Mexico Elections - 2000
Mexico is a federal republic composed of 31 states and a federal district, with an elected president and a bicameral legislature. On July 2, voters elected Vicente Fox Quesada of the opposition Alliance for Change Coalition president in elections that domestic and international observers judged to be generally free and fair, and which ended the Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) 71-year hold on the presidency. Observers described the election as a historic turning point of the most profound significance and made recommendations for further electoral reform. Fox began his 6-year term on December 1, replacing Ernesto Zedillo.
Sporadic outbursts of politically motivated violence continued to occur in the southern states of Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. The peace process in Chiapas between the Government and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) remained stalled throughout most of the year; however, some progress was made in December after President Fox ordered the dismantling of military checkpoints, submitted to Congress a bill to implement the peace accords, and closed two contentious military posts in Chiapas. In addition, during December the state government released 16 EZLN prisoners and the EZLN, through its spokesman, set 3 conditions for the resumption of dialog. The judiciary is generally independent; however, it occasionally has been influenced by the executive branch. In addition, judicial effectiveness is hampered by inefficiency, a high caseload, and limited resources at almost all levels.
The police forces, which include federal and state judicial police, the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), municipal police, and the various police auxiliary forces, have primary responsibility for internal security. However, the military plays a large role in some law enforcement functions, primarily counternarcotics, and also exercises internal security responsibilities. Elected civilian officials control the police and the military; however, corruption is widespread within police ranks and also is a problem for the military. The military maintains a strong presence in the state of Chiapas and a lesser, but still significant, deployment in Guerrero. Military personnel and police officers continued to commit serious human rights abuses.
The Government generally respected many of the human rights of its citizens; however, serious problems remain in several areas and in some states where a poor climate of respect for human rights presents special concern. Federal and state law enforcement officials were accused of committing political and extrajudicial killings. There continued to be credible reports of disappearances. The police regularly obtain information through torture, prosecutors use this evidence in courts, and the courts continue to admit as evidence confessions extracted under torture. The military also has been accused of using torture.
Widespread police corruption and alleged police involvement in narcotics-related crime continued. Prison conditions are poor. The police continued to arrest and detain citizens arbitrarily. Lengthy pretrial detention, lack of due process, and judicial inefficiency and corruption persisted. Threats and attacks on journalists--some reportedly by federal, state, or local authorities--hindered press freedom, and there were reports of some self-censorship. Drug-related killings and violence, particularly in the northern states, continued. Violence and discrimination against women, indigenous people, religious minorities, and homosexuals persisted. Child prostitution and abuse continued. There were credible reports of limits on freedom of association and worker rights. Extensive child labor in agriculture and the informal economy and trafficking in persons are problems. There were increased reports of vigilante killings.
The Government's efforts to improve the human rights situation continued to meet with limited success. Although the Government has sanctioned some public officials, police officers, and members of the military, widespread impunity continues to be a serious problem among the security forces. The Zedillo Government continued to support the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), and in April 1999, Congress amended the Constitution to grant it greater autonomy from the executive branch. However, the CNDH primarily investigates complaints against federal authorities and has no enforcement powers.
Armed civilian groups operating in the state of Chiapas committed human rights abuses. There continued to be a high incidence of narcotics-related violence, particularly in the northern states, and human rights abuses, allegedly with the assistance of members of the security forces. Guerrilla attacks against government property and personnel continued, but at a lesser rate and intensity relative to previous years.
The traditional cozy relationship between the Government and the media that tilted coverage and editorial opinion in the Government's favor has diminished but not disappeared entirely. The Government no longer controls the import of newsprint but does retain control over broadcast licensing, which critics claim led some broadcast media to practice self-censorship. Accordingly old habits of accommodation lingered, and the editorial line of some key news organizations maintained a bias in favor of the Government. The persistence of official influence--and its greatest concentration--was most apparent in television. Instead of paying a 12.5 percent tax on advertising revenues, television broadcasters provided free broadcast time to the Government, which gave it convenient access to this powerful medium. Official advertising in the media continues, but disguising it as news coverage is more common at the state than at the national level. Cash and noncash payments to journalists persisted but were not as common as they once were; legislation to end this practice was enacted in 1998.
