Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday endorsed a change to the Institutional Revolutionary Party\u2019s (PRI) rules that allows outsiders to run for president, a move that gives the embattled leader greater power to anoint his successor. Gathering for their national assembly ahead of the 2018 election, members of the PRI, Mexico\u2019s ruling party, voted to relax requirements for presidential candidates, jettisoning a rule that nominees must be party members with at least 10 years\u2019 standing. The change opens the door to the candidacy of Pena Nieto\u2019s finance minister, Jose Antonio Meade, a soft-spoken technocrat who has served in various cabinet posts under both the PRI and the conservative National Action Party (PAN).<\/p>\n
Pena Nieto made his way to the stage at a leisurely pace, spending 15 minutes greeting and posing for photographs with supporters in the crowd of more than 15,000 in Mexico City\u2019s Palacio de los Deportes. Sporting his trademark red track jacket, Pena Nieto echoed PRI leaders in describing the change as a move toward building a modern and more inclusive party. Updating the party\u2019s statutes \u201copens us up to society and brings us closer to citizens,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it also strengthens the PRI as the best platform so that members and sympathizers can serve their community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The change also gives the PRI much-needed latitude to choose a candidate as it approaches a trying election. Persistent gang violence and tepid growth have eroded support for the PRI during Pena Nieto\u2019s term, and the party is also reeling from a series of corruption scandals. On that count, Meade\u2019s clean record through years of government service could prove a key asset. While he did not speak at the gathering, he sat in the first row, alongside party luminaries.<\/p>\n
If Meade became a presidential candidate, he would likely face outspoken leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The PRI lagged far behind Lopez Obrador\u2019s party in a July poll. Near the end of his remarks, Pena Nieto took a veiled shot at the populist\u2019s campaign. \u201cThe advantage of our party over the other options is evident,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile we pursue with bravery and vision a better future for Mexico, there are those who hope to return us to the past.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday endorsed a change to the Institutional Revolutionary Party\u2019s (PRI) rules that allows outsiders to run for president, a move that gives the embattled leader greater power to anoint his successor. Gathering for their national assembly ahead of the 2018 election, members of the PRI, Mexico\u2019s ruling party, voted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1973,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971\/revisions\/1973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}