Waging Peace: Mexico

Monitoring Elections

In July 2000, a Carter Center delegation, led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former Bolivia President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, witnessed a historic transition of power ending 71 years of rule by one party. As election observers for more than a decade in Mexico, the Carter Center's Americas Program and its Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas were honored to have been invited to observe an internationally significant presidential race alongside major Mexican political parties and the government.

Since 1986, the Americas Program has tracked Mexico's elections informally and has sent five monitoring missions since 1992. On each of the visits, the Center observed election preparations and the implementation of electoral law. The Center made suggestions for improvements to electoral authorities, who were open to the comments as they strove to overcome past problems and transform Mexican politics.

In June 2000, the program sent a team to assess campaign conditions. It heard reports of political parties attempting to buy or intimidate voters as well as criticisms of biased news media coverage favoring the ruling PRI party. Read full text >

Election Reports

View Carter Center election reports for Mexico >

Promoting Economic Cooperation

The Americas Program hosted a forum on the North American Free Trade Agreement, "NAFTA: Good or Bad for North America," in November 1993. The forum provided a discussion on the consequences of congressional approval or rejection of NAFTA and the implications for the subsequent Asia-Pacific meeting. The forum featured the Honorable Jack Watson, former Carter White House chief of staff and member of the presidential NAFTA and Beyond Commission; the Honorable Guillermo Aguilar Alvarez, NAFTA chief legal counsel; Dr. Jeffrey Shafer, U.S. assistant secretary of treasury for international affairs; and Hirosho Hashimoto, minister plenipotentiary, Embassy of Japan.

Urging a Moratorium on Arms Sales

Although Latin America spends relatively less on defense than most other regions, government spending on expensive weapons systems often diverts scarce foreign exchange from more effective investments, including education. Further, when one nation spends more on defense, other nations are compelled to do the same, thus generating dangerous international tensions. Concerned about an arms race in Latin America, the Carter Center's Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas urged governments in the region to pause before embarking on major arms purchases. Between April 1997 and March 1998, 28 current heads of government and 14 former heads of government signed a written pledge to accept a moratorium of two years on purchasing sophisticated weapons. Among these signatories was Mexico President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León.