Mexico could return old ruling party to power
Source: Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A single party dominated Mexico for most of the past century, and its loss 12 years ago proved to many that the country was finally a democracy. Now the nation's voters seem ready to bring it back to power in Sunday's presidential election.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party, led by telegenic former Mexico State Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto, has held a strong lead throughout the campaign, and also seems poised to retake at least a plurality in Congress.
The party has been bolstered by voter fatigue with a sluggish economy and the sharp escalation of a drug war that has killed roughly 50,000 Mexicans over the past six years. The desire for change suddenly works to benefit the party known as the PRI that ran Mexico from 1929 to 2000.
Hoping for a shocking upset are leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose narrow loss in Mexico's last election led to charges of voter fraud and weeks of massive protests, and the candidate of the ruling National Action Party, Josefina Vazquez Mota, the first woman ever nominated for the presidency by a major party in Mexico.
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may3rd
(593 posts)I'm surprised these cartels don't front their own candidate unless of course, they are greasing everybody's palms with blood money from drugs then I suppose it's a moot point.
CatWoman
(79,302 posts)it was the election of Vicente Fox that brought about the escalation of the drug cartels, as the previous party dealt with them differently and kept the violence (and the lords) at bay.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)he went to war with the cartels, which through the whole thing into chaos; groups began to splinter and fight for territory. the resulta has been no decrease in drug trafficking and a major increase in violence.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)...instead of trying to suppress the traffic or arrest the capos.
The real question is whether he will send the army back to its barracks. The violence rapidly escalated when Calderon sent in the military in December 2006.
David__77
(23,544 posts)It's an understudied area of economics.
The Nieto administration will be expected to do less to stem the flow of drugs, and, as pointed out, to instead focus on reducing violence within Mexico itself.