Politicizing disappearance after Mexico's “historic” election

Andrés Manuel López Obrador and MORENA achieved a significant electoral victory in Mexico on July 1, 2018. López Obrador became President with the most votes ever by a candidate in that race, and the MORENA coalition won an absolute legislative majority, leaning heavily on the most educated, best salaried segments of the electorate. This can be explained as much by the strength of MORENA as by the incapacity of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its allies to reduce violence in recent years. The PRI, which dominated post-revolutionary politics and returned to power in 2012 in the figure of Enrique Pena Nieto, was defeated even in longtime strongholds. Analysts accordingly characterize this as a historic election, echoing AMLO, who described it as Mexico's fourth great transformation, with promises to stand with the poor against a "mafia of power.