{"id":41210,"date":"2012-07-02T06:16:24","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T12:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=41210"},"modified":"2012-07-02T06:16:27","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T12:16:27","slug":"pris-pena-nieto-wins-mexican-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/07\/pris-pena-nieto-wins-mexican-presidential-election\/","title":{"rendered":"PRI’s Pe\u00f1a Nieto wins Mexican presidential election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mexican<\/a>

Mexican President-elect Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto (Photo by Edgar Alberto Dom\u00ednguez Cata\u00f1o\/flickr.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Though the results aren’t yet official, Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto leads his closest challenger by about seven points, and even outgoing President Felipe Calder\u00f3n congratulated him on his victory.\u00a0Voter turnout was the highest it has ever been.<\/h4>\n

MEXICO CITY \u2014 After 12 years of rule under the conservative National Action Party, Mexicans on Sunday elected a candidate from the Institutional Revolutionary Party to lead Texas\u2019 largest trade partner and southern neighbor.<\/p>\n

Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto<\/a>, 45, the former governor of the state of Mexico, bested challengers Josefina V\u00e1zquez Mota<\/a> of the National Action Party and\u00a0Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador<\/a> of the leftist\u00a0progressive alliance, made up of the Party of the Democratic Revolution and the Labor Party. Pe\u00f1a Nieto, who succeeds\u00a0President Felipe Calder\u00f3n<\/a>, will be sworn in in December and serve a single six-year term; Mexican law prohibits presidents from serving more than one term.<\/p>\n

Results of the conteo<\/em>r\u00e1pido<\/em> \u2014 the country\u2019s first estimate of the election results \u2014 showed that Pe\u00f1a Nieto had between 37.9 to 38.5 percent of the ballots cast compared with L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s 31 to 31.8 percent. V\u00e1zquez Mota received between 25.1 to 26 percent, according to the country\u2019s elections institute.<\/p>\n

Turnout was about 62 percent, or 49 million votes, which officials said was the highest turnout in the country\u2019s history. But L\u00f3pez Obrador, who lost to Calder\u00f3n by a razor thin margin in 2006, refused to concede and said instead he would wait to see the results of Wednesday’s official count. But some analysts said the 7-point margin was too much to overcome, and even Calder\u00f3n congratulated Pe\u00f1a Nieto shortly after the initial count.<\/p>\n

About 143,000 polling stations opened across Mexico and 28,000 foreign observers descended on the country, according to figures released by Leonardo Vald\u00e9s Zurita, the director of the country\u2019s federal elections institute.<\/p>\n

The regime change is expected to be one of the world’s most monitored, as Mexican citizens and international observers watch to see how Pe\u00f1a Nieto attempts to restore peace to a country that has been plagued by drug violence for nearly six years. More than 55,000 Mexicans have died since 2006, when Calder\u00f3n resumed the government crackdown against organized crime that his predecessor Vicente Fox began near the end of his presidency. Mexico\u2019s economy and robust trade relationship with Texas, which has made the cities of Laredo and El Paso Mexico\u2019s No. 1 and No. 2 trade destinations<\/a>, respectively, will also likely be scrutinized after December.<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers in Texas, including U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul<\/a>, R-Austin, who sits on the House’s Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, have expressed doubts that Pe\u00f1a Nieto will be as aggressive in his efforts to rid the country of criminals as Calder\u00f3n has been.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the early results, McCaul released a statement congratulating the former governor, but reiterated his concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to meeting and working with him on the challenges our countries share,\u201d McCaul said. \u201cWhile he has stated publicly he is committed to the security of his country against the drug cartels,\u00a0I am hopeful that he will not return to the PRI party of the past which was corrupt and had a history of turning a blind eye to the drug cartels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though much of the country’s violence has been between the warring drug cartels, many Mexicans are disillusioned with the government’s effort and are skeptical of how involved the military and local, state and federal police forces are in the drug trade.<\/p>\n

As recently as Saturday, military convoys were dispatched to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, to provide safety for Mexicans seeking to cast a ballot after a car bomb exploded outside the city\u2019s municipal offices on Friday.\u00a0The city is currently in the grips of a bloody war between the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartels.<\/span><\/p>\n

But others are far more hopeful. Peggy Jaramillo, a Dallas resident and dual citizen who cast a ballot in Sunday\u2019s election by mail, said she likes what she sees in the new Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Jaramillo, who was in Mexico City as one of the country\u2019s elections observers, is the president of Tu Casa San Luis en Texas, an immigrant advocacy center.\u00a0A Republican, she said no that matter who is in power in Mexico, Texas will remain the border state with the most welcoming immigration policy \u2014 from\u00a0in-state tuition for illegal immigrants to the fact that undocumented residents can buy auto insurance and cars.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers\u2019 policies are \u201cwe want you but we don\u2019t want you,\u201d she said. \u201cYes, we are a state with a Republican majority, but (lawmakers) want and know that they need our immigrants, and not just from Mexico. (Texas Gov.)\u00a0Rick Perry<\/a> is in office. Rick Perry wants us here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s election marked only the second time in the country\u2019s history that Mexicans like Jaramillo who live abroad could mail in ballots. The IFE, the country\u2019s elections institute, hoped international voting in this contest would be an improvement over 2006, when 53,000 people applied for placement on Mexico’s foreign voters list and 41,000 were approved. That resulted in 33,100 mail-in ballots.<\/p>\n

Although the PRI\u2019s campaign was based in part on ushering in a new image for the former ruling party, allegations of vote buying surfaced before the first ballot was cast, reminding Mexicans of the party’s iron-fisted past.\u00a0The Associated Press reported<\/a> on Sunday that there were accusations that the PRI was persuading Mexicans to support their candidate through gifts and bribes. According to the AP, the PAN accused Pe\u00f1a Nieto\u2019s campaign of acquiring 9,500 prepaid gift cards worth almost $5.2 million to give away in exchange for supporting the PRI at the ballot box.<\/p>\n

Doubts that a new PRI means anything significant for Mexico have been brewing, particularly among the country’s youth and a movement called YoSoy132 (I Am the 132).\u00a0Though the group, which largely supports Lop\u00e9z Obrador, was founded by college students, it has now grown to include anyone who opposes the PRI, and Pe\u00f1a Nieto specifically. On Saturday, thousands in the movement descended upon Mexico City\u2019s Plaza de Las Tres Culturas, the site of the country\u2019s massacre in 1968 when student protesters were gunned down by military and police.<\/p>\n

Victor Leon, 33, vowed to put the pressure on the PRI despite early reports that Pe\u00f1a Nieto would ascend to Los Pinos, the country\u2019s presidential palace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to staying unified and moving forward with a pacifist movement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Others were far more disillusioned.\u00a0\u201cIn my opinion, whatever party wins, it means the same thing,\u201d said a Mexico City resident who asked only to be identified as Leonardo, 23. \u201cWe all know the mafia controls the country. The politicians all fight for the same slice of the pie and we are only left with the crumbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was produced by the nonprofit Texas Tribune. Find it online here<\/a>. This article originally appeared in<\/a> The Texas Tribune.\u00a0Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in its stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here<\/a>.<\/em>