AZMEX ELECTION SPECIAL 29-6-18

AZMEX ELECTION SPECIAL 29 JUN 2018

Note: some local views.
Thx


Mexicans express hope, cynicism as elections near
By Genesis Lara
Nogales International 16 hrs ago

https://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/mexicans-express-hope-cynicism-as-elections-near/article_e36addc8-7b32-11e8-8a5b-ffb619b2a03b.html.

Mexican elections
Julia Aguilar said she'll vote for Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Sunday, while Alfonso Pesqueira said he's undecided, but doesn't think López Obrador is fit for the position.
Photo by Genesis Lara

Mexican elections
Guadalupe Villa, 56, of Nogales, Sonora, said she's supporting frontrunner Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Photo by Genesis Lara

Mexican elections
Kenneth Vazquez, 18, of Nogales, Sonora said that although this is the first time he will be able to vote, he doesn't plan on doing so. "I don't care. They're all going to steal anyways," he said.
Photo by Genesis Lara

Mexico elections
Hector Romo, left, and Jesús Hernández shared their opinions on the Mexican elections while in Nogales, Ariz. on Wednesday. Romo said he doesn't vote, but both men believe that Andrés Manuel López Obrador will be the next president of Mexico.
Photo by Genesis Lara


When Mexicans go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president, Jesús Hernández said, he hopes they'll choose Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the 64-year-old leftist former mayor of Mexico City.

Hernández, a native of Cananea, Sonora who's now retired after years of working at Walgreens, said he supports López Obrador because he has a track record of success. "I have five siblings who live in Mexico City and they say that when he was (mayor) there, he transformed (the city). He transformed Mexico, he accomplished a lot and the evidence is still there," he said.

Sitting a few feet away from Hernández on Terrace Avenue in Nogales, Ariz. on Wednesday, former maquiladora employee Julia Aguilar, 67, agreed that López Obrador, commonly known by his initials AMLO, is the best presidential candidate.
"There needs to be change, because change is good," Aguilar said, noting her opposition to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
"I don't understand why anyone would vote for the PRI if they raised all costs with the 'gasolinazo,'" she said in reference to an unpopular gasoline price hike at the start of 2017 that led to angry street protests throughout Mexico, including in Nogales, Sonora.

Hernandez and Aguilar are not alone in their enthusiasm for López Obrador, a member of the Morena political party he founded in 2014. A recent survey by the newspaper Reforma showed him with 51 percent support, well ahead of Ricardo Anaya, a 39-year-old lawyer from the conservative National Action Party (PAN), who had 27 percent. The PRI's José Antonio Meade, who has served in several cabinet positions for highly unpopular President Enrique Peña Nieto, trailed at 19 percent.

Peña Nieto, who was elected to a six-year term in 2012, is barred by the Mexican Constitution from seeking re-election.

Guadalupe Villa, 56, of Nogales, Sonora, said she plans to vote for López Obrador, adding that she believes in voting for people, not parties.
"I don't like any of the four presidential candidates, but if (López Obrador) were as bad as everyone says he is, he'd be in jail by now. So I think there must be something good about him," she said.
Villa said she particularly appreciated that López Obrador, while mayor of Mexico City, had created the program "70 y más," or "70 and over," which provides financial assistance for the elderly.

Dissatisfaction

Alfonso Pesquiera, a 74-year-old Nogalian who can vote in Mexico, was not sure about which presidential candidate he'd choose, but he was firm about who he does not want in local office.
"I might vote for Pujol," he said of Jesús Antonio Pujol Irastorza, the Morena party candidate for mayor of Nogales, Sonora. "As long as it's not Temo again, he's useless and hasn't done anything for Nogales."

David Cuauhtémoc "Temo" Galindo Delgado of the PAN is the incumbent mayor who is running for a second three-year term in office.

Hector Romo, a former custodian at Nogales High School, said he has not voted in Mexico in a long time, though he still can. He's considering voting for mayoral candidate Jorge Octavio Freig Carrillo of the PRI. "You can tell he's a hard worker, that he's part of the people," Romo said, though he added the fatalistic caveat that whoever is elected will steal from the city.

Others planned to express their dissatisfaction by not voting at all.

"I'm disappointed in my country and in those who govern my country," said Carlos Alejandro Cázares, a shuttle driver who estimated that he hasn't voted in 18 years after seeing corruption take over Mexico.

Corruption, along with public security, have been key issues in the presidential race. López Obrador, who has long been a harsh critic of Mexico's entrenched elite, has connected with many voters by positioning himself as the best candidate to "cleanse" the country of endemic corruption.

But 18-year-old Kenneth Vázquez said he's already made up his mind to stay out of politics, because "it's always the same."
"The presidents never change, they never fulfill what they propose," Vázquez said.

Panama native José Saturno, who has lived in Mexico since 1992, expressed his frustration that young people aren't voting. He wishes he could cast a ballot, Saturno said, noting that while he has Mexican residency, he hasn't been able to gain full citizenship.
"I see a lot of young people who don't take advantage of (voting)," he said. "I have young doctors who work with me and I asked them if they were voting, and they didn't even know where to vote."

Saturno, who listed security and infrastructure as key issues for him, said he's afraid that López Obrador might not understand the dual culture along their northern border. Asked who he hopes people will vote for on Sunday, he said: "Locally, maybe Pujol. At a national level, maybe Anaya (because) he's offered some more concrete proposals regarding the border."

End