Partido de la Revolucion Mexicana (PRI) has won the Presidency with 38% of the vote, with the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD),( which split from the PRI in 1989, because of the growing corruption and cronyism in PRI). winning 31% and the governimg PAN with onl 25% of the votes. Lopez Abrador of PRD, is refusing to concede, claiming to have data showing a different result.
Enrique Pena Nieto has claimed victory and promises to "change course" and called for "unity of all Mexicans" and to begin immediately public wiorks like roads and bridges. He also promised to continue the "war" on drugs, violence and kidnapping, targeting local problems and noting that the USA is the largest consumer of drugs from Mexico and the largest sellers of guns to Mexico. He will not pursue the same all-out war policy on the drud cartel, as outgoing presidenttCalderon which has led to more than 50,000 deaths.
PRI has been out of power for 12 years, after dominating power for the previous 79 years. It was founded by Plutarco Elias Calles on March 4, 1929 out of a group of unions, peasnats org. regional parties and most importantly military factions fighting for power. He called it Partido Nacional Revolucionario and he controlled the party and the country until Lazaro Cardenas became president and changed the name of the party to Partido de la Revolucion Mexicana on 30th, March 1938. It was Cardenas who nationalised the oil industry and several other industries, (American and European) and set up social institutions for the poor. He also arrested dozens of Calles' associates and deported some to the USA. The Americans did not like this but he became Mexico's most liked leader, but also for his reforms, his integrity and his work on behalf of the peasants. The name of the party was changed to PRI-- Partido Revolucion Institucional on January 18, 1946 by the the president Manuel Avila Camacho and has retained that name but in 1989, the left-wing of the party had had enough of the corruption and stagnation and split-off to form the PRD.
PRI had become besotted with power and was calcified. It had run out of ideas, had no vision for the changing world (The Cold War and the bloody liberation struggles in Latin America was ending), and resorted to electoral fraud and voter suppression to win elections.
The practice of "el dedazo", "tapping of the finger", whereby the out-going president named his successor was continued and only succeeded in maintaining the cronyism that had robbed the country and the party of the best "minds for governing" in favour of the ever-growing of retinue of patronage and self-serving office-holders, incompetent and unfit, who filled their pockets while the great majority of the people live in misery. In the 1990s NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement, with USA and Canada), was signed and a "bail-out" arranged by the Clinton administration, but that meant that Mexican resources, including its oil and gas was now no longer protected from American grasp. The signing of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) introduced further free trade and made many in the "inner circle" to become very wealthy. The drug trade, a classic example of capitalism's demand and supply was first exploited by the Colombians, but after some of their leading "drug lords" were killed, Mexican "interests"stepped in and with an ever-increasing American appetite and the nearby border, the drug trade flourished. Peasnts revolted in places like Chiapas and violent protests in the cities, helped bring down PRI in 2000. They also lost the election of 2006.
The telegenic Nieto and his very popular "soap-opera star"-wife, Angela Rivera will undoubtedly cause a stir for a while, but then he has to deliver. In 2006, Lopez Obrador lost the election to Calderon by less than one per cent of the vote and protests paralyzed Mexico City for more than a month. He is again claiming foul and with PRI's past history of voter suppression, corruption and electoral fraud. it doee not take too much to believe that it can happen again.
Parts of the country are already "war zones". as as result of Calderon's crack down. Poverty is on the rise ( govt. estimate that 47% of the 112 million Mexicans are poor) and the "cartels" are still operating and violence is everywhere. Grim, Grim, Grim
Update........Update......5/7/12
Electoral authorities have ordered recount of 78,012 out of 143,000 ballot boxes. Lopez Obrador who lost in 2006 by 1% has claimed massive fraud., irregularities at 113,855 polling places, vote-buying ( thousands of grocery stores coupons given out) and imbalance in reporting by semi-monopolized TV industry.
The spectre of fraud once again hangs over PRI.This adds to the already beleaguered country's problems....Poverty, Violence, Drugs Cartels etc
Enrique Pena Nieto has claimed victory and promises to "change course" and called for "unity of all Mexicans" and to begin immediately public wiorks like roads and bridges. He also promised to continue the "war" on drugs, violence and kidnapping, targeting local problems and noting that the USA is the largest consumer of drugs from Mexico and the largest sellers of guns to Mexico. He will not pursue the same all-out war policy on the drud cartel, as outgoing presidenttCalderon which has led to more than 50,000 deaths.
PRI has been out of power for 12 years, after dominating power for the previous 79 years. It was founded by Plutarco Elias Calles on March 4, 1929 out of a group of unions, peasnats org. regional parties and most importantly military factions fighting for power. He called it Partido Nacional Revolucionario and he controlled the party and the country until Lazaro Cardenas became president and changed the name of the party to Partido de la Revolucion Mexicana on 30th, March 1938. It was Cardenas who nationalised the oil industry and several other industries, (American and European) and set up social institutions for the poor. He also arrested dozens of Calles' associates and deported some to the USA. The Americans did not like this but he became Mexico's most liked leader, but also for his reforms, his integrity and his work on behalf of the peasants. The name of the party was changed to PRI-- Partido Revolucion Institucional on January 18, 1946 by the the president Manuel Avila Camacho and has retained that name but in 1989, the left-wing of the party had had enough of the corruption and stagnation and split-off to form the PRD.
PRI had become besotted with power and was calcified. It had run out of ideas, had no vision for the changing world (The Cold War and the bloody liberation struggles in Latin America was ending), and resorted to electoral fraud and voter suppression to win elections.
The practice of "el dedazo", "tapping of the finger", whereby the out-going president named his successor was continued and only succeeded in maintaining the cronyism that had robbed the country and the party of the best "minds for governing" in favour of the ever-growing of retinue of patronage and self-serving office-holders, incompetent and unfit, who filled their pockets while the great majority of the people live in misery. In the 1990s NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement, with USA and Canada), was signed and a "bail-out" arranged by the Clinton administration, but that meant that Mexican resources, including its oil and gas was now no longer protected from American grasp. The signing of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) introduced further free trade and made many in the "inner circle" to become very wealthy. The drug trade, a classic example of capitalism's demand and supply was first exploited by the Colombians, but after some of their leading "drug lords" were killed, Mexican "interests"stepped in and with an ever-increasing American appetite and the nearby border, the drug trade flourished. Peasnts revolted in places like Chiapas and violent protests in the cities, helped bring down PRI in 2000. They also lost the election of 2006.
The telegenic Nieto and his very popular "soap-opera star"-wife, Angela Rivera will undoubtedly cause a stir for a while, but then he has to deliver. In 2006, Lopez Obrador lost the election to Calderon by less than one per cent of the vote and protests paralyzed Mexico City for more than a month. He is again claiming foul and with PRI's past history of voter suppression, corruption and electoral fraud. it doee not take too much to believe that it can happen again.
Parts of the country are already "war zones". as as result of Calderon's crack down. Poverty is on the rise ( govt. estimate that 47% of the 112 million Mexicans are poor) and the "cartels" are still operating and violence is everywhere. Grim, Grim, Grim
Update........Update......5/7/12
Electoral authorities have ordered recount of 78,012 out of 143,000 ballot boxes. Lopez Obrador who lost in 2006 by 1% has claimed massive fraud., irregularities at 113,855 polling places, vote-buying ( thousands of grocery stores coupons given out) and imbalance in reporting by semi-monopolized TV industry.
The spectre of fraud once again hangs over PRI.This adds to the already beleaguered country's problems....Poverty, Violence, Drugs Cartels etc
