The chaos spawned by the claims of massive fraud in the 2020 U.S. elections brought wry smiles to the faces of many Mexicans.
For decades, whenever the subject of free and fair elections was raised, this country had to withstand the scorn of its larger and more powerful northern neighbor.
Mexico, of course, has a checkered history regarding unscrupulous electoral practices. Few can forget the infamous “system crash” of 1988, when a pause in the count prompted an inexplicable turnaround in voting patterns, handing the election to the candidate of the ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). And in 2006, Mexico’s current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador fought tooth and nail to get the presidential election overturned after claiming he lost the tight race to Felipe Calderon only because of widespread fraud. His protest lasted for months despite no evidence being found supporting his allegations. AMLO has never forgotten this chapter in Mexico’s past, and his evident lack of respect for the country’s electoral institutions no doubt spurred his attempts to reform (weaken, opponents say) the National Electoral Institute (INE) during his current term of office.
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