Woman Elected Mexico's Next Candidate For President
Woman elected Mexico’s next candidate for president
Calderón’s party bets on charismatic former cabinet member
Por: SanDiegoRed.com 6 Febrero 2012
MEXICO CITY – “I’m going to be the first female president of this country!” proclaimed Josefina Vázquez Mota moments after winning her party’s primary
election in Mexico on Sunday.
Many analysts see Vázquez Mota, the charismatic former education secretary, as the best chance the National Action Party (PAN) has of retaining the
presidency in the election July 1.
Her main challenger is frontrunner Enrique Peña Nieto, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is fighting to return to power after a 12-year
break.
At stake is whether Mexico continues the PAN policies of the last two presidencies, including the crackdown on the powerful drug cartels, or returns
power to the autocratic party that ruled the country for the seven decades before then.
Vázquez Mota, 51, pulled no punches as she called on the two candidates she beat in the primary to join her in fighting for Mexico’s future.
“From this moment on, we’re one team, one single party,” she said. “Today the fight begins against Mexico’s real adversary, Peña Nieto … This
adversary embodies authoritarianism and the worst antidemocratic practices; who represents the way back to corruption and offers impunity as a
conviction.”
Vázquez Mota beat Finance Secretary Ernesto Cordero and a former senator, Santiago Creel, to win the nomination.
In a national poll released Jan. 10 by Consulta Mitofsky, Peña Nieto had 42 per cent support of likely voters with Vázquez Mota receiving nearly 21
per cent.
Some analysts said she’s the best hope for the PAN to retain power.
“It injects a certain new note of uncertainty. There's never been a strong female presidential candidate for any other major party before,” Eric
Olson, a senior associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute, told the Associated Press. “It adds that historical element and maybe some
excitement.”
Others doubted she could derail the PRI’s march to reclaim the presidency.
“Josefina arrives with a weakened party,” Soledad Loaeza, a political science professor in Colegio de Mexico, told the Associated Press. “The
electorate is not willing to see her as an alternative.”
Women have run for the presidency in Mexico before, but not as one of the three principal parties.
Mexico’s other presidential candidate is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, who nearly defeated Calderón six
years ago.
Vázquez Mota, an economist, has been a PAN leader for 30 years. She served in Mexico’s Congress and was tapped by President Vicente Fox in 2000 to
serve as Secretary of Social Development. Six years ago, she managed the campaign of Calderón, who named her Secretary of Education in 2006.
"Today I'm committed to take care of your families like I've taken care of mine," said Vasquez Mota, a married mother of three, said Sunday night. "I
want to make Mexico the best country to live in."
editorial@sandiegored.com
[Edited on 2-6-2012 by ateo]
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