Hundreds of Mexican citizens lined up outside the Mexican Consulate General office in Los Angeles on Sunday to cast their votes in an election that will likely elect the first female president in the country's history.
People began lining up at 4 a.m. to cast their ballots at the consulate office in the 2400 block of West 6th Street, near MacArthur Park. The area was packed with street vendors selling tacos, fruit and ice cream and people erupted in cheers every time a voter emerged from inside after casting their vote.
Draped in Mexican flags, many people waited patiently as mariachi music played from the park across the street, eager to participate in a historic decision that they said would change Mexico's political landscape. Similar scenes played out Sunday at Mexican consulates across the country.
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1. On Sunday there are lines of people who have waited to vote outside the Mexican Consulate. 2. Irma Selene Hernández Atondo waits to vote outside the Mexican Consulate. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times) 3. Antonio Guerrero poses for a portrait while waiting to vote outside the Mexican Consulate. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
“We want to be part of the tide that ends corruption,” said voter Antonio García, who had a Mexican flag hanging around his neck. “In the last six years we have seen many changes in Mexico that have worsened the situation in the country.”
Garcia, who has been in the country for 22 years, said he called his mother in Tijuana this morning and she told him she was ready to vote. She also received text messages from her sister asking if she was traveling to the consulate.
Candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a protégé of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and former mayor of Mexico City, is a heavy favorite to win the election, largely because she has promised to advance his signature projects, including social assistance programs and efforts to reform the power of attorney.
Obrador is not on the ballot, but Sunday's vote is widely seen as a referendum on the Popular but polarizing president known for lifting millions of Mexicans out of poverty while weakening some of the country's key institutions, emboldening the military and failing to stop an epidemic of brutal gang violence.
Lines of people who have waited since early morning to vote are seen outside the Mexican Consulate on Sunday.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Sheinbaum's main opponent, Xóchitl Gálvez, A businessman and former senator who represents an opposition coalition, he has tried to tap into resentment among the middle and upper classes against the current president, widely known by his initials, AMLO.
Sunday's elections are the largest in Mexican history. In addition to a new president, voters will elect 128 senators, 500 congressional deputies, eight governors and the mayor of Mexico City, in addition to thousands of local officials. Mexican presidents serve a single six-year term.
Meanwhile, Laura Torres, who arrived at the consulate in Los Angeles on Sunday with Garcia and a group from Oxnard, said they had waited six hours to vote and would wait another six if necessary. The group plans to vote for Sheinbaum.
“We are here to support Mexico. The last six-year term has been much better than before,” Torres said about the election. “We are very happy to be able to vote, even if it is here in another place that is not ours. We are proud.”
Valeria Jáuregui, left, and Carolina Montemayor, right, pose for a portrait while waiting to vote outside the Mexican Consulate on Sunday.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Valeria Jáuregui and Carolina Montemayor, both 21, are performing arts students at the AMDA Faculty of Performing Arts, studying abroad from Monterrey, Mexico. They were in line to vote for Gálvez.
“It is important for us as young people to do so because we are the future of the country,” said Jáuregui. “The country is in a fragile state and what we can do is get involved and raise our voices.”
Both students said they will vote for Gálvez instead of Sheinbaum because they believe change is very necessary in the Morena party and they feel that Morena's leadership “is not working.”
Arriving at 6 a.m., the students thought they would finish voting in a few hours and go to breakfast, but they remained in line until well after noon. However, they were excited to vote for the country's first female president and to be a part of history.
Lines of people who have waited since early morning to vote are seen outside the Mexican Consulate on Sunday.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
“A woman president is progress for the country, hopefully for the good of the country,” said Montemayor. “We are in a feminist movement that will definitely influence some changes.”
Staff writers Patrick J. McDonnell and Kate Linthicum contributed to this report.
