Two weeks left until Mexican presidential elections and the opponent Xochitl Galvez faced a decisive day on Sunday to measure her strength against the leading candidate, the ruling party Claudia Sheinbaum, with a great event in the capital and the final debate in which he intensified his attacks on his rival.
The third and last televised confrontation before Mexicans go to the polls on June 2 was focused on insecurity, the main citizen concern, after two previous debates marked by confrontation and the criticism between both candidates.
Gálvez, a 61-year-old businesswoman and former senator, arrived on stage after passing through the arena in the Zócalo square, the main square in Mexico City, in a crowded electoral event where she defended the principles of “life, truth and freedom” and thanked his followers for having “raised their voice against authoritarianism.”
The opposition is the presidential letter of a coalition of organizations, including the traditional Institutional Revolutionary Party, which governed the country for 71 years and seeks to regain power after its defeat by the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
For his part, the president’s bet is the ruling party Claudia Sheinbaum, a leader in the polls since the campaign started on March 1 and former mayor of the Mexican capital.
Both confronted each other harshly with labels of “liar” and “corrupt” from both sides in the first two debates.
The third candidate in the electoral preferences, far behind Sheinbaum, was the one who opened the final confrontation. Jorge Álvarez Máynez called for exercising the “useful vote” and assured that he will guarantee social programs and democracy in his opening speech.
After a barrage of attacks between the three candidates, in which they again accused each other of lying and supporting irregular acts of old governments, the neuralgic issue of violence was addressed.
Gálvez stated that the security It has been a “failure” during the current six-year term and offered the end of López Obrador’s policy of “hugs, not bullets.” Among his measures is transferring the National Guard into civilian hands.
For his part, Sheinbaum pledged to continue the security policies of the current administration to address the causes of violence and ensure “zero impunity.”
Former opposition deputy Máynez, candidate of the minority Citizen Movement party, offered a national plan for pacification and the end of militarization in the country.
When addressing the immigration issuethe official candidate confirmed that she will also follow López Obrador’s line of attacking the “structural causes” that push hundreds of thousands of people to leave their countries and expressed her willingness to reform the National Migration Institute and the Commission and the Mexican Commission of Help Refugees.
In this regard, Gálvez took the opportunity once again to attack the Mexican president and stated that immigration policy “is defined by organized crime” because migrants are at the mercy of criminal groups that operate on Mexico’s borders.
Upon arrival at the debate, Gálvez stressed that “people arrived on their own accord convinced that there is a woman who is going to be a president, who is going to unite and not divide.”
Shortly after, Sheinbaum, accompanied by some leaders of the ruling Morena party and her campaign team, was greeted upon arriving at the television studios with shouts of “president, president!” In brief statements to the press, she said that she was confident of her victory because “we have the support of millions, millions of Mexican men and women.”
When asked about the cases of violence and murders of candidates for local office during the campaign, the former mayor of the capital assured that the electoral authorities are working with the Ministry of Security to guarantee that this is a “peaceful and democratic election.”
In the morning, from the same stage that his rival chose to start the campaign, Gálvez appealed precisely to his followers’ insecurity, in an attempt to gain new support.
“They are brave and know what we are at stake,” the opponent stressed, and mentioned that in the two-week vote the presidency, but also governorships and local positions will be decided. “These people have always chosen to be free. Let them listen to us inside the National Palace. “Mexico will always be free!”
He ended his speech by calling to go to the polls in an election with more than 100 million voters: “Are you ready to vote and defend life? Are you ready to vote and defend the truth? Are you ready to vote and defend freedom?”
The Mexico City Security Secretariat said in a message on its X account that 95,000 people attended the event and that no injuries were reported. For their part, the National Civic Front and United to Improve, two of the five civil groups that organized the rally, reported that attendance reached around 500,000 people, their spokesperson, Amado Avendaño, informed the AP.
Regarding the impact that the last debate and the opposition rally could have, political analyst Javier Rosiles Salas ruled out that there could be changes in electoral preferences, which favor Sheinbaum, but proposed that they could foster “a certain not-so-defeatist mood” among voters. who are against the government and motivate them to go out and vote on June 2 for the new Congress and the governors of the states of Chiapas, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz, Yucatán, and the mayor of Mexico City .
One of the unknowns of the process is represented by the undecided and first voters, as recognized by Patricio Morelos, professor of Political Science at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, who stated that in the coming days it will be known whether these voters are more in favor of Gálvez’s confrontational style. , or if they prefer a candidate who has proposals and is less frontal.
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