Mexico: inequality and violence, the breeding ground that led López Obrador

CITY OF MEXICO.- Araceli Martínez, 50 years old, wears a battery of dirty leaves by the stairs of an old building in the district of Condesa, in this capital. To work, from Monday to Saturday, he travels two hours a day. Transportation is expensive, he complains, and he is upset by the inequality that he sees every day. He talks about Mexico and says that he is tired. Six years ago, he voted for Enrique Peña Nieto, the president who returned power to the historic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). But today, he will do it for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the candidate who in his third election attempt is the big favorite to take the left for the first time to the government in Mexico. "We have experienced a lot of corruption," says Martinez.

More than 89 million Mexicans go to the polls a feeling that has shaken the other democracies: satiety, breeding ground for a turn towards the country. [19659004] Mexico has already had historic elections, but none has ever been held today. A coalition led by López Obrador has the opportunity, more palpable than ever, to win a victory for the left and print a political change fueled by corruption, insecurity and rampant economic inequality.

Six years after the Mexicans they will give a new opportunity to the PRI choosing Peña Nieto, López Obrador -AMLO, as it is known here – is the big favorite to win the elections with a 48.1% intention to vote and reach the presidency after two unsuccessful attempts, in 2006 and 2012.

Mexico comes to this election with a solid economy, though tinged with inequalities, and a people jaded by corruption, drug trafficking and homicides.

Peña Nieto's six-year term is already more violent than that of his predecessor, Felipe Calderón, leaving, to date, at least 120,000 murders, according to official figures. May was the bloodiest month ever: 2890 murders (93 per day on average). And badysts warn that government figures omit the dead. Corruption scandals have accompanied almost the entire PRI government, and poverty has increased, despite the fact that the economy has increased. By the end of 2016, there were 53.4 million in poverty, nearly four million more than in 2008. 43.6% of the country was poor, according to this figure, the latest official data.

"In Mexico, corruption pays the poorest," said Darío Ramírez, of the Mexicanos Contra Corrupción, a civil organization. "Corruption hits them in their pockets." In the end, the costs of corruption and people revive their standard of living, absent and substandard public services, and they turn around and see these mountains of money and make that connection with corruption. "

The fight against corruption has been López Obrador's big campaign flag, in which his supporters see a mythical, honest, honest leader." His detractors, on the other hand, fear that with the triumph of their country, the country will fall into populism, of which Mexico has been immune, again and again, AMLO accused "the Mafia of power." All the problems of Mexico, he said, begin with corruption, who promised to eliminate "up and down, sweeping the stairs."

The election campaign revolved around the figure of Lopez Obrador a "radical transformation." If imposed on polls, will take the third Political sign to the presidency in the history of Mexico Until now, only the PRI and the National Action Party (PAN) had divided power.But the badault of AMLO ended up redesigning the ideological map of the country, with unprecedented alliances in which antagonistic visions coexist. The election promises to give a historic slap to the traditional parties, which many Mexicans have put in the same path under the "PRIAN" poster.

"The party system is in decline, which is partly due to the new force López Obrador created the great party that emerged after the democratic transition from 1988 to 2000," said LA NACION. political badyst Carlos Bravo Regidor

Mexicans will choose between four candidates. López Obrador, leader of Juntos Haremos Historia, a coalition of his party, Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), with the far left and the far right, arrives with a 25-point advantage and the opportunity to capture the Presidency and Congress. Ricardo Anaya, from Por México al Frente, brought together the traditional right-wing party, PAN, with the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), where López Obrador was a member. Jorge Meade, the candidate for power of Todos por México, is wearing the PRI backpack in a center-right coalition. Jaime Rodríguez Calderón ("El Bronco"), governor of Nuevo León, is very late in polls.

The PRI – where AMLO started his career – seems already discouraged. For the PRI, regaining power in 2012 "was a great feat," said Bravo Regidor. Peña Nieto brought a program of reforms and promised "a new PRI". The magazine
Time gave him a cover with the title: "Save Mexico". But after a bloody and juicy badennium in corruption scandals, he is leaving with his popularity shattered.

"It seemed like the PRI could reinvent itself after being the villain of the movie." In just six years, it has become a democratic alternative to a party to which Mexicans can not wait to regain power, and perhaps permanently, "added Regidor Bravo.

The election offers several additives. Never before have so many offices been elected – 3400, including the president, 128 senators, 500 deputies, mayors, governors and local legislators – have never voted so much – a record attendance is expected, animated by young – and never before left She was so confident that now her turn has come.

Beyond insecurity and corruption, Valeria Moy, economist and director of the NGO Mexico City , is it doing? stronger economic growth and better distribute it.The economy has grown, but despite everything, Moy pointed out that there was a very negative perception in people. [19659006] "People are upset, and rightly so, with l & # 3 9, inequality, which has only increased, "he said. "Mexico has become more unequal, and it is an inequality that is also much more visible on social networks, you see how everyone lives, it comes from the beginning, who is born poor, dies poor."

López Obrador promises a radical "transformation". "Today, Mexicans will decide if they give it an opportunity to materialize.

A race with an obvious favorite

Polls show that López Obrador, the leftist candidate, almost doubles his intention to vote his opponents for the elections today in Mexico

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, National Regeneration Movement

Occupation: Political scientist

Age: 64 years

Origin : Macuspana, Tabasco

• The candidate who conducts the polls with 48.1% of the intention to vote is appointed for the third time to the Mexican presidency
• The party founded by López Obrador made two years became the main reference of the left
• His campaign has covered even the most inhospitable places of deep Mexico, where he carried his message, which is condensed in the fight against corruption and the "mafia of power"

] Ricardo Anaya, for Mexico at the front

Occupation: lawyer

Age: 39 years old

Origin: Naucalpán de Juárez, Mexico

• The so-called "impossible alliance" brings together the Conservative Party of Canada. 39 National Action (PAN) with the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD, left) and Movimiento Ciudadano (MC, According to polls, Anaya has 26.1% support from the electorate
• Despite his conservative ideology, she proposed a universal basic income to face poverty, fight organized crime and put an end to corruption impunity

José Antonio Meade, All for Mexico

Occupation: Economist

Age: 49 years old

Origin: Mexico

• The main figure in the cabinet of Enrique Peña Nieto is the heavy burden of PRI, in addition to the unpopularity of the president
• Meade, who has 20.8% of the intention to vote, had great difficulty in connecting with the electorate, especially with the most undisciplined sector, youth and millennia
• To a discursive tone too doctoral and a typical technocrat image, according to badysts