Mexico Elections - 2012
Mexico is a multiparty federal republic with an elected president and bicameral legislature. On 01 July 2012, citizens elected President Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to a six-year term in generally free and fair multiparty elections; Pena Nieto took office on December 1. Security forces reported to civilian authorities; however, there were instances in which elements of the security forces acted independently of civilian control.
Significant human rights-related problems included police and military involvement in serious abuses, including unlawful killings, physical abuse, torture, and disappearances. Widespread impunity and corruption remained serious problems, particularly at the state level, in the security forces, and in the judicial sector. Violence attributed to transnational and local criminal organizations, violence against women, and violence against journalists that limited freedom of expression persisted.
The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption. However, the government did not enforce the law effectively. Credible reports indicated that officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity and that relatively few cases came to trial. Corruption at the most basic level involved paying bribes for routine services or in lieu of fines to administrative officials and security forces. More sophisticated and less apparent forms of corruption included overpaying for goods and services to provide payment to elected officials and political parties. A 2011 survey by Transparency International found that the average citizen spent about 14 percent of his or her income on bribes.
There were multiple reports of forced disappearances by the army, navy, and police. Most occurred in the course of sanctioned security operations. On 10 December 2012, President Pena Nieto announced an initiative to reform the definition of forced disappearances in the federal code to meet international human rights standards. The CNDH reported that there were at least 7,000 unidentified bodies of persons killed in the last six years in morgues and common graves, while a PGR-compiled list of more than 25,000 people who had disappeared since December 2006 was leaked to the Washington Post in November.
Despite federal laws supporting freedom of the press, many journalists were the victims of threats, harassment, and violence. Reporters covering organized crime, including its links to corrupt public officials, acknowledged practicing self-censorship, recognizing the danger investigative journalism posed to them and their families. Freedom House’s 2012 Freedom of the Press Report categorized Mexico as a country “not free” for the press due to the threats and violence that reporters faced and impunity for the perpetrators of crimes committed against the press.
The national elections -- for the president, all 128 seats in the Senate and all 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies -- took place on 02 July 2012. The administration of outgoing President Felipe Calderon had been plagued by economic stagnation and rampant drug violence.
Pena Nieto won 38 percent while former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had 31 percent. The results set up a return to power for the PRI, which ruled the country for seven decades until 2000. The presidential election, which Enrique Pena Nieto won by a 6.6 percent margin, was considered mostly free, fair, and transparent. Obrador called the results fraudulent and something no one can accept. Obrador accused the Institutional Revolutionary Party of buying votes, and says Mexico's news media gave favorable coverage to the PRI, helping to tilt the election in the party's favor. The PAN candidate in the election, Josefina Vazquez Mota, finished third in the voting. The Federal Electoral Institute oversaw the electoral process, and the Federal Electoral Tribunal, after conducting a comprehensive review of all electoral irregularities, declared the election valid on August 31.
In the 01 July 2012 legislative elections, 42 of 128 senators elected and 184 of 500 federal deputies elected were women. Two female justices sat on the 11-member Supreme Court, and there were three women in the 20-member cabinet. Many state electoral codes provide that no more than 70 to 80 percent of candidates can be of the same gender. At the federal level, at least 40 percent of all candidates to elected office must be women.
There were no established quotas for increased participation of indigenous groups in the legislative body, and no reliable statistics were available regarding minority participation in government. The law provides for the right of indigenous people to elect representatives to local office according to “usages and customs” law rather than federal and state electoral law. Usages and customs laws applied traditional practices to resolve disputes, choose local officials, and collect taxes without federal or state government interference. While such practices allowed communities to select officials according to their traditions, the usages and customs law generally excluded women from the political process and often infringed on the rights of women and religious minorities. In some villages women were not permitted to vote or hold office while in others they could vote but not hold office.
Pena Nieto would have a much freer hand in implementing policies now that he had seen to the "decimation" of the National Action Party (PAN) and Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) in the corridors bordering Mexico City. The governor could also count on support from the Green Party (PVEM), Nueva Alianza (PANAL), the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and, to a certain extent, even Convergencia, in the local congress. At the federal level, Pena Nieto controlled the single largest bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, and the governor personally wielded significant influence in the Green Party (PVEM), the PRI's electoral and sometime congressional ally.
The PRI billed Pena Nieto as representing a younger, fresher, and more modern party adapted to the new political realities of a democratic Mexico; he was often referred to as the "next President of Mexico." Nevertheless, the governor hardly appeared to be cut from a new cloth. When pressed to explain Pena Nieto's popularity, government officials most often pointed to his "Compromisos," or "Pledges" program. During his campaign, Pena Nieto drew up a list of over 600 items -- which he primarily drew from citizen requests and mostly include small infrastructure projects like paving roads in rural communities -- he promised to accomplish while in office. He then signed the list in front of a notary. The state government claims he has already completed some 400 items and is on track to complete the rest by the end of his term. While indicating that the governor can efficiently accomplish projects -- or at least convince his constituents he can -- the Compromisos program smacked more of populism than of achieving lasting reforms in his state. Moreover, every government building, as well as almost every mile of highway, every hospital, and every street corner, featured signs promoting the governor's work in "complying with the compromiso." More difficult work on serious reforms had been slower in coming.
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