Mexico City readies for historic mayoral vote
June 17, 1997
Web posted at: 10:41 p.m. EDT (0241 GMT)From Mexico City Bureau Chief Chris Kline
MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- For the first time ever the people of Mexico's capital city are about to elect their mayor, until now a presidential appointee.
Conventional wisdom has it that whoever controls Mexico City will in time control the presidency. The July 6 vote is widely seen as a crucial test of Mexico's ongoing process of political reform.
CNN's Chris Kline reports from Mexico City VXtreme Streaming Video 
Three candidates have been fighting for the lead position in a campaign typified by mudslinging.
Ahead of his rivals in the polls is the Democratic Revolutionary Party's Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, a leftist reformer and the man many Mexicans believe lost a 1988 presidential bid to vote fraud.
Behind him trails Alfredo del Mazo, a former governor and member of the old guard of the ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
Lagging in third place is the National Action Party's Carlos Castillo Peraza, a conservative strong on law and order and family values.
Critics deride Cardenas as contentious and impractical, del Mazo's own party has labeled him "corrupt but discreet" and Castillo Peraza is typified as an elitist and aloof autocrat.
Nonetheless, Mexicans say they are ready for a change. "Promises we don't want anymore -- we want real change for the country," as one man put it.
What most people pinpoint as the focus of needed change is an end to nearly 70 years of the PRI's de facto one-party rule, the abuse of power they blame for their city's troubles, including entrenched corruption and cronyism, unemployment and poverty, crime and a problematic police force.
But an old street vendor has little hope. "It's going to stay the same, there won't be any change, there will be change when there's a new system, a just government, not a corrupt one full of thieves. "
At least one of Mexico's leading political scientists has a brighter outlook.
"There are very good conditions to bring about a peaceful, political transition to the city, and the building of a democratic government in the city and the country," said political analyst Rolando Cordera.
Until then, Mexicans will continue to march in the streets. As they say in Mexico, "marching is the only democracy we have."
Related stories:
- Two years in, Mexico still uncertain about Zedillo - December 3, 1996
- Mexico's veteran political party flirts with change - September 23, 1996
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- Mexico on the Net - LatinWorld
- MexWeb
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