MEXICO CITY.- The sectors adverse to President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador Decisive cards are played on Sunday in a rally in the Mexican capital and in the third presidential debate to try to raise electoral preferences less than two weeks before the general elections.
The main square of Mexico City will be the scene of the measurement of forces that the opposition who will seek to encourage his voters and attract new support that could be crucial in the June 2 vote, according to analysts.
Although the organizers of the so-called “Pink Tide” called for demonstrations in several cities in the country, attention will be focused on the demonstration in the capital where the participation of the opposition presidential candidate, former senator Xóchitl Gálvez, who will use the event to his campaign closing in Mexico City.
The rally has been marred by controversy because it was initially called by several civil organizations to call for free voting and citizen participation, but then it took on a political-partisan tone after the announcement that Gálvez and the opposition candidate for mayor capital, Santiago Taboada, would be the speakers, which unleashed criticism from the ruling party and the electoral authorities who urged the organizers not to use the pink color that identifies the National Electoral Institute (INE).
The “Pink Tide” emerged in November 2022 when a group of civil organizations called for a march in Mexico City to protest against an electoral reform promoted by López Obrador. The call attracted tens of thousands of people who packed the central Paseo de la Reforma avenue and its surroundings, becoming the largest mobilization against the popular president since he assumed power in 2018.
In response to that event, the ruling party held a massive march in the capital weeks later, attended by the Mexican ruler.
Despite the expectations generated by the concentration, political analyst Javier Rosiles Salas expressed doubts that there could be drastic changes in the electoral preferences that keep the government candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, who surpasses her rival by more than 20 points, as the leader. Gálvez, and by a much larger margin to former opposition deputy Jorge Álvarez Máynez, candidate of the minority Citizen Movement party.
Rosiles Salas told The Associated Press that Sunday’s event could help the opposition attract undecided voters, who would be crucial for the election of the mayor of Mexico City, the governors of the states of Chiapas, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz and Yucatán, and the new Congress. It is estimated that undecided voters could reach around 30%, the analyst said. Mexico has a registry of almost 100 million voters.
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AP
The opposition mobilization will coincide with the third and final debate of the presidential candidates, which is expected to attract a larger audience because it will address the greatest concern of Mexicans: insecurity.
Mexico closed 2023 with around 30,000 murders, consolidating the trend of recent years with similar figures, according to data from the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection.
The government maintains that the daily average of murders fell to 81 last year, below the 2022 average of 91.
Like the two previous debates, the third televised confrontation will last two hours and will be divided into four blocks in which, in addition to violence, social policy, democracy, pluralism, division of powers, migration and foreign policy will be discussed.
According to the parameters defined last week by the INE, which organized the three debates, in the fourth segment the three candidates will answer the questions, previously prepared by them, that will be selected by the moderators.
Gálvez is expected to intensify his attacks on Sheinbaum in a new attempt to try to weaken his image, although analysts predict that the debate will not generate major changes in electoral preferences.
The government candidate has committed to addressing insecurity problems from the beginning with social programs for young people, just as the López Obrador government did, leaving the National Guard in military hands, strengthening the intelligence work of the institutions, and promote judicial reform so that judges and ministers are elected by popular vote and a system of effective sanctions is established.
For her part, Gálvez, candidate of a coalition made up of the traditional parties National Action (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Democratic Revolution (PRD), has promised a tough line to confront criminal groups, refocusing the work of the armed forces in the fight against organized crime, strengthening the state and municipal police, and doubling the number of members of the National Guard to bring them to 300,000.
Álvarez Máynez has offered to stop the militarization of the country, which was strengthened during López Obrador’s six-year term, guarantee the autonomy of the Judiciary, reform the prosecutor’s offices, and regulate the consumption of cannabis.
Source: With information from AP
