Mexico Seems Poised to Embrace Party It Ousted in 2000 Randal C. Archibold - New York Times
go to original June 30, 2012

Former President Vicente Fox, who ended the PRI's 71-year rule in 2000, is now urging Mexicans to support the PRI candidate for president. (Alexandre Meneghini/Associated Press)

MONTERREY, Mexico — Vicente Fox exulted in victory 12 years ago over the autocratic, often corrupt party that ruled Mexico for 71 years, sipping Champagne from a balcony overlooking supporters euphoric over the arrival, finally, of true democracy.

Enrique Peña Nieto, the presidential nominee of the PRI, at his final campaign rally on Wednesday, in Toluca, Mexico. He is leading in opinion polls.

“The citizens have made a decision that we all should respect,” declared Mr. Fox, the president-elect, not long after the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, went down in a stunning defeat.

Now, as the PRI appears on the verge of returning to power in Sunday’s presidential election, Mr. Fox, whose presidency ended in 2006 without many major reforms, is urging Mexicans to “close ranks” behind the PRI nominee, Enrique Peña Nieto, who has a comfortable lead in the polls, and to put aside fears they might have about a party that was known for its authoritarian ways.

The return of the PRI would be a stunning development in a country that issued such a firm good riddance to the party in 2000 when it elected Mr. Fox. One explanation for the possible about-face is that Mexicans have learned after enduring more than a decade under the National Action Party governments of Mr. Fox and the current president, Felipe Calderón, that the PRI was not the source of all their woes.

With Mexicans frustrated with violence and an underachieving economy and generally feeling that the country should be further along than it is, analysts say a nostalgia has developed for the perceived protection and stability of yore. Mexicans are grasping for change, even if it means choosing a party, an amalgam of left, right and centrist positions, with a questionable past.

If the ouster of the PRI was heralded as a milestone step in the country’s move toward democracy, some now contend that a return to the PRI may one day be looked back on as a critical sign of the country’s democratic maturation. Mexico’s institutions are no longer rigged to ensure that one party stays around forever, experts say. Candidates rise and fall now on issues and voters’ perceptions of their lives.

Read more at The New York Times

INFOGRAPHIC: 2012 Mexican Presidential Elections

Hispanically Speaking News’s infographic takes a look at the candidates, election statistics, and why the 2012 elections will differ from years past.

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