Mexico’s mighty diaspora punches below its weight in elections
But its participation is steadily increasing
DURING MEXICO’S presidential election campaign in 2000, Vicente Fox, the winning candidate, rode a horse through Chicago’s Little Village neighbourhood. He wore a cowboy hat, true to his roots as a rancher in Guanajuato state. He wasn’t asking for votes—back then, Mexico’s diaspora had no voting rights—but he distributed phone cards and told Chicagoans to ring their families in Mexico and tell them to vote for him. Members of the diaspora were enfranchised in 2005. On June 2nd they will vote in record numbers.
Explore more
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “The Californian vote bank”
From the May 25th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from The Americas
The mad, bad Maduro regime clings to power
Behind-the-scenes negotiations seek to ease him out of office
After protests over a stolen election, the goons crack heads
Yet the brazenness of Nicolás Maduro’s theft crosses a line
The plight of Brazil’s indigenous groups worsens
Blame illegal miners, ranchers, loggers, traffickers and an unsympathetic Congress
Will El Mayo’s arrest slow the spread of fentanyl?
The United States nets a very big fish
The strong dollar is hurting exports from Latin America
For three small dollarised economies it has exposed a lack of competitiveness