By RICARDO CASTILLO Good Friday will mark the beginning of the 2018 electoral campaign in Mexico. Up for grabs are the nation’s presidency, nine state governorships, 128 Senate seats, 500 Chamber of Deputies seats and 283 municipal mayoralties. There are also a number of state senate and assembly seats being vied for. Competition will be fierce and intense
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By RICARDO CASTILLO It would seem Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) is irrigating the upcoming presidential elections with a holy hose. Just as they were trying last week to plug a hole with the elimination of two independent presidential hopefuls due to their alleged filing of fake voter credentials, this week INE’s hose has developed a new leak, and it’s a
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By RICARDO CASTILLO It is said in Mexican political jargon that if the river is making noise, it’s because water is running. In this case, the rumor bouncing around everywhere in Mexico is that the President Enrique Peña Nieto administration is preparing to commit a “mega-fraud” in the traditional style of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for the upcoming July 1
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By RICARDO CASTILLO In the ongoing Mexican election campaign battle, it’s supposed to be time for the lull before the storm. Except, it isn’t. During this intermediate period between the pre-campaign that came from Dec. 14 to Feb. 11, pre-candidates made known their intentions of running for office. Right now, in the “inter-campaigns” period, the now officially nominated candidates are not allowed to
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Some Mexicans just don’t like the way the electoral procedure is being carried out by the National Electoral Institute (INE). The problem is that those disgruntled Mexicans are blaming the INE for what they perceive as irregularities in the process, but the procedure was designed by Congress, and the only way out of this long and
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By EARL ANTHONY WAYNE, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico
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By RICARDO CASTILLO The first of three periods dictated by Mexico’s National Electoral Institute (INE) will come to an end on Sunday, Feb. 11. This period was to denote both political alliances and carry out what in the United States would be considered primaries to select officials running for office. Over the next five months, the INE has programmed two more periods.
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By RICARDO CASTILLO I can breathe a sign of relief; it didn’t happen! My biggest fear about last week’s fly-by-night visit to Mexico City by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was that he’d announce the replacement of Ambassador Roberta Jacobson. That didn’t happen and that’s very good news. That, of course, should be a warning to ambitious fellows who want
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Just five months away from Mexico’s July 1 presidential election, the contending hopefuls are pretty much well-defined. Nevertheless, it’s worth a recap on the ongoing procedures as outlined by the National Electoral Institute (INE) to know the order of things and the rules of the game at hand. The INE programed the electoral calendar to take place in
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Is Russia meddling in the on-going Mexican electoral process? Is U.S.-born but now-Mexican citizen and National Autonomous University of Mexico professor John Ackerman Russian President Vladimir Putin’s man in Mexico? Ackerman denies it, but that does not stop the Mexican press from pointing him out as the man behind the Russian election interference ploy? Ackerman adamantly repudiates these allegations and the rumor of
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