Two leading candidates have claimed victory in Mexico’s presidential vote, even as the country’s top election official deemed the result too close to call.“It is not possible within the margins established in the quick count to say what party has obtained the highest vote,” said Luis Carlos Ugalde, adding “it is not possible to say at this point in time who has won.” The counting of ballots must be completed in all 300 of Mexico’s voting districts, with an official count of the votes set to take place on Wednesday, Ugalde added. With only 52 percent of the vote counted ….Read More
Jul 022006
02/07/2006
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Mexicans voted for a new president on Sunday, torn between a Harvard-educated conservative and a feisty champion of the poor who could lead Mexico into Latin America’s resurgent left-wing camp.In a country crucial to U.S. interests in border security, trade and immigration, pre-election polls showed an extremely close race between leftist anti-poverty crusader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, and conservative Felipe Calderon from the ruling party. Lopez Obrador, 52, headed opinion polls by about only 2 points after almost six months of bruising campaigning that split a country still finding its feet with full democracy ….Read More
Jul 022006
02/07/2006
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MEXICO CITY — About 40 million Mexicans head to the polls today to choose a president in a down-to-the-wire race that could result in this nation joining Latin America’s political left. However it turns out, the election amounts to a referendum on leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party, who was running slightly ahead in some polls of Felipe Calderón of the ruling National Action Party. Considered a long shot is Roberto Madrazo, of the flailing Institutional Revolutionary Party. The vote comes against a backdrop of political division and social unrest not seen in years. Wildcat strikes ….Read More
Jul 012006
01/07/2006
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MEXICO CITY — Should the populist candidate win Sunday’s election, he would trade in the posh presidential residence for the storied National Palace downtown that would bring him closer to everyday people. For now, it’s completely surrounded by people yelling — without end. Some of them wield cleavers in their hands, while other vendors offer anything from metal rattlesnake eggs to toy mice — all sold under a constant vocal drone formed by the mixture of hundreds of low and high-pitched offers. On the edge of the central plaza, the National Palace borders the beating heart of this city, which ….Read More
Jul 012006
01/07/2006
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On Sunday, voters in Mexico will elect a new president. There are five candidates, including one woman. However, the race is neck-and-neck between two top contenders. The election outcome will have a major effect on how the United States and Mexico work together in the future. The election apparently has come down to two candidates. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa with the conservative National Action Party, or PAN. Calderón is President Fox’s former energy secretary. The other top candidate is Andrés Manuel López Obrador with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD; he is the former mayor of Mexico City. Voters remain ….Read More
Jun 292006
29/06/2006
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GUADALAJARA, Mexico — To the cheers of thousands of supporters and a serenade of mariachi music, presidential candidate Felipe Calderón ended a journey Wednesday night he had launched here almost by accident two years ago.During a 2004 visit to the country’s second-largest city as the nation’s energy minister, Calderón was singled out by the state governor as having presidential aspirations. The revelation angered President Vicente Fox, and Calderón resigned. At the time, no one expected the unknown Harvard-educated lawyer to win his party’s candidacy, much less become a real challenger to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the fiery left-leaning former Mexico ….Read More
29/06/2006
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MEXICO CITY — Standing before stone walls of the centuries-old National Palace, populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador capped his phenomenal run for president by asking a pumped-up crowd of 200,000 people to help him put the poor first.López Obrador rallied the masses in the capital city’s central plaza — the nation’s most historic site — as he sought to put the presidency, for the first time, in the hands of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. “We are going to transform the country, we are going to make history,” he said, facing a crush of yellow and black shirts, flags, hats ….Read More
26/06/2006
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MEXICO CITY — Locked in a dead heat with the former mayor of this city one week before voters go to the polls, presidential candidate Felipe Calderón made a bold statement on his rival’s home turf. He packed this city’s Aztec Stadium with at least 110,000 people. It was the biggest rally for any candidate so far, and it seemed to put an exclamation point on a nearly nonstop campaign tour that has taken the 43-year-old former energy minister to each of Mexico’s 31 states. The crowd, rallied by confetti cannons, hundreds of balloons and tens of thousands of flags ….Read More
11/06/2006
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MERIDA, Mexico — Using international money to build highways in this country will keep more Mexicans home than will constructing walls along the U.S. border, a leading candidate for the presidency says. Felípe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, is nearing the home stretch of a presidential race that is too close to call. In an interview with the San Antonio Express-News, he said that if elected July 2, he’ll seek to work with the Bush administration to find new ways to accelerate job growth and public works programs in Mexico to reduce the flow of millions ….Read More