Current policy
Mexico is a country located in the region of North America. See abbreviation for Mexico. Mexico has for the first time since December 2018 a marked left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the Congress is also dominated by left-wing parties. López Obrador has promised profound changes, which enthusiasm for many voters who are tired of corruption, crime and poverty. But financial markets are rocking concerns about radical and authoritarian tendencies.
In the elections held in the summer of 2018, voters largely turned their back on the traditional establishment and supported Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is called Amlo after his initials. His party The National Renewal Movement (Morena) also became the largest in Congress after the election, which meant a landslide victory for the Left (see Calendar). Together with allied parties, Morena has a satisfactory majority. This is the first time that the president has such a majority in the back since 1994, when the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) still had total dominance (see Modern History).
- Countryaah: Country facts and history of Mexico, including state flag, location map, demographics, GDP data, currency code, and business statistics.
López Obrador is a former mayor of Mexico City who came second in the previous two presidential elections. Both times he protested against the result and orchestrated extensive street protests (see Modern History). He previously ran for the Left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), but then formed Morena in 2014. López Obrador is described as a left-wing populist and has promised to address the “power mafia” in the country.
On the same day he swore presidential oath, López Obrador opened the doors of the presidential residence Los Pinos in Mexico City in a symbolically charged gesture to the public. Just hours earlier, outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto had held a gala reception for King Felipe of Spain on the spot. López Obrador more than halved his own salary and lost a large part of the president’s security force.
However, the stock exchange and the currency fell before López Obrador’s entry, as many financial players are worried that the new president will act hostile to business. One example that, before the change of power, caused a share decline and brought sharp criticism, was the decision to stop the already started construction of a new major airport outside Mexico City (see Calendar). Initiatives of the new left-wing majority in Congress to lower bank fees and increase state control over pension funds have also swayed the market. However, López Obrador has promised financial rigor and his finance minister, Carlos Urzúa, is a well respected economist.
Despite this, critics’ fears seem to come true when the State Statistics Office reported that the economy shrank in 2019, López Obrador’s first year in power. It was the first time since the global financial crisis in 2009 that growth was negative, albeit just barely.
In the spring of 2020, the corona pandemic came, which means a blow to the entire world economy. Mexico was relatively late in imposing movement restrictions and President López Obrador at least initially seemed almost to deny the severity of the virus. In mid-June, the economies started to open again despite continued spread of infection. Around 17,500 deaths in covid-19 had been confirmed, although the actual figure is believed to be significantly higher.
In the 2018 election, López Obrador’s representative Enrique Peña Nieto was not allowed to stand for re-election, but his party PRI also made a disaster choice. It was clear that voters were not convinced by his assurance that his government was radically different from the old kind of PRI regime. Many Mexicans associate PRI with power, corruption and interaction with organized crime, since the party’s dominance for most of the 20th century. Under Peña Nieto, the anger over corruption and drug-related violence grew. López Obrador went to elections with promises to stop the violence through efforts
Follow the events trend in Calendar.
FACTS – POLITICS
Official name
Estados Unidos Mexicanos / Mexico United States
GOVERNMENT
republic, federal state
Head of State and Government
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–)
Most important parties with mandates in the last election
National Renewal Movement (Morena) 191/55, National Action Party (PAN) 81/23, Labor Party (PT) 61/6, Social Meeting Party (PES) 56/8, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) 45/13, Citizens’ Movement (MC) 27/7, Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) 21/8, Mexico’s Green Ecological Party (PVEM) 16/7, New Alliance Party (Panal) 2/1 (2018) 1
Main parties with mandates in the second most recent elections
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) 203, National Action Party (PAN) 108, Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) 56, Mexico’s Green Ecological Party (PVEM) 47, National Renewal Movement (Morena) 35, Citizens’ Movement (MC) 26, New Alliance Party (Panal) 10, Social Meeting Party (PES) 8, Labor Party (PT) 6, Independent 1 (2015) 2
Turnout
approximately 63% in the 2018 presidential election
Upcoming elections
congressional elections 2021, presidential and congressional elections 2024
- The figures refer to the Chamber of Deputies / Senate
2. The figures refer to the Chamber of DeputiesSources
2012
December
Peña Nieto takes over as president
1 December
Enrique Peña Nieto is sworn in as President (see July 1, 2012). He appoints a government of 19 ministers, including 3 women. In a gesture to the right-wing PAN, Representative Calderón’s Finance Minister José Antonio Meade becomes new Foreign Minister. Since PRI and its main ally, the environmental party PVEM, do not have their own majority in the Chamber of Deputies, Peña Nieto has also sought cooperation with the New Alliance Party (Panal). Together, the three parties have a scarce majority.
