Politicking

In the June 2 election in Mexico, voters will not only select a new President, but also both houses of the legislature, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.  On the local level there are many races for state legislatures and eight state governorships.  Voters will also select the head of government for Mexico City.  

In 1997 Mexico City, which used to be the Districto Federal (analogous to the District of Columbia in the U.S.) was given autonomy.  It gained a status akin to a state, although technically, according to the Mexican constitution, the capital cannot be a state.  So, the head of government for Mexico City, is more like a "governor" than a mayor.  Campaign posters for the two major candidates suddenly proliferated this past week along the streets of Mexico City.

As I was walking along Patriotismo Avenue, the thoroughfare was lined with posters for Santiago Taboada.  His slogan is "El cambio viene" (The change is coming).

 

Taboada served as the chief executive of the "alcaldía" (borough) of Benito Juárez, the borough in which I live.  (Just as Mexico City is now similar to a state, the sixteen boroughs are similar to cities within the city, and the heads of the boroughs are called mayors.)  He is now running to be the head of Mexico City.  Taboada is himself a member of PAN, the conservative party, but he is the candidate for a coalition called "Fuerza y Corazón por México" (Strength and Heart for Mexico) which was formed in opposition to the ruling Morena Party.  They say that politics makes strange bedfellows, and that is certainly the case with this coalition.  It is composed of PAN (conservative party), PRI (the "revolutionary" party which had an iron grip on Mexican politics from 1929 until 2000) and PDR (a socialist party).

There is nary a poster along the avenue for the populist Morena candidate, Clara Brugada.  Although Taboada will most likely carry his home borough of Benito Juárez, Brugada is expected to easily win the election.  In Alejandro's working-class neighborhood, Clara's image is plastered all over the place.