PRI/Partido Verde (Green Party)/ Nueva Alianza (New Alliance)

The Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) was elected back into power after a 12 year absence in 2012. From 1929 to 2000 it controlled the presidency without interruption. In the words of Peruvian author Mario Vargas Losa, the PRI was “the perfect dictatorship.” In 2000 the PRI’s 71 year reign came to an end when Vicente Fox was elected president with him campaigning on Mexicans casting a “useful vote” in order to prevent the PRI from governing another term. Well all of that changed when the PRI came roaring back in 2012 in a highly controversial election. As with any election in Mexico there were claims of fraud and of vote buying especially concerning the handing out of gift cards to a supermarket chain to potential voters. All of this is to say that Enrique Pena Nieto (EPN) could never really claim a mandate to govern. However, mandate or not EPN will go down as a president who reformed a lot in Mexico for better or worse. EPN approved reforms that allow foreign investment by private entities into PEMEX, the state-owned petroleum company, to national disappointment and it has been a troubled reform as so called “gasolinazos” raise the already high price of gasoline even higher. EPN also approved reforms to Mexico’s education system and to Mexico’s telecommunications sector. Both of those reforms have met opposition but not as much as the reform to PEMEX. All of this is to say that EPN is extremely unpopular as he is seen as the embodiment of corruption after his “White House” scandal where his wife was supposedly gifted a house in an extremely affluent neighborhood in Mexico City in exchange for government contracts and EPN is also seen as incompetent because of his handling of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students which he could have handled better to be frank.

All of these controversies and allegations of fraud have not given his party’s nominee for president and former Secretary of Finance Jose Antonio Meade Kuribena much goodwill. As much as Meade would like to separate himself from EPN’s administration it has been hard for him to separate himself from it as he was very much a part of the administration. Meade is seen as the continuation of the corruption of the PRI and is thus extremely unlikely to win the elections on July 1st.

PAN/PRD/MC

Ricardo Anaya is running under a coalition of three different parties in the 2018 elections. The party which Anaya used to lead is the National Action Party (PAN) which is the most prominent conservative party and a party that positions itself as the party that has the concerns of Mexican families at heart and at the forefront of its policies. It is debatable if that is actually the case but that is what the PAN is. The other main party in the coalition is the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) which is/was the main liberal party in Mexico. The PRD used to be led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador until he left the party in 2014 and basically left the party without a leader and in disarray. Since then the PRD has formed some coalitions with the PAN in some governors races and won. Enough about the parties though.

Anaya is running as the centrist in this election since he is running under the banner of a left and right-wing coalition. Some of his proposals include implementing a universal basic income while reforming many of the country’s welfare systems at the same time, creating an independent commission to investigate any potential corruption committed by the president and removing immunity from criminal prosecution for politicians while in office. While these proposals may seem like a good way to reform a lot of Mexico’s institutions and weed out corruption Anaya himself has been accused of money laundering and as being as much a part of the corrupt establishment as most other politicians. He is also viewed as a politician who is out of touch with the daily struggles of the average person and would not help to move Mexico to a better place.

MORENA/Partido del Trabajo (Labor Party)/Encuentro Social (Social Encounter)

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is and has been the front runner in this campaign and he is a leftist populist politician who is promising the most change and a change of political order in the country. He is running under the banner of the party he created in 2014 called MORENA after the leaving the PRD. His party also formed a coalition with the Labor Party (PT) and became the dirtbag centrist campaign when uniting with Social Encounter (ES) an extreme right-wing party that is even further right than PAN.

AMLO is of course hoping that his third run will finally be the one to lead him to victory after losing in 2006 and 2012. Some of AMLO’s proposals include cancelling the construction of the New Mexico City Airport for reasons and instead repurposing an old Mexican Air Force to serve as a second airport in conjunction with the already existing airport. However, it should be noted that AMLO can and has taken every position possible under the sun when it comes to this airport and no one knows what his true plan of action is.

Speaking of uncertainty, he is also the candidate with the most uncertainty in this election. He draws a lot of comparisons to Hugo Chavez and not without reason. In his party’s manifesto he calls for the “re-nationalization” of PEMEX and calls the people who reformed it traitors. AMLO has also given a lot of time to talking about corn and how it is an “embarrassment” that Mexico imports a lot of corn from the United States because corn is originally a plant from Mexico. Also in his party’s manifesto there are proposals to impose price controls on basic goods and of course this being the /r/neoliberal subreddit there isn’t much need to explain why this is a bad idea. AMLO is of course also a nationalist that is wary of globalism and therefore of free trade deals although he is a wary defender of NAFTA since Trump could do away with it and devastate the Mexican economy. Another meme proposal that AMLO has proposed that he would like to implement is a national referendum every two years to determine whether the president should stay in office or resign.

All of this is to say that AMLO is like Trump in the way that even though not a lot of people like him people view him as an alternative to the status quo and that his election would be a punishment to the political establishment that has not benefited millions of Mexicans. And like Trump he also brings a lot of uncertainty to the future of the country as worries of how he will handle the duties of president and how that may affect the 130 million Mexican people.

Independents

Jaime Rodriguez “El Bronco” is a meme politician that I won’t say much about other than he is on the ballot and will probably do a lot better than many people are expecting but he won’t win the election.

Margarita Zavala RIP.

The election will be held on July 1st. The winner is determined by a popular vote and a plurality of votes a majority is not required to be the winner. The winner will also take office sometime in December

I would like to apologize for any spelling or grammar errors in advance. I wanted to get this done before the elections on Sunday and in writing this effortpost I have fulfilled my pledge for the charity drive.