Mexico

The Carter Center has a long history of working with Mexico to improve its electoral system. The Center also supported Mexico’s successful effort to stop transmission of river blindness.

Today, through our groundbreaking Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign, we are working with city partners to change lives.

Short-term Goals

We have partnered with the cities of Mérida and Guadalajara to empower women through access to information.

Impact

Assisted Mexico in becoming the third country to receive World Health Organization verification of elimination of river blindness
Observed the 2000 Mexican presidential election that marked the first change in the ruling party in 71 years

Carter Center Expands Global Inform Women, Transform Lives Campaign to 13 New Cities

Press Release
Sep. 29, 2025

Carter Center Adds 12 More Cities to its Global Inform Women, Transform Lives Campaign

Press Release
Sep. 27, 2023

Summary: 2021 Virtual Program Review for the River Blindness Elimination Programs | Ethiopia, Nigeria, OEPA, Sudan, and Uganda

Program Review, Report
Sep. 13, 2022

Active

Empowerment through Information

Through its groundbreaking Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign, The Carter Center partners with city leaders worldwide to raise awareness about women’s right to access information and to help cities reach women with valuable information and essential municipal services.

Access to this information empowers women with a stronger voice, enabling them to participate in public life, utilize public services, and make more informed decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities. In Mexico, this project has partnered with the cities of Mérida and Guadalajara.

Legacy

Democracy

Beginning in 1986, the Carter Center’s Latin America and Caribbean Program (formerly known as the Americas Program) tracked Mexico’s elections informally and offered suggestions for strengthening the electoral process.

We went on to officially monitor elections in 1992, 1994, 1997, and 2000. We offered reform suggestions and worked with authorities who were striving to overcome past problems and transform Mexico’s politics.

In July 2000, a Carter Center delegation witnessed a historic transition of power that ended 71 years of rule by one party. Overall, observers pronounced the elections near perfect, “ushering in a new era of Mexican politics.”

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 and 14 former heads of government — including Mexico’s — signed a pledge to accept a moratorium of two years on purchasing sophisticated weapons.

This project ended in 1998.

Related Tags

Inform Women, Transform Lives
Peace

Legacy

River blindness

In 2001, the Carter Center’s International Task Force for Disease Eradication suggested that it was possible to eliminate river blindness, or onchocerciasis. in the Americas with twice-yearly doses of Mectizan® to at least 85% of those at risk.

Through semiannual distribution of the drug Mectizan^® (donated by Merck & Co. Inc.) and health education, onchocerciasis was eliminated from South Chiapas in 2012, and from North Chiapas and Oaxaca by the late 2000s.

After a three-year post-treatment phase to ensure the disease did not reoccur, Mexico announced in September 2015 that it had become the third country to receive from the World Health Organization verification of elimination of river blindness.