Mexico’s president-elect  Andrés Manuel López Obrador likes to surround himself with photographs or busts of his historical heroes. But in a video posted on social media on October 30 he had a new prop. Prominent on a table beside him as he smiled into the camera was a book called Who’s In Charge Here?

The leftist nationalist clearly wanted to send the message that he answered only to the Mexican people, not to the financial markets or investors who had been staggered by his decision, announced a day earlier, to scrap a partially-built  $13bn airport project. The move came after the incoming government organised an informal “people’s poll”, which critics say lacked legitimacy and was biased against the project. But the carefully constructed scene’s unequivocal subtext was: “I am.” 

It was a first taste of the participatory democracy Mr López Obrador had promised. He had long opposed the costly airport project, which had been under fire from environmentalists. Investors, who had quietly been assured by some in the incoming government that the project was safe, were aghast, despite its promises to repay financial obligations in full.