In a popular consultation, Mexico overwhelmingly rejected the ongoing construction of a controversial airport. The backlash by Mexican elites reveals dark truths about what “modernization” really means in the country.
As Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador prepares to take office, the trajectory of Brazil’s Left under former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offers lessons on the risks of compromising to appease elites.
It took Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) 12 years to become president-elect of Mexico, making history for Mexico’s Left as his party’s coalition also achieves a legislative majority. But the struggle has only just begun.
To no one’s great surprise, Mexico’s once-and-future ruling party (or so it seems), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), scored major victories in four state elections this Sunday. Mexico State has been governed by the PRI (or its direct ancestors) for over 80 years and that was not expected to change after Sunday’s election. The magnitude of the party’s victory, however, was surprising, impressive and a worrisome sign of its return to hegemony.
