Gangster-turned-lawmaker Is New Face Of Mexican Politics

Pedro Carrizales's body is a hodge-podge of scars and tattoos that tell the story of how he went from street-gang thug to Mexican state congressman, reborn like the mythical phoenix inked on his chest.

San Luis Potos, Mexico, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Sep, 2018 ) :Pedro Carrizales's body is a hodge-podge of scars and tattoos that tell the story of how he went from street-gang thug to Mexican state congressman, reborn like the mythical phoenix inked on his chest.

Carrizales, 39, is part of a deluge of political outsiders who won office for Morena, the party of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in Mexico's July 1 elections.

Better known by his street name, "El Mijis," Carrizales is seen as a symbol of the new Mexican politics: Voters rejected the two parties that had run the country for 89 years in favor of an anti-establishment leftist and the upstart party he founded just four years ago.

As of Saturday, the start of the new legislative session, Morena and its allies will have an absolute majority in both houses of Congress.

Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, will be the first president in Mexico's modern democracy to wield such power when he takes office on December 1.

Carrizales said the "consistency and tenacity" of Lopez Obrador, who ran unsuccessfully for president twice before winning on his third try, inspired him to run for the state Congress of San Luis Potosi.

He wants to use his own past of drug addiction and gangs to help other people facing the same poverty and violence that he grew up in find a better future.

Like the phoenix, he says, "I was reborn from my ashes to save other gang-bangers. Every one I save brings me peace and lessens my sins a little bit."