Head of Mexico's Ruling PRI Party Steps Down After Electoral Drubbing Reuters
go to original June 21, 2016

Mexico's President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto (L) and Congressman Manlio Fabio Beltrones attend a meeting with newly elected senators and lawmakers of the Institutional Revoluntionary Party (PRI) in Mexico City. (Reuters)

The president of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, announced his resignation on Monday, two weeks after the party of President Enrique Pena Nieto suffered a humiliating defeat in regional elections.

Manlio Fabio Beltrones, a former governor and veteran federal lawmaker, announced his decision to step down after the PRI won only five of the dozen governors races up for grabs in the June 5 vote. It previously held nine of them.

The results were far worse for the centrist party than most polls had forecast.

The PRI's losses included two oil-rich strongholds in the Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz and neighboring Tamaulipas, both of which have been plagued by gang violence for years, as well as Quintana Roo, home to Mexico's top tourist destination Cancun.

All three states have been run by the PRI for over eight decades.

"It's time for a necessary pause," Beltrones told a news conference at the PRI's Mexico City headquarters.

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