Anti-establishment leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be sworn in as Mexico's next president on Saturday -- a dramatic change in direction for a country fed up with corruption, poverty and crime.

And he appears to have the mandate he needs to deliver it: he won a landslide victory in the July 1 elections, together with strong majorities in both houses of Congress for his coalition -- led by the party he founded just four years ago, Morena.

It was the biggest win for any president, and the first for a leftist, since Mexico transitioned to a multi-party democracy in 2000.

But the sharp-tongued, silver-haired leader inherits a sticky set of problems from his unpopular predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto.

They include endemic corruption, gruesome violence fueled by the war on drug cartels, and the caravan of 6,000 Central American migrants camped at the US-Mexican border -- not to mention the minefield that diplomacy with Mexico's giant northern neighbor has become under President Donald Trump.

Lopez Obrador, a 65-year-old former protest leader and Mexico City mayor, has been short on specifics regarding his plans for all of the above.

Critics accuse him of being an authoritarian radical.

And despite his promises of fiscal responsibility and business-friendly policies, the markets are fearful for the future of Latin America's second-largest economy: Mexican stocks and the peso have plunged in recent weeks.

Dismissing such fears, Lopez Obrador is promising a presidency like no other in Mexican history.

Vowing to lead his anti-corruption, pro-austerity drive by example, he plans to forego the presidential residence and live in his modest home, sell the presidential jet and fly commercial instead, cut his own salary by 60 percent, and eliminate the presidential security detail.