Tens of thousands demonstrate in Mexico

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people across Mexico responded to the opposition’s call for a march for democracy. In Mexico City, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the Zócalo, the capital’s central square.

Like everywhere else in the country, many here wore pink clothing, the color of the National Electoral Institute (INE). Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador cut funding to the institute last year and restricted control of parties’ election campaign spending.

The opposition parties, including the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), which ruled Mexico for seven decades uninterrupted in the 20th century, accuse López Obrador of undermining democracy. He is accused of encouraging corruption and using Mexico’s institutions to favor his Morena party in the June 2 elections.

Mexico will probably have a president for the first time

The Morena Party’s official candidate since Sunday has been Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City and a protégé of López Obrador. Addressing the opposition demonstrators in the Zócalo, she denounced the hypocrisy of those who are now demonstrating for democracy, even though they previously promoted electoral fraud, vote buying and corruption.

Sheinbaum is seen by many as a guarantor that López Obrador’s policies, which particularly appeal to poorer voters, will be continued. Sheinbaum is currently clearly ahead in polls. Her challenger Xóchitl Gálvez, as a candidate from the PRI, the right-wing PAN and the social democratic PRD, has so far received around 30 percent of the vote. It is therefore certain that a woman will rule Mexico for the first time in the next six years.

Thousands of Mexicans demonstrate for fair elections

Just a few months before the presidential and parliamentary elections, thousands of people gathered in Mexico’s capital for a rally. They fear the dismantling of democracy – and a return to old times.

They are protesting against electoral reform by their president and for the preservation of democracy: Thousands of people took to the streets in Mexico’s capital and other places in the country under the motto “for our democracy.” Almost three and a half months before the presidential and parliamentary elections, demonstrators filled the central Zócalo square in Mexico City on Sunday.

Many of them were dressed in pink, the color of the electoral authority INE. Their former boss Lorenzo Córdova gave a speech in front of the presidential palace. There were also rallies in other cities for fair elections and against the dismantling of democratic institutions.

The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pushed through an electoral reform that drastically reduced the electoral authority. The left-wing populist also wants to have federal judges – including for the Supreme Court – elected by the people. Some critics warn of a possible return to the days when Mexico’s state institutions were not independent of the government and the “Party of Institutionalized Revolution” ruled for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000.

The 70-year-old López Obrador will not be allowed to run again in the elections on June 2nd. The constitution only allows presidents to serve a six-year term. His Morena party’s candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, mayor of Mexico City, is clearly ahead in the polls.

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