Dominant PRI Political Party Is Stuck in a Mess of Its Own Creation Christopher Woody - Business Insider
go to original December 11, 2016

Enrique Peña Nieto less than two years left before his term ends in November of 2018. (Associated Press)

Recent months have seen the Mexican government of Enrique Peña Nieto grappling with Donald Trump, who has besmirched Mexican immigrants in the US and promised a variety of retaliatory measures against the US’s southern neighbor.

But Trump’s attacks are just the international dimension of the problems facing Peña Nieto, his government, and his center-right Institutional Revolutionary Party.

At home, his government and his party have made policy missteps and become embroiled in a number of scandals, involving graft and corruption — messes of their own creation.

Peña Nieto was widely praised upon taking office in December 2012 for a six-year term, called a sexenio.

He got credit for pursuing reform packages addressing Mexico’s telecommunications and oil industries. Moreover, the first two years of his term saw steady declines in deadly violence, which had hit shocking peaks during the final years of his predecessor’s term.

That decline in homicides has seen a sharp reversal, however, and high-profile incidents like the Ayotzinapa disappearance have undercut the Peña Nieto government’s claim to a sound security strategy.

Between 2012 and 2013, homicide cases, as measured by the National Public Security System, fell 15.7% and then dipped 14.6% between 2013 and 2014.

But from 2014 to 2015, total homicide cases ticked up 8.8%, and 2016 is on pace to see 20.2% more homicide cases than 2015.

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