Mexican Presidential Candidate Worries U.S.

Many political and business leaders in the U.S. are casting a wary eye on Mexico as a leftist candidate threatens to win July's presidential election.

But there is also concern that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will lose.

A decade ago, Obrador lost a closely contested state election, charged fraud and led mass demonstrations.

"U.S. policymakers are consulting with political players in Mexico to see if something similar could happen now," BusinessWeek reports.

James R. Jones, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, told BusinessWeek: "If there is serious disruption over the results, that's going to make Washington nervous, as well as the markets."

Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, is a populist who wants to create jobs through government spending.

In March, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., told several Mexican legislators that he had intelligence reports revealing that Obrador's party was receiving support from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a firm ally of Fidel Castro, according to political strategist Dick Morris.

Obrador's chief opponent, Felipe Calderon, has a master's degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and says he would boost private initiative and create jobs by making Mexico attractive to private investors.

The two were running neck and neck in recent polls.