MEXICO CITY – A campaign commercial likening Mexican presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is threatening to worsen already chilly relations between the two countries. On Wednesday, Mexican President Vicente Fox said through a spokesman that “the electoral process is only Mexicans’ business.” “No country can intervene in the election,” spokesman Ruben Aguilar said, responding to Chavez’s complaints that images of him were being used to attack Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who leads public opinion polls ahead of the July 2 presidential election. “The Mexican right is using television spots … ….Read More
Apr 292006
29/04/2006
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Roberto Madrazo’s presidential bid in Mexico has been relegated to third place in the polls since official campaigning started, and a comeback even at this early stage seems difficult. The candidate of the Alliance for Mexico — a coalition formed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and the Green Ecological Party of Mexico, or PVEM — probably faces a more adverse scenario than any of his PRI predecessors. Madrazo is an accomplished politician. He has represented his native state of Tabasco in Congress a couple times. Later, he was elected governor of the same state. Then, Madrazo became president ….Read More
Apr 292006
29/04/2006
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MEXICO CITY — Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador got a boost in his hopes to gain the presidency Monday with a new opinion poll showing him 10 points ahead of his closest rival and his party making a surprisingly strong showing in local elections in the nation’s most populous state. Analysts said the gains, which come less than four months before the July 2 presidential ballot, demonstrate the ability of Lopez Obrador to connect with voters outside his leftist base and reflect a weak campaign by the conservative candidate Felipe Calderon. “Lopez Obrador looks like a very difficult man to ….Read More
29/04/2006
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MEXICO CITY – President Vicente Fox came under fire Tuesday for announcing that he would accept a lifelong pension from the government, a privilege previously enjoyed by Mexico’s leaders during seven decades of one-party rule. Former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a left-leaning presidential candidate who has led most public opinion polls prior to the July 2 election, insisted Tuesday that the pensions are excessively high – a feature of the corrupt governments he says ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century. The exact amount of the pension is not released publicly. “The president is not lacking ….Read More
Apr 292006
29/04/2006
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MEXICO CITY — The National Action Party’s presidential candidate sought to shore up conservative support Wednesday by promising evangelical leaders his government would respect religion and be in line with Christian values. The son of a founding father of the right-wing party known as PAN, candidate Felipe Calderón met behind closed doors with 46 evangelical leaders from around the nation. “I made various pledges, to respect religious freedom, to respect the (law) under which the government can’t prohibit any religion, and that I would form a government with values and principles that I know coincide very much with all Christians,” ….Read More
29/04/2006
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MEXICO CITY — The populist front-runner for the presidency, who rejected offers to be guarded by this nation’s version of the Secret Service, will be protected by an army general who’s a longtime friend. Security definitely is an issue, with an ongoing wave of drug-cartel violence, lawlessness and the memory of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, who was assassinated in 1994 as he campaigned in Tijuana. The potential for adversaries likely is increased for Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, as he’s both ahead in the polls and seen as the anti-establishment candidate for the ….Read More
Apr 292006
29/04/2006
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MEXICO CITY — President Vicente Fox is being asked to take a step back from this nation’s presidential campaign and not play favorites. Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Roberto Madrazo, in a letter to Fox publicized Tuesday, asked that the outgoing president not impede Mexico’s democracy by publicly supporting a candidate in the 2006 presidential race. Madrazo, who’s running third among the three major candidates in virtually all polls, needs to shake things up if he’s to have a chance in the July 2 election. Madrazo, whose party is known as the PRI, contends Fox should not show favoritism for Felipe ….Read More
Apr 292006
29/04/2006
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2006 is turning into the most anxious year for companies with investments in Mexico since, well, the last Mexican presidential election six years ago. Thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement, an independent Mexican central bank and a firm peso, the state of the U.S. economy will continue to determine the health of the Mexican economy more than who is elected July 2. Mexico’s young and fragile democracy still can cause concern, however, for foreign companies operating in Mexico and international producers weighing whether to manufacture in Mexico or Asia. Mexico desperately needs additional foreign investment to provide jobs ….Read More
Apr 292006
29/04/2006
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While Mexico City’s populist former mayor is far ahead in the polls, the coming presidential election is far from over, observers said at a conference here Friday. Anything could happen in an election in which the issues have yet to be defined and voters are fed up with politicians and impatient with democracy. That all three of Mexico’s major political parties have a chance to capture the presidency this year “is really unusual,” said Alejandro Moreno, a Mexico City political scientist and pollster. “This is a totally different election.” With campaigns for the July 2 election kicking into gear, academics ….Read More