Sunday’s election exposed a disoriented left in Mexico. The PRD, the largest left-of-center party, nearly won the presidency in 2006. Now a shell of its former self, having acquired just 12% of the vote on Sunday it will shrink from 123 to 75 seats in the lower house. Rather than gelling to form a cohesive sect in the electorate, the left is splintering in Mexico.
Part of this is undoubtedly thanks to the antics of Andrés Manuel López Obrador after his 2006 loss to President Calderón. First, he refused to accept defeat, organizing protests that paralyzed much of the capital for weeks. Then, when his choice for the PRD’s leadership post lost his bid last year, López Obrador forged an alliance with rival leftist parties while still maintaining his PRD membership. Having marginalized its middle class supporters, the PRD is now defunct thanks to López Obrador’s naked self-interest.
An apparent vacuum on the leftward part of the political spectrum is extremely odd by Latin American standards. Jorge Castañeda’s book, Utopia Unarmed, argues that throughout the region politics naturally gravitates toward the left because of endemic poverty and inequality. Instead, Mexican politics in the twenty-first century have proven devoid of ideology, largely relegating leftish causes to demagogues in Chiapas.
The left in Mexico is incoherent. Though media outlets have overlooked it, the Green Party had a nice showing in the recent election. Garnering 10% of the vote, it should enjoy 25 seats come December. But the party is rather hawkish by most ‘green’ standards—its source of traction was a pro-death penalty platform. The centerpiece of the Green’s campaign: “The death penalty to kidnappers, the death penalty to drug traffickers.” This is interesting not only because it represents widespread distaste with the drug trade, but also because Catholic Mexico doesn’t have a death penalty and has refused extradition to the US on several occasions.
Mexico’s left combines for about one-third of the electorate, easily enough to be a potent political bloc. Yet without committed support leftist parties can’t develop national networks or disseminate their messages. Perhaps the left’s woes indicate a larger problem of insouciance in the young democracy—voters aren’t vested in political causes because they believe politicians will only serve themselves, ignoring notions of consistent and transparent governance.
