On Sunday, August 1, Mexican citizens will be asked to cast votes in a national referendum to decide whether past presidents can be prosecuted for alleged wrongdoings during their terms of office.
The “exercise in democracy,” as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador likes to call the poll, has been fiercely criticized by his opponents, who say he is simply trying to deflect attention from his disastrous handling of the Covid pandemic and the economy. Most political analysts also see the referendum as a pointless distraction from the current problems facing Mexico, and believe the outcome that many in the president’s Morena Party are wishing for will never be realized: that is, the sight of former presidents Enrique Peña Nieto, Felipe Calderon and Carlos Salinas de Gortari going on trial for a catalog of alleged acts of corruption and, if found guilty, sent to prison.
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