The Election tomorrow in Mexico

The Mexican electorate will vote tomorrow on three candidates for president (there are more but the three leaders are the most likely to win). The New York Times, in a divergence from their usual reporting techniques did a very balanced article on the eve of the election which quoted several people from the State of Mexico. They cast the election as a division not between rich and poor but within the middle class.

They presented four quotes from people. The four give a good division of what I have heard in the country over the last year as the election was forming.

"The lesson we learned from Nafta is that our farmers cannot compete with the United States," (an AMLO supporter)

"López Obrador says he is going to take away money from the rich and give it to the poor, but the rich don't keep their money in this country," she said. "So where is he going to get all the money for the poor? From taxes. And who pays the most taxes? The middle class." (A Calderon supporter)

"He is a vengeful person, not a fair one," Mr. Suárez said of Mr. López Obrador. "He's the kind of person who will do away with the economy and with social peace." (A Calderon supporter)

"a little more conscientious of the needs of the majority of the people who are poor, and focused more on the local market than the foreign one." (A Lopez Obrador supporter)

The country has clearly made significant progress in the last six years - although economic growth (at least according to the official statistics) has been pretty slow. But as the first quote suggests there are a lot of people in the country who believe that Mexico will always be a second class state unable to compete in the world market. At the same time there is a good part of the country that is proud and hard working and increasingly confident. Tomorrow's election will decide which view will prevail.

My prayers are for the Mexican people. In my opinion the country has a very good chance to continue to move forward or to fall back in the traditions of the PRI - even though the candidate most likely to help the country fall back is not in the PRI. Let's hope they make a good choice.