By RICARDO CASTILLO The one sentence that pops out of the first Mexican presidential debate on the evening of last Sunday, April 22, was from the oldest of the candidates, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was forecast in my Pulse News Mexico column last week: “You’re ganging up on me” he told the other four presidential hopefuls. (“Me están echando montón”
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Tweeting Donald began his latest tirade against Mexico last Monday, April 2. when he warned that a new threat was impending over the poor, helpless USA because the Mexican government was allowing a “caravan of Hondurans” to cross into Mexico and that caravan was heading for the northern border. And, once again, POTUS threatened to cancel Mexico’s “milk cow,”
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By RICARDO CASTILLO With the Mexican elections now fully underway in a race for a total of 3,416 different posts, it is worth taking the time to look back on history and see how the country got this far into democracy, as well as reviewing the odd shape of the political alliances of nine parties into three separate
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By RICARDO CASTILLO Fear does not ride on the back of a burro; fear flies in the president’s airplane. This combined old and new adage is being applied to the dread being expressed by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto over his two beloved pet projects, both developed during his six-year mandate that will conclude next Nov. 30. Those
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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 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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