Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/03/mexico-elects-first-woman-president.html
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Definitely would’ve liked if the BB post discussed what her views and plans are. Like great for electing a female Jewish president but if her stances were bad then that’s a problem. Going off your comment it seems like her presidency is looking like a very good thing.
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Good on Mexico! definitely a more hopeful progressive option than the UK and US sweating: overtly_bad vs meh
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So, from my Mexican family, they are very upset about her winning. Not because she’s a woman, but because she’s the daughter in law of the current leader, whose policies are not good for the country, and has said would continue many policies in place.
Considering that bubble that I live in, I was pretty shocked to see the comments about her being left wing and a climate scientist.
Personally, as I’ve done zero research into it, I am now fascinated by this personal impact of being in an info bubble. I’m going to spend several hours on a variety of sites today educating myself.
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I’d love for there to be a meh candidate in the UK.
Starmer = Manchin, not Biden.
But let’s take this to UK Politics, Part the Second
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See, these are the things that should be reported and talked about. I’d like to know this context and also what are the platforms she is running on?
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The BBC has had some good coverage. From today’s article:
Her program “has become shorthand for a social agenda of universal pensions, student grants and family stipends which have been hugely popular across Mexico. The programme has lifted an estimated five million people from poverty throughout the country, although there is still widespread deprivation in many regions.” & ““It means more rights, a welfare state, education, health, access to housing, and that a living wage is a right, not a privilege,” she added. “That is the difference between neoliberalism and our model, which we call Mexican Humanism.””
Also, she ran as the sucessor to the current president, and the criticism I have read about her is ‘ugh, she’s going to continue their policies. Why isn’t she doing anything different’ But if she was going for policy change, she wouldn’t be running as the sucessor, now would she?
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The programme has lifted an estimated five million people from poverty throughout the country, although there is still widespread deprivation in many regions.
The last part seems to be the concern, that they’re not doing enough, and there are a lot of questions from prominent people and the press about the efforts to mitigate gang crime and get the money to the people that really need it. The tiny tiny town my inlaws are from is crazy poor, so much so that when a gang invaded it a year or so ago, they literally left because there was nothing of value. It reminds me a lot of rural towns in the US - almost forgotten people who are scratching a living from somewhat unwilling land who have to drive miles to the nearest “big town” for supplies and such.
Funny side note - they have a guy who live streams on YouTube. My inlaws will watch his videos as a TV show. He makes a very good living by showing how things are back home, exchanging messages, and just being a character. I remember when a cousin randomly showed up in the background of one of his videos and the house went crazy. FWIW, the town is so small that Google Maps refused to acknowledge it existed until a few years back. I used latitude and longitude markers to find it.
I really appreciate BB pointing out a side to the new President that I didn’t know about. I’m also learning first hand about how insular a bubble can be, which as a social behaviour nerd is crazy interesting.
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On the surface, this seems like a progressive step forward, a woman president. The funny thing about it is that I have not heard a positive thing about the Morena party from any native Mexican who has cared to share their opinion with me. Improvements are offset by degradation. The army is omnipresent, yet so are gangs. Cash payments have been doled out to low income and elderly residents, but teacher pensions were reduced and hospitals have fallen into disrepair. Nonetheless, the people support more Morena.
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So in my research since my last post, I’ve found a lot. There’s a lot that most people in the States and otherwise wouldn’t be aware of. This is one important one - the current President essentially disbanded the police to replace with military, keeping that under his control. And with that, the gangs have grown in power, strength, and scope. His comment is that the police were ineffective, but rather than prevent it, by all appearances he has ceded power to them, ala Haiti’s current situation.
Another very interesting item I found is this number - 37. That’s how many other potential candidates died in this election cycle. Not just presidential of course, but that’s a crazy number. Because of this, the general feeling is that anyone who actually made it and got elected is in the pocket of the cartels. If you look at the new president’s policies - keeping everything the way it is - it’s certainly simple to see why this would be an impression.
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Revelant…
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As someone from México, she is the continuation of the actual guy AMLO. The important thing that is not being reported is how this government has given so much power and money to the army, it’s getting scary: Airports, customs, police, roads, etc. And as Loudmouth says, education (destroyed research, no money for teachers and the new basic school books are full of self-serving propaganda), health services degraded (no medications, no chemotherapy, no covid vaccines), lots of places are now owned by the gangs, corruption has gone up and a long list. Things were not good around here but this government is destroying the few ones that were OK. In my opinion Morena party has become popular due to direct payments to people and propaganda (AMLO spends 4 hours a day doing a TV show Mañanera ). Sigh, sorry for rambling, yes she looks like a good option, but I think she will not be a good president, she is not independent and the government has squandered all the savings they had. I hope I am wrong but I see a hard decade ahead of us in Mexico.
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