06012015Mon
Last updateFri, 29 May 2015 4pm

Circus-like Mexican elections set apart by empty rhetoric, slander

In Guadalajara, Citizen’s Movement (MC) candidate for mayor and current favorite Enrique Alfaro uses the slogan “Good Government,” presumably working on the theory that no one would be opposed to the idea. His closest rival, Ricardo Villanueva, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is campaigning with the similarly unspecific promise of “Teamwork.” Of course, “Yes We Can” helped Barack Obama into the White House, but in Guadalajara, the empty rhetoric has taken over the entire process, so very few people have any idea about the respective policies of the parties, and debates are devoted to banal platitudes and vilification of rivals.

Nor is this a local situation, it’s a national one. Natalia Juarez, a candidate for federal deputy in Guadalajara, hit the headlines when she appeared wrapped only in a bed sheet for her campaign video. Yet every state in the country seems to have attention-hungry political hopefuls. In Mexico State, the Citizen’s Movement candidate Valentin Gonzalez Bautista is trying up to round up votes with a replica Batmobile. In Guanajuato, National Action Party (PAN) candidate Diego Levya has shot to fame with a commercial in which he sings his name and dances around in long pointy boots. In Veracruz, Deputy Renato Tronco Gomez launched a competition to find a lookalike to attend official events when he was busy.

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