November
Changed labor law
After two months of heated debate, Congress adopts disputed amendments to labor law, the first major in 40 years. New rules should make it easier for employers to hire and dismiss people.
October
The leader of the Zeta cartel is killed
Zeta’s senior leader Heriberto Lazcano is reported to have been killed in a firefight with military in Coahuila. According to Calderón, now 25 of the 37 most wanted criminals in the country have been arrested during his presidency.
September
Yet another drug king is arrested
Police say they arrested one of the country’s most wanted men, Iván Velázquez Caballero (also known as El Talibán or Z-50) in San Luis Potosí. According to rumors, the days before the arrest he had moved from Zetas to a rival cartel.
Officers are suspected of intercourse with narcotics
The military seizes 35 police officers suspected of conspiring with the Zeta cartel, in the states of San Luis Potosí and Veracruz. Many of the worst massacres in Mexico in recent years have occurred in Veracruz, where rival cartels fight for control of drug trafficking.
The golf cartel leader is arrested
A success in the fight against crime is made when the leader of the Golf cartel, Jorge Eduardo Costilla, is arrested.
Mass escape from prison
The drug cartel Zetas is believed to be behind a mass escape as 131 prisoners disappear from a prison in Coahuila.
Left candidate López Obrador forms new party
The Left’s presidential candidate, Andres Manuel López Obrador, refuses to accept the election results from July and calls for further protests. He also announces that he is now leaving the left-wing PRD and its Alliance to form a new youth movement: the National Renewal Movement (Morena).
August
Accusations of voting are rejected
August 30th
Mexico’s highest electoral court states that there is no evidence that Peña Nieto would have “purchased” votes and favored media coverage. Thus, the election result from July is finally finalized.
July
PRI’s Peña Nieto wins the presidential election
July 1st
PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto wins the presidential election. When the preliminary announcement of the victory comes, PAN’s Josefina Vázquez Mota concedes defeat, but PRD’s Andres Manuel López Obrador claims that PRI has engaged in voice buying and requires a recalculation. After a few days, just over half of the votes are recalculated and the result is then set at 38 percent for Peña Nieto, 32 percent for López Obrador and 25 percent for Vázquez Mota. The message is met by protests from tens of thousands of protesters in Mexico City and López Obrador appeals the result. In the contemporary congressional elections, the PRD is going strong, while the PAN is going back sharply. PRI backs in the Chamber of Deputies but moves forward in the Senate. The result will be 212/52 for the PRI (Chamber of Deputies / Senate), 114/38 for the PAN, 104/22 for the PRD, 29/9 for the Environmental Party PVEM, 15/5 for the Labor Party,
June
Big protests against presidential candidate
Large demonstrations are held around the country organized by the network Yo soy 132 (I am 132), after a first group of 132 students who protested against PRI candidate Peña Nieto. The students accuse him of corruption and claim that he “bought” the dominant TV company Televisa, which therefore angles its reporting in his favor.
May
New massacres are discovered
Forty-nine murdered people are found near Monterrey, in one of the worst massacres that occurred during the war between drug gangs. The victims have had their heads and hands cut off.
Militants are arrested
Four high-ranking militants are arrested on suspicion of cooperating with organized crime in the country. One of the arrested, Tomás Ángeles Dauahare, was previously Deputy Minister of Defense and one of the leaders of the sharpened action against the drug cartels that started in 2006.
March
The electoral movement before the presidential election begins
March 30
When the electoral movement officially kicks in, PRI candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, former governor of the state of Mexico, leads the polls.
February
Yet another drug king is arrested
The police seize another drug king, Jaime Herrera Herrera, who is based on the growing production of synthetic amphetamine.
PAN appoints woman as presidential candidate
Josefina Vázquez Mota becomes the party’s candidate in this summer’s presidential election. This is the first time one of the major parties has elected a female presidential candidate.
