Mexico's Mid-Term Elections: What's at Stake and What to Expect

HARLINGEN, Texas - The Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center Scholars and the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center of the Atlantic Council host a webinar recently on Mexico's upcoming mid-term elections.The election takes place June 6. It will be the largest election in Mexico’s history with electors choosing candidates for over 21,000 offices. The election marks the halfway point in President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's term of office. Analysts see it as a referendum on his first three years in office. “The outcome of this election will determine the extent to which López Obrador can implement his agenda and national reforms. With a weak and divided opposition, López Obrador's ruling party, Morena, is expected to maintain control in Congress,” the Mexico Institute says.Among the speakers was Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a former associate professor in the Department of Public Affairs and Security Studies at UT-Rio Grande Valley. Correa-Cabrera is now associate professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. Her areas of expertise are Mexico-U.S. relations, organized crime, immigration, border security, social movements and human trafficking."What is this election about? It is about two political forces,” Correa-Cabrera said.“One, of course, is AMLO’s project, the Morena project, with all its limitations and strengths. And, also, the groups that try to restore the previous regime - the regime that López Obrador called the neoliberal regime.”Correa-Cabrera added: "I don’t think that the United States understands the complexity of Mexico today. And why is this? Because when I read some of the statements, for example, in terms of security or energy, it's if as in the United States there is this idea that we are in the 1990s or we are in the first decade of the twenty-first century and we’re not like that." Andrew I. Rudman is director of the Mexico Institute. During the webinar, he said: "All elections are important, and each is described as more important, more consequential than the last. But, at the risk of following that hyperbole, I would argue that this election is indeed the most important and consequential in Mexico's relatively brief democratic history, with significant political power at stake."Editor's Note: To read the full story go to the Rio Grande Guardian website. Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.