DALLAS — Both of Mexico's top presidential candidates are women. Voters like Diana Garcia of Dallas said they were excited and “proud” to elect the country's first female president.
Garcia is one of more than 675,000 Mexicans living abroad, the majority in the United States, who are registered to vote and do not have the necessary voter identification to participate in elections, according to the National Elections Authority. I have a book.
With early voting already underway ahead of the June 2 election, Mexican Americans are preparing to take part in Mexico's national elections, one of the most significant in the country's recent history.
That number may seem small compared to the roughly 98 million people registered to vote in Mexico, but “that doesn't mean they're any less important,” said Iberoamerican University professor and Mexican politics expert. There is a growing interest in engaging these voters, and “this is a positive sign,” said academic Mario Campos.
Many Mexicans living in the U.S. already vote by mail, online and in-person at some consulates, effectively making Mexico's “largest vote in history,” according to Lila Abed, acting director of the Wilson Center Mexico Institute. He is participating in the election. Nonpartisan research organization.
Voters will also choose all 628 seats in the House and Senate, as well as tens of thousands of local offices, according to the National Election Commission.
Campos said the vote of Mexicans living in the U.S. is an important way to strengthen economic and political ties between the U.S. and Mexico, where 97% of those who have left Mexico live. He said it appears to be responding to a wide range of efforts centered around leveraging connections.
“We have been fighting for more than 20 years to ensure that the voices of Mexicans in the United States are heard and that voting is more accessible,” said Francisco Moreno, co-founder and executive director of the Mexican Union Council. he said.14 organizations representing the interests of Mexicans living in the United States
The stakes in electing the first female president
In this election, Campos said, voters will primarily decide whether Mexico's future path is to strengthen traditional government structures or completely reform them.
“These are completely different views,” Campos said. “The election results will have consequences that will take the country in a completely different direction.”
Claudia Sheinbaum, the presidential candidate for Mexico's ruling Morena party (founded by her leader, outgoing President Andres Manuel López Obrador), has focused her campaign on the idea that the country is heading in the right direction. Her goal is to convince voters that voting for her will ensure the continuation of social programs that have helped lift millions of people out of poverty and reduce violent crime. Campos said.
Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico City, is a physicist and climate scientist who is of Jewish descent.
López Obrador has significantly increased public spending during his term to fund cash transfer programs for the elderly and young people in school, as well as food aid for those most in need. Significant reforms to Mexico's pension system are also expected to go into effect just before next month's election.
For Clara Mejia Horta, 30, her pension is one of the biggest motivations for voting by mail from Los Angeles, the American city with the largest number of Mexicans with valid voter ID.
“A lot of my family members have worked all their lives and are about to retire, but they can’t retire,” she said. “I don't have money to pay my pension.”
While Sheinbaum's platform may seem to reflect Mejía-Horta's concerns about prioritizing pensions, Mejía-Horta also supports the same economic and immigration issues that are important to her. He said he felt conflicted about the candidates' possible responses. Before Mejia-Horta mails in her ballot, she plans to get further insight from her family in Mexico to make her final choice.
Sheinbaum said Mexicans living abroad are key to shifting foreign policy toward Mexico's “domestic well-being,” said Gabriela Cuevas, a former senator and representative of Morena.
López Obrador said remittances by Mexicans living abroad are considered one of Mexico's main sources of income. According to BBVA's recent report, remittances to Mexico increased by 7.6% in 2023, reaching $63.3 billion. Almost all (96%) came from the United States
“The Mexican community in the United States is not only sending a lot of remittances,” Cuevas said in Spanish. “We must support them, protect them and harness their skills to enable them to contribute to the economy, academics and science.”
Jennifer Chavez Ramirez of Los Angeles said she plans to vote for Sheinbaum and will do so online. This voting option is widely available to all registered Mexicans living abroad. In previous elections, online options were only available in some Mexican states.
Chavez Ramirez, 28, a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient, said he has fond memories of Sheinbaum from a visit to Mexico City in 2022. Ta. “Advance parole” was a program that allowed her to travel to Mexico and guaranteed her return to the United States.
Chavez Ramirez said Sheinbaum welcomes her and other young Mexican illegal immigrants who have been in the United States since childhood and are able to work and study under the DACA program.
“She acknowledged the challenges we face in the United States and offered encouragement and support,” Chavez Ramirez said. “It's important that our experiences and voices are taken into account on both sides of the border.”
López Obrador's Morena party will compete against the traditional parties that have ruled Mexico for years, including the conservative National Action Party (PAN), the smaller progressive Democratic Revolutionary Party, and the conservative Institutional Revolutionary Party. After positioning itself as an alternative, it prevailed in the 2018 elections. Party, or PRI. Campos said this is a big reason why Morena's “vision for government” centers on reforming Mexico's justice system and local government.
But Campos said that Xositl Gálvez, the presidential candidate for the Mexican Broad Front, an opposition coalition made up of more traditional parties, is trying to convince voters that continuation of Morena's government “puts the country at risk.” said.
Gálvez's party contends that under Morena, access to health care and economic development have stagnated and crime rates remain high.
Jorge Álvarez Maínez, the Civic Movement party's presidential candidate, is running a distant third in the polls.
First direct vote
This is the first election in which Mexican citizens living abroad can vote in person at designated Mexican consulates in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
On Monday, Mr. Garcia and about 100 other voters cast their votes for Mr. Galvez at the Mexican consulate in Dallas, the city with the second-largest population of Mexicans with valid voter identification cards in the United States.
They all wore pink and held signs that read “marea rosa,” Spanish for “pink wave,” in support of the movement led by the Broad Front for Mexico coalition.
García said Marea Rosa supporters believe López Obrador is destroying Mexico's democracy, saying the president is dismantling government institutions and militarizing the country. denounced.
To Garcia, Sheinbaum is López Obrador's “puppet,” and a vote for her is a vote for him, she said.
Juan Hernandez, a former secretary of immigration and foreign affairs for the Mexican state of Guanajuato and a vocal supporter of Galvez, said he plans to vote online.
Hernández, speaking in Spanish, said he believes Galvez, a senator and tech entrepreneur of indigenous descent, represents the change “Mexicans are longing for.” “That's why migrants leave the country, because Mexico does not give them the opportunities they deserve. They leave for the United States in search of better jobs, to escape crime and to find safety.”
As a Mexican living in the United States, Jorge Real has consistently voted by mail in Mexican elections.
“A big part of the reason I vote, knowing that my vote as a binational citizen doesn't have that much influence yet, is because of the way it emerged in the 1980s and '90s, in places like southeast Los Angeles. “It's about honoring the work of groups founded by Mexican immigrants in the area. It's about amplifying the voice of the community,” said Leal, a history professor at the University of California, Riverside.
Nicole Acevedo reported from New York, Cora Cervantes from Los Angeles and Kayla McCormick from Dallas.
