Woman Power in the Mexican Congress
By RICARDO CASTILLO … Both houses of Mexico’s Congress are now led by women, and some men in Congress are none to happy about the prospect…
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The Mexican Left’s Road to the Presidency
By RICARDO CASTILLO … The leftist parties in Mexico have followed a complicated and convoluted path to political power,..
Read moreMuñoz Ledo Withdraws from Chamber of Deputies Presidency
By RICARDO CASTILLO After six hours of heated debate, Mexican Chamber of Deputies president-reelect Porfirio Muñoz Ledo decided on Tuesday Sept. 3, to step down from the post. By so doing, he prevented a constitutional crisis within the chamber, which in turn would have reflected in more conflict for the bills that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) wants to
Read moreMuñoz Ledo Keeps Post as Head of Deputies
By RICARDO CASTILLO … The octogenarian uprooted an agreement voted into practice in 2007 stating that each party had the right to lead the legislative house for one year…
Read moreMexico’s National Guard Goes into Effect
By RICARDO CASTILLO The past six months have been hectic for Mexico and its Congress as they worked to approve several constitutional amendments that will help ease the nation’s transition into what President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) calls the Fourth Transformation, now popularly mentioned as 4T. Apparently – and this is an educated guess only – AMLO has plans
Read moreA Dubious Future for Mexico’s PRI and PRD Political Parties
By RICARDO CASTILLO Is there anything left for Mexico’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to celebrate now that they have been diagnosed as last-stage, end-of-life patients? Maybe not, other than the fact that in their deathbeds they are still desperately clinging to life. The stories of the two parties is extremely different, although their
Read moreAMLO Appeases Teachers with Assurances He’ll Dump Education Reform
By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS After holding a massive two-day protest outside Mexico’s San Lázaro Congressional Palace earlier in the week (which forced Chamber of Deputies President Porfirio Muñoz Ledo to suspend all sessions until Tuesday, March 26) and meetings on Thursday, March 21, with representatives of both the Education Secretariat and the Interior Secretariat (Segob), leaders of the nation’s militant National
Read moreFinally, AMLO Is Now President of Mexico
By RICARDO CASTILLO The change over of presidents in Mexico is always a formal event, and this time was no exception, except for the fact that the style of doing things has changed. Some, if not all, of the stiff formality of yesteryear was absent in the proceedings that took place on Saturday, Dec. 1. The real change of administrations
Read moreThe Rise and Fall of the Mexican Partycracy Political System
By RICARDO CASTILLO It was 30 years ago that Mexico took a veritable turn towards becoming a democratic system. At the time, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) still ruled the nation. Yet the man who became president on Dec. 1, 1988, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, noticed that the lights had changed and that the PRI had to let go of
Read moreHere Comes AMLO’s Fourth Republic
By RICARDO CASTILLO Throughout his electoral campaign, Mexico’s now-President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) kept on promising something he calls “the fourth transformation”, as well as the construction of the “Fourth Republic.” In reality, the concept is not new, since AMLO has been hammering on the “transformation” of Mexico since his first run for president back in 2006, when he lost by a
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