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The Apache called the Mexicans “nakaiye,” “those who come and go.” The last American Indians, who still live today on reservations in Arizona and New Mexico, are the great-grandsons of highly skilled and fearless warriors, who also possessed excellent analytical skills, at least in the sociological field. Mexicans come and go and the issue of migration, 300 years later, remains dominant in the presidential elections taking place in Mexico today. Where, whatever happens, a woman will occupy the seat of “president” and lead the second largest Latin American economy (the first is Brazil): the two candidates in the running are Claudia Sheinbaum, former mayor of the capital, progressive of the Morena Party, and Xochitl Galvez, candidate of a center-right grouping. Both 61 years old, both engineers. The polls, however, do not assign any probability of victory to Jorge Alvarez Maynez, who leads the Movimiento Ciudadano, a more centrist list.
Two 61 year olds, both engineers
Sheinbaum is credited as the probable winner, also for being the “dauphin” of the incumbent president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Amlo). The Mexican economy is recording moderate growth, certainly higher than that of other Latin American countries. The 2023 GDP grew by 3.1% and this year, although decreasing, should approach 2.4%. Amlo’s Mexico benefited from American nearshoring, or re-localization close to Washington’s commercial interests. The Biden Administration has reshaped its trade policy favoring the countries of the American continent, to the detriment of China. For this reason, Mexico became the United States’ first partner in 2023, bypassing China. Not only that, with a very low unemployment rate (2.6%) and an increase in real wages of 100% (from 2018 to today) and with 36 billion dollars in direct investments from abroad, Amlo is achieving results that please the establishment of the entire continent.
The inter-oceanic railway
Another point in favor of the outgoing president Amlo is the Corredor Transistimico, a gigantic infrastructure project that will connect the two oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. A railway that could become competitive, according to the financiers of the Panama Canal project which Amlo defines as “saturated”, however in difficulty due to the scarcity of water necessary for its full use. A first section was already inaugurated last December and Amlo praised it thus: «Project dreamed of for centuries by presidents, kings, politicians and governors». Along the railway route, 12 industrial centers will be built, strategic for the Mexican economy. Yet the Mexican emergency is the violence that grips the country and has caused 180 thousand deaths in 6 years, a dramatic record that generates, for a left-wing president, the most painful of consequences: some Mexican jurists configure the problem as a “shaking pillar ” and which calls into question the very existence of a “rule of law”.
The “security” emergency. Candidate killed a few hours before the vote
The security crisis and the increasingly pervasive power of Narcos are a key point.
A candidate in the local elections is was assassinated in western Mexico, just hours before voting began. This is Israel Delgado, 35 years old, killed on Saturday evening near his home. Delgado aspired to become in charge of finances and internal control of the Cutzeo municipal council. This was stated by the Michoacan State Attorney’s Office.
