Three presidential candidates formally accepted the nominations of Mexico’s main political parties on Sunday, entering what is shaping up to be a crowded, six-person race to the July 1 election. In dueling rallies in the capital, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Ricardo Anaya and Jose Antonio Meade addressed key domestic issues such as violence, corruption and the economy, and also relations with the United States. Lopez Obrador of the leftist Morena party, the early front-runner in what is his third bid for the presidency, proposed to tackle insecurity by creating a federal public security department and a national guard incorporating both police and military forces. “Those who violate human rights will be rigorously punished,” he said, in allusion to abuses by Mexican security forces. “There will be no torture in our country.”
Lopez Obrador also criticized Trump administration plans for what he called an “unnecessary” wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He vowed a friendly and cooperative relationship with Washington but said that “if construction of the wall we consider a violation of human rights is insisted upon, we will recur to the United Nations to defend the rights of Mexicans.”
Anaya, from the conservative National Action Party, was sworn in as the candidate of a coalition with the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party.
Full Article: Mexico’s presidential campaign takes shape, with 3 candidates formally accepting party nominations.