Vázquez Mota Wins Mexican Expat Vote

Josefina Vázquez Mota may’ve ended in third in yesterday’s Mexican presidential election but she scored a win among her countrymen living abroad.

According to Mexican electoral officials, the former minister representing the PAN gained 42.16% of the expat vote while Andrés Manuel López Obrador was second with 38.99%.

Presumed general election winner Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI finished a distant third among Mexicans abroad with a paltry 15.61%.

The results were a repeat of the previous presidential election six years ago when most expats opted for the PAN’s Felipe Calderon while the PRI candidate only gained 4% of the vote. For Carlos Arango, the head of Chicago-based community organization Casa Aztlán, the results this year are not a surprise:

Once again most voters abroad “punished” the PRI since “they have no sympathy in the U.S.,” said Arango. “Those that are living abroad have not forgotten that they had to leave Mexico due to the problems caused by PRI-led regimes.”

The activist also noted that Enrique Peña Nieto and his party “did not invest in the expat community until the very end of his campaign.”

Daily Headlines: August 17, 2011

* U.S.: A few hundred demonstrators including Latino activists protested in several cities throughout the country against the Obama administration’s immigration policy.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff may not be as keen as her predecessor was on arms purchases but that hasn’t stopped international firms like Boeing and Saab from attempting to land a multibillion-dollar fighter jet contract.

* Puerto Rico: Could Puerto Rican residents soon be allowed the right to vote in federal elections?

* Honduras: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper capped his official visit to Latin America by announcing that his country and Honduras reached a free trade agreement.

Image – New York Times (“In Chicago on Tuesday, a protest against policies leading to deportations.” Demonstrators criticized the current immigration policy including the increased number of deportations as well as problems with the Secure Communities program).
Online Sources- Reuters, AHN, UPI, Bloomberg

Weekly Debate: Five months until Election Day

It’s no secret that political pundits have tapped the Latino vote as being crucial in the race to the White House between Barack Obama and John McCain. During the Democratic presidential primary what we heard from the media was a drumbeat of rhetoric boiling down to the alleged “black-brown divide”. While she certainly had some support among most Latinos and her primary victories were in several states with notable Hispanic populations, Obama did have some appeal within the Latino community.

Furthermore, several polls have shown that moist Latino voters would choose Obama over McCain by the time Election Day comes around in about five months:

A new Gallup Poll summary of surveys taken in May shows Obama winning 62 percent of Latino voters nationwide, compared with 29 percent for McCain. The pro-Democratic group Democracy Corps compiled surveys from March through May that showed Obama with a 19-point lead among Latinos. And a Los Angeles Times poll last month showed Obama leading McCain by 14 points among Latinos in California.

The above numbers indicate strong Latino support for the Illinois senator. Yet one representative for McCain’s campaign countered by saying that McCain will make inroads in the Latino community between now and November, and that the percentage of Latinos backing him was nearly as much as that won by President Bush in the last two elections.

• So what do you think?
• Will the numbers hold up between now and November?
• Which candidate needs to campaign harder for the Latino vote?
• For that matter, is there such a thing as a homogenous “Latino vote”?
• Could blocs voting in the Latino community switch parties? (i.e. Cuban-Americans to Democrats or Mexican-Americans to Republicans).
• Could third-party candidates like Bob Barr or Ralph Nader find widespread appeal among Latinos?

If you have an opinion on this topic then please leave a comment and/or vote in our poll.

Let your voice be heard!

Sources- CNN, The Latin Americanist, Reuters Los Angeles Times, azstarnet.com

Image- current