The Constitution provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully through periodic elections. As a result of electoral reforms approved and implemented in recent years, the political process and especially the electoral process have become more transparent. While elections are open and generally fair, some abuses continue to occur. Prior to the July 2 presidential election, the PRI had dominated politics, controlled the Federal Government, and won every presidential election since its founding in 1929. However, on July 2, voters elected Vicente Fox, a member of the National Action Party and presidential candidate of the Alliance for Change Coalition, president, with 43.3 percent of the vote. Observers, both international and domestic, judged the elections, which ended the PRI's 71-year hold on the presidency, to be generally free and fair. The observers described the election as a historic turning point of the most profound significance and made recommendations for further electoral reform.
The legislature amended the Constitution to allow the eligible 9 million citizens resident overseas to vote in national elections; however, the Senate failed to act on the necessary implementing legislation that would have made voting possible in the 2000 election, due to differences over the costs and requirements for voting.
Presidents are elected every 6 years and cannot be reelected. President Ernesto Zedillo supported legislation making the IFE an independent agency and declined to handpick his party's candidate for the presidential election. Instead, the PRI held a multicandidate primary in 1999 and chose Francisco Labastida as its presidential candidate.
The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), operating with full autonomy, arranged the July 2 federal elections, which international observers judged to be generally free and fair. They described the elections and the resultant overturning of 71 years of dominance by the PRI as a historic turning point of the most profound significance and made recommendations for further electoral reform. The IFE had implemented the extensive 1996 constitutional and legislative reforms to help prevent electoral fraud and to create more uniform conditions for political party participation by regulating campaign finance, advertising, and other areas. It standardized the voter registration list and recruited and trained thousands of civil society volunteers to serve as independent electoral workers at the voting booths. The IFE also has provided support to state electoral institutes in running state and local elections and was instrumental in overhauling electoral district boundaries to reflect demographic shifts.
After the July election, in the Chamber of Deputies, the PRI held 211 seats; the PAN 207; the PRD 50; the Green Ecologist Party (PVEM) 17; the Labor Party (PT) 7; Democracy Convergence (CD) 3; the Nationalist Society Party (PSN) 3; and the Social Alliance Party (PAS) 2. The PRI holds 59 seats in the Senate; the PAN 45; the PRD 17; the PT 1; the PVEM 1; and the CD 1. Legislators can and do change their party affiliation frequently.
On the state level, the PRI governed 19 states, the PAN 8, the PRD 1, PRD-PT coalitions 3, and PAN-PRD-led coalitions 2. On the municipal level, opposition strength is well established. The PRD governed the Federal District, and the PAN governed 13 of the 20 largest metropolitan areas.
On August 20, Chiapas voters elected the opposition Alliance for Chiapas candidate Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia to serve as governor, in a decisive victory over the PRI's Sami David David. As during the federal elections, the army was confined to its barracks, and the police presence was restrained. Although there were reports of minor, isolated irregularities, voting generally went smoothly. In his victory speech, Salazar supported the demilitarization of Chiapas and the introduction in Congress of the COCOPA legislation based on the 1996 San Andres accords between the EZLN and the federal Government.
On August 25, post-election violence in Chimalhuacan, Mexico state, between local PRI factions left at least 10 persons dead and many more injured. State police later arrested 62 persons, including the supposed ringleader, Guadalupe Buendia Torres.
Despite the IFE's efforts, there were still controversies at the state level over elections. On December 29, in Tabasco, the ultimate court of appeal on election matters (TEPJF) annulled the results of the state's disputed October 15 gubernatorial election and directed the Tabasco state legislature to name an interim governor and prepare for a new election. In its decision, the TEPJF cited inequitable local media coverage, diversion of funds for the election for the PRI candidate, and the blocking or miscounting of opposition votes. The TEPJF was created in 1987 and had never before invalidated an election.
