Can the Mexican Constitution Survive Jorge Hank?
By Carlos Luken Some see the Baja California gubernatorial candidate as an “unmanageable power infatuated political Frankenstein.” Mexico’s recent democratic experience has been hard. Vicente Fox, the first democratically elected president, spent the greater part of his term clashing ineffectively with a notoriously stubborn congress. The impasse, while legitimate, was rooted in partisanship and resulted in freezing many advances and deadlocking vital legislative reforms. Even before taking office last December, Fox’s successor Felipe Calderon, from the National Action Party (PAN), was challenged in federal electoral tribunals in a dispute instigated by his Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) opponent Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). AMLO’s dispute of Calderon’s victory resulted in vitriolic oratory, mass demonstrations, and it cast a dark shadow on the fairness of the electoral process. Partisan opposition to Fox, and AMLO’s electoral challenge, while originating from different cause
