PRI wins election in Mexico

Enrique Pena Nieto won the Mexican presidential election. He's from the PRI, the more liberal of the Mexican parties, and although it's only going by the exit polls, the lead is comfortable enough that unless something has gone seriously wrong, everyone agrees the Institutional Revolutionary Party is back after twelve years. Some people are worried they're going to make more deals with the cartels, though (of course) they claim they will not.

Now, this article is pretty much the extent of my Mexican political knowledge, so I'm very curious as to what this means. Less corruption? More corruption? More immigrants come to the US, or less? All that. I know we have at least a few Mexican tropers in this forum, and I'd like to hear their opinions.

edited 2nd Jul '12 9:09:25 AM by Discar

I've opened your thread, but I'd like you to add something into your OP; namely, a summary of the article you linked. Just the key points will do nicely. If the article doesn't contain this stuff, try to say something about: which election we're talking about, what were the major parties, what you think might happen as a result of this result, stuff like that. Bring us to a level where we can comfortably start asking good questions instead of "what's all this then, eh?"

The PRI ruled Mexico as a de facto one-party state (much like the National Democratic Party in Egypt) from its founding as the National Revolutionary Party in 1929 until the 2000 presidential election, won by Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (Partido Acción Nacional, or PAN). The election of Enrique Pena Nieto (EPN) to the Presidency, along with the PRI's gains in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, obviously has many people worried that the dictatorship will return.

Fe Cal was so bad that the Mexican people might have just put a dictatorial party back in power?

The PRI may bring back some bad habits, but there is no way they can make the country into a dictatorship again. They won through a democratic election, and they will lose the next if they don't keep to a certain standard. For decades elections were a sham, and the party served as the government's electoral PR department.

Now, there are several parties who share power at various levels of government, elections are held to account by a free press, and the simple fact that government changed hands means the civil service cannot afford to be loyal to any one party. The PRI remains a powerful institution, but it's been knocked from power and cannot return by a democratic framework.

From the article, it does sound like they'll need to ally with other parties to form a government of any strength.

so basically a coalition. which is generally a decent model.

Mexican troper here (albeit a bit inactive)

First of all, some people are really scared, as the PRI tried to pass a law some time ago (Ley Peña) that was a blatant violation to free speech laws (this law forbade to speak ill of the politicians), and because there are a few unsavoury PRI members who are close to Peña Nieto which people do not want. Some others, like the #YoSoy132 movement are angry for the mass media's blatant display of favoritism towards Peña Nieto, electoral crimes shown off by the PRI (most of them) and the other two parties (and how the FEPADE did nothing about these) or because Peña Nieto has been shown repeatedly as both unreceptive to criticism and ignorant (two Big "NO!" if you're a president). And finally, a few are worried, since people think that their return will bring back the usual dirty tricks they have been pulling off from 1930 to 2000 and become nigh impossible to get rid of... again.

Now, forming a coalition would make sense, but I seriously doubt they'll do so. The last time anyone did this, the alliance dissolved rather quickly after the ideological differences made themselves clear. Besides, the three largest parties are too proud and thick-headed to ally with each other.

However, with the internet and social networks becoming more commonplace (and their presence will increase) and the 132 movement still strong and running, these shall act as a countermeasure if the PRI decides to play up its old tricks again.

The only thing we can do now is hope for the best. Alea Iacta Est.

Sounds like how democracy normally works, if the one party isn't good then you go back to the other crappy party instead of opting for a third choice.

Alright that was overly cynical.

So has the PRI made any concerning moves yet?

The PRI will TRY to go back to the old tricks...and they will fail.

Mexico's not the same country, the world's not the same place: the technology surely it helped of course, and now the Mexican youth is more educated and more organized than ever.

Besides, politicians may be scumbags, but the're not fool: Mexico's doing it OK in this world crisis, they won't change drastically any working police (they will try to make it look as if it wass their police, tough).

Maybe I'm too idealistic, but Peña Nieto victory left a big sour taste in millions and millions of Mexicans: they won't be quiet, they won't be gentle, and the PRI should be scarred as hell.

It isn't offical yet

My main beef with the results is that activists now have to spend energy defending rather than expanding democratic and civil liberties. I have no faith that the PRI will govern against its own interests, which are often enough counter those of the country.

@breadloaf:

"So has the PRI made any concerning moves yet?" Depends on how you define "concerning". When Peña Nieto was governor of the state of Mexico, a small town called San Salvador Atenco was going to be demolished when plans for a new airport were made. Fortunately, this didn't happen. However, the riot police (we call them "granaderos" here) surrounded the town when the people blocked the entrances to town after police illegaly arrested some flower vendors. The riot police stormed Atenco and beat up its inhabitants. At the same time, media closely covered the civil unrest and blew out of proportions things, practically justifying anything that was done to Atenco's inhabitants. Proof of this is that cameramen were allowed to be on the ground with the cops to film anything that happened, then the cops put on a human barricade and did not allow anyone to go further. The cops that were on the other side were illegaly breaking into houses and beating everyone up. Two people were killed (one was a 14 year-old boy) and more than 20 women suffered sexual abuses.

As for this year's events, many PRI-inclined people have threatened the Yo Soy 132 movement. In many states there was repression from PRI provocateurs (we call them "porros" here) as exemplified in the demonstrations in Xalapa and Colima. Also, many people received death threats from PRI-alligned groups, being Generacion MX (that emerged as a supposed schism within the movement and was outed by Anonymous to have had links with the PRI) one of the more prominent examples. There were even cases of Mexicans in other countries that supported the movement that received threats (such as expiration from Visas) if they didn't vote for the PRI.

@Reymmã:

"They won through a democratic election"? Not in a million years. The same thing happened in 1952 and day after day more proofs of fraud begin to surface, such as money laundering and pre-paid cards for popular chain store Soriana. The PRI has always played dirty as long as they stay in power.