The polls were correct. César Duarte Jáquez was elected governor of Chihuahua yesterday with a margin of about 14 points (not all the votes have been counted). Likewise, Héctor ("Teto") Murguía Lardizábal was elected mayor of Juárez, with a margin of about 9 points. Both candidates are in the PRI party. In addition, in mayoral elections in Chihuahua, the capital of the state, another Priista, Marco Adán Quezada, appears to have won there with a margin of about 40,000 votes.
Nationwide, preliminary results indicate the PRI has won 9 out of the 12 governorships contested yesterday, a stunning national repudiation of the party that has governed Mexico from the Presidency for the past ten years. Only in Oaxaca, Sinaloa, and Puebla was the PAN able to win governorships. In Sinaloa Mario Lopez Valdez, better known as MALOVA, won the governorship as a Panista, but only after he had switched from the PRI party to the PAN this Spring, after the PRI denied him the candidacy for governor. The PAN accepted his switch and nominated him as their candidate, and he won.
With the elections over, the problems in Juárez and Chihuahua continue. On the very weekend of the elections, four bodies were hung out publicly in Chihuahua, while twelve were being murdered. In Juárez the body count is still running at record levels. The economy of the state and in Juárez are limping along, in great part because of the resurgence of criminal activity, but also because of the global recession. Like it or not, President Felipe Calderon will be President for another two and a half years. We fervently hope the federal, state, and local governments will put partisanship aside and make things better for all citizens in our neighboring state.
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