In a historic primary vote Sunday, members of Mexico’s National Action Party (PAN) chose Josefina Vazquez Mota as their 2012 presidential candidate. By the end of the day, Vazquez Mota stood atop a landslide, gaining almost 17 percent more votes than her closest rival and favorite of party bigwigs, Ernesto Cordero Arroyo.
This marks the first time a woman will run for the country’s highest elected office from one of the major political parties. The PAN is hoping Vazquez Mota can give them what they need to make up ground on the popularity of Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto, who currently leads in polling by as much as 20 points.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will also run for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) after narrowly losing in the 2006 election.
Vazquez Mota follows the current president, Felipe Calderon, as PAN candidate. From 2006 to 2009 she served as his Secretary of Education, before being elected to the Chamber of Deputies, Mexico’s lower congressional house. Previously, she had served as President Vicente Fox’s Secretary of Social Development for six years and was an economics columnist for Spanish-language publications Novedades, El Financiero and El Economista prior to entering politics.
Following the win Sunday, Vazquez Mota called for the support of her party’s other candidates, declaring, “Today begins a new road to defeat the true adversary of Mexico, who represents authoritarianism and the worst of antidemocratic practices, such as the return of systematic corruption and impunity from punishment: Enrique Peña Nieto.” She referred to the PRI’s seven-decade history as Mexico’s ruling, notoriously corrupt party.
But in the 12 years since her party took over, scandal and corruption seem to have continued unabated. The national spirit may be ready for a change, even if it’s back to the old abusive boyfriend.
Calderon’s drug war will be front and center in this race – with many citizens tired of soaring fatality numbers and the bad reputation it has brought the country – but Vazquez Mota has already declared her support for Calderon’s legacy, claiming that if elected, she will not be afraid.
She will have to find a way to fight the label of “more of the same” she brings as a PAN candidate in a country obviously crying out for change. The fact that she is a woman, in an age of increasing women’s liberation in Mexico, might give her that edge.
Vazquez Mota, 51, is married and a mother of three – another plus for her in a largely family-centric society.
Analysts expect the race to tighten up as the campaign begins in earnest as of March 30. The nation will vote for their next president on July 1.
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