Disenchantment May Keep Young Voters on Sidelines Ken Ellingwood - Los Angeles Times
go to original May 12, 2012

Mexican presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto of the Revolutionary Institutional Party greets supporters in Guadalajara in March. In polls, he leads among the under-30 demographic. (Bruno Gonzalez/Associated Press)

MEXICO CITY — They are Mexico's "democracy babies" — a generation that grew up just as the nation broke free of decades of all-encompassing one-party rule.

Only 12 years ago, young people flocked to the polls with high hopes as part of what would be a historic ouster of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Now, as the country prepares to pick a new president in July,Mexico's young sound mostly disillusioned by the choices before them, and by joblessness and skyrocketing drug violence that have hit them especially hard.

On paper at least, these 24 million voters under 30 — nearly a third of the electorate — could be a powerful voice for change. But many have come to view the democratic transition as so much blah-blah-blah in the face of a system that remains deeply marred by corruption and filled with politicians who are as self-interested as ever.

"Why go vote? It's only a waste of time. They're all the same — they all lie, they all steal and no one helps you," said 20-year-old Sergio Guerrero, who on a recent day was selling lamb tacos at a street market here.

Although the country now boasts cleaner, more competitive elections, a more robust news media and an alphabet soup of civic groups, the younger generation sounds disheartened over the shape of Mexican politics and the four presidential candidates.

Recession and more than five years of terrifying violence have been rough all over Mexico. But young people say they have paid an especially high price, leaving them soured on President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, which toppled the PRI in 2000 and has ruled since.

Guerrero, the taco seller, said his family's sheep business in the central state of Morelos has sagged as crime there has risen. He said his father was held up on a highway by bandits last year while ferrying a load of sheep to western Mexico. The thieves made off with the truck and all 11 animals.

"We lost years of work and a lot of money, and that's the fault of so much insecurity that there is with the PAN," Guerrero said.

Unemployment among those under 30 is more than twice the overall rate. And youths say they are especially vulnerable to the violence in Mexico that has killed more than 50,000 people, many in their teens and 20s, since Calderon launched a crackdown on drug traffickers.

"We're the most exposed to the violence. We're the most exposed to the lack of economic resources," said Eduardo Cruz, 18. "We're the most affected."

Analysts say the growing disenchantment among the young, which shows up in polls, focus groups and interviews, might look like common youthful apathy. Wrong, they say.

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