taxation -- than like Venezuelan firebrand Hugo Chavez.
The claim illustrates the extent that TV ads comparing Mr. Lopez Obrador to Mr. Chavez have hurt his campaign and compelled him to try to distance himself from the Venezuelan president.
But Adolfo Hellmund, a senior economic adviser to Mr. Lopez Obrador and likely candidate for a senior Cabinet post, insisted that he was dead serious.
Tax evasion is widespread in Mexico, especially among the wealthy, and Mr. Lopez Obrador has emphasized his intention to compel greater tax compliance.
"Theoretically, we have progressive taxation in Mexico, but in practice, we do not," Mr. Hellmund said. "This cannot continue."
Taxation absorbs only 9.7 percent of the country's gross domestic product -- which Mr. Hellmund said was "almost African levels" -- leaving the government fiscally very weak.
"The only reason we have not gone bankrupt is because of the high price of oil," he said. Close to 50 percent of government revenues come from the state-owned oil company, Pemex.
Mr. Lopez Obrador campaigns as a populist, exciting his lower-class supporters but exposing himself to comparisons with Mr. Chavez from his main rival, Felipe Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party.
That comparison enabled Mr. Calderon to close a large gap between the two in the past month while stoking a climate of fear among wealthy Mexicans. The latest polls show a highly competitive race.
Mr. Hellmund acknowledged that the rich would pay more under a Lopez Obrador-led government.
"I think it is inevitable that these people will feel affected and that they will fight it, but unless they are affected, I don't see how the country can move forward," he said.

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High taxes are not the answer. Just look at growth in Ireland after it lowered the tax rate. Mexico has several problems. Corruption and the absence of the rule of law are high on the list. The laws they do enforce have driven capital away from Mexico by restricting foreign ownership and foreign citizenship.