Yucatan state opposition parties accused PRI Governor Victor Cervera Pacheco and the PRI-dominated state legislature of stacking the State Electoral Council to favor the PRI's candidates in the 2001 elections. On December 29, the TEPJF rejected the Council nominated by the state legislature and named a new Council. PRI state legislators questioned the legitimacy of this TEPJF-appointed Council and vowed to fight the "imposition" in the courts.
Although there are no legal impediments to their full participation, women are underrepresented in government and politics. Women hold approximately 16 percent of the seats in the Congress. No women serve as governors or justices on the Supreme Court. A woman, Rosario Robles, served as head of government of the Federal District from September 1999 to December. Under President Zedillo, 2 Cabinet Secretaries out of 20 were women. President Fox appointed 9 women to his 51-member Cabinet. A total of 9 of the 15 members of Mexico City Mayor Manual Lopez Obrador's cabinet are women, and 13 of the city's 23 key city officials are women.
The Electoral Code provides that no more than 70 percent of candidates can be of the same gender. All political parties are attempting to increase the number of women who run for elected office through formal and informal means. They have utilized quotas requiring that a certain percentage of candidates on a party list be female. However, in practice women more often are put forward as substitute candidates who have little chance of serving unless the titular candidate leaves office. The PRD leadership is 22 percent female, 24 percent of its representatives and 13 percent of its senators are female, and it has a female party president. The PAN has utilized more informal methods to increase female registration. Nonetheless, 23 percent of its leadership is female, and 11 percent of its senators and representatives are female. PRI party rules mandate that a certain number of its candidates be women. Twelve percent of the party leadership, including its president, is female. Fifteen percent of both its representatives and senators are female.
Constitutional changes in 1996 expanded the rights of indigenous people to elect representatives to local office according to "usages and customs," rather than standard electoral law. Only the states of Oaxaca and Quintana Roo have enacted the implementing legislation. These traditional customs vary from village to village. In some villages, women do not have the right to vote or to hold office. In others, they can vote but not hold office. Women were excluded systematically from the political process by "usages and customs" in Oaxaca state and expected to face the same phenomenon in the state of Quintana Roo.
On December 1, his first day in office, President Fox ordered the dismantling of 53 military checkpoints in Chiapas and military camps in the conflict zone. In less than 10 days, the army withdrew from two contentious military positions. In addition, the Government lifted restrictions on previously expelled foreigners and eased visa requirements for members of human rights organizations. In a December 2 press conference in La Realidad, Chiapas, the EZLN's Subcommander Marcos stated that President Fox's initial steps were encouraging and praised his choice of Luis H. Alvarez as his Chiapas Peace Coordinator. The rebel leader also laid down five conditions for a return to dialogue with the government: passage of the Congressional Chiapas Peace and Reconciliation Commission (COCOPA) bill, liberation of all EZLN prisoners, withdrawal of the army from EZLN territory and repositioning of the army to pre-1994 positions, closure of seven specific military posts in Chiapas, and no substitution of state police for army troops in the newly demilitarized areas.
President Fox promised a deepening of Mexico's economic and political reforms, declared "war" on organized crime, and planned to negotiate an immigrant "guest worker" program with the United States. Despite strong public support early in its term, the Fox administration was weakened by the PAN's loss of congressional seats during the 2003 midterm elections and the government's failure to craft a legislative coalition in support of its reform agenda. By the end of his term in 2006, much of President Fox's structural reform program remained unfulfilled.
One of President Fox's (2000-2006) most important reforms was the passage and implementation of freedom of information (FOIA) laws. President Fox also highlighted the need for modernization of Mexico's criminal justice system, including the introduction of oral trials.
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