Corruption foremost on Mexico voters’ minds, Trump less so

On Sunday, Mexicans will choose between four candidates vying to become the country’s next president. Here are a few key issues that are most on voters’ minds. (Photo by Dimitri dF/Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

MEXICO CITY — On Sunday, Mexicans will choose between four candidates vying to become the country’s next president. Here are a few key issues that are most on voters’ minds:

CORRUPTION

Graft has long been a widespread ill in Mexico, from everyday annoyances like police officers shaking down motorists for a few pesos to get out of traffic tickets to high-level elected officials taking large bribes for awarding public contracts or misappropriating public money and lands. But it has become the issue that most dominated the 2018 presidential race. A number of governors from President Enrique Pena Nieto’s party have been involved in high-profile graft cases, and first lady Angelica Rivera came under scrutiny after it was reported that she was living in a luxurious home registered to a business group that had been awarded public contracts. Front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador frequently rails against what he calls the “mafia of power,” an unholy alliance of business interests and corrupt politicians that he vows to put an end to. Conservative candidate Ricardo Anaya promises Pena Nieto will “face justice” if he’s elected. Jose Antonio Meade of Pena Nieto’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party acknowledges graft is a problem, but has refrained from criticizing the president. And independent Jaime Rodriguez, who is just in single digits in polls, says he would go so far as to cut off the hands of politicians who steal.

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VIOLENCE

Amid a drug war that’s over a decade old, splintered cartels continue to war with each other for territorial control and the country is on track to register around 30,000 murders this year — the bloodiest since comparable records began to be kept in 1998. Impunity for killings and disappearances remains high, and the fate of 43 teachers college students who disappeared after being abducted by police in 2014 in the southern state of Guerrero has never been definitively resolved. Criminal gangs extort businesses and people in many areas where the rule of law is tenuous, and often police and government officials, especially at the local level, are even on cartel payrolls. The U.S. State Department warns against all travel to five Mexican states.

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ECONOMY

Mexico’s economy has been sluggish, and gross domestic product grew just 2.1 per cent last year. State oil company Petroleos Mexicanos has seen production decline inexorably, and in February output fell below 2 million barrels per day for the first time since comparable records began to be kept in 1990. The Mexican peso has slumped against the U.S. dollar and is currently trading in the 20-to-1 range. It was about 13-to-1 when Pena Nieto took office in 2012.

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TRUMP FACTOR?

Tensions between Mexico and the United States, by far its biggest commercial market and partner on issues such as security and migration, have been sorely tested since Donald Trump took office in 2017, though worries about the U.S. president have been overshadowed by domestic problems in the minds of most voters. The current effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, however, has raised uncertainty about Mexico’s economy. Pena Nieto was widely criticized for not taking an early, strong stance against Trump on trade, migration and the proposed border wall. The four candidates in Mexico have said to varying degrees that the country needs to be assertive but respectful in the U.S. relationship.