Why has Enrique Pena Nieto’s, the president of Mexico, approval rating been on steady decline since 2013?Introduction:Sincethe beginning of the 20th century, there has been a constant in Mexico, thePartido Revolucionario Industrial (PRI) has been at the helm of Mexicanpolitics. They held the presidency, in a somewhat authoritarian ruling, for 71years until finally a new political party, Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), tookoffice in 2000 and held it for 12 years, where afterwards Mexico sunk back totheir old habits and elected a new PRI president by the name of Enrique PenaNieto (EPN for short). EPN has been in office for a little less than 5 years ofthe 6 year term, and while he showed promise in his opening days, he has nowfallen to become one of the most disliked and disapproved presidents in thehistory of Mexico. While there are many factors that go into his disapprovalrating and his general “hate” among the Mexican population, he still manages tobe kept in power. While Mexico broke the seal of being labeled as anauthoritarian regime in 2000, the fact that they elected a president with many,many, scandals, controversies and questionable friendships, goes to show howperhaps the real leader of Mexico is corruption. Before Vicente Fox Quesada waselected president of Mexico in 2000, as the candidate of PAN, the presidency ofMexico was often handed down like a monarchy. What this meant was, the currentpresident would hand pick his successor in a process called “Dedazo”[1]. Due to the lack ofcompetition and the media control of PRI, the elections would always favor PRIwith often margins of 90% voting. However,as people grew tired of the constant control PRI had on the country, otherpolitical parties began to emerge, like PAN in 1939, Partido de la RevolucionDemocratica (PRD) in 1989, and most recently Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional(MORENA) in 2014. While PAN came to fruition earlier than the other 2, theywere drowned out by the media control PRI had in Mexico. However, when EPN cameinto power in 2012, the 3 main political parties, in a known three party system,were PAN, PRD and PRI. While some argue that 3 party systems are often betterthan a simple 2 party system, in some cases it came seem bad as in theory the voteswould be split 30-30-30. However, there are cases where 2 candidates arestronger and 1 gets above 40% while the other one gets above 35%[2], and in these cases athree party system tends to merge towards becoming a 2 party system. However,the three party system is flawed and it often leads to mistakes being done indemocracy and not really showing the true election of the people. However, whenEPN took office, after winning the election between 3 strong candidates, itwasn’t just his policies that were disliked, but his previous scandals andcontroversies as well. EPN is near the end of his presidential term, and most of the things he has to show for are negative. While he did do some positive things, he will most likely be remembered by the things he did to hurt the country, his party and himself. So why exactly was EPN seen as a disgrace from the beginning? His past as the governor of the State of Mexico (Edo. Mex), made him come to power with a stigma, and a stigma of being part of PRI, so he was never given a complete chance to prove his worth. His inability to be a successful president, in many ways, can bring trouble in the future. So why exactly has EPN been disliked or disapproved so much?  Given the three party system in Mexico, a president who takes office usually does not have the support of more than half of the country, alongside a plethora of human right violations, suspected business with the drug cartels, bad policies and failure to correctly communicate with the public, have made Pena Nieto one of the most disapproved presidents in recent memory.Evidence:EPN as governor of Edo. Mex:EnriquePena Nieto was born in 1966 in Atlacomulco, a small city in Edo. Mex, where hegrew up under a fairly political family. Since he was little it is said he waslooking forward to one day becoming the governor of his home state. Hefurthered his education in Mexico City, getting his bachelor of arts degree inlaw from Universidad Panamericana (UP) in 1989 and completing his thesis in1991 and then went on to get his M.BA from Instituto Tecnologico y de EstudioSuperiores de Monterrey (ITESM). Both these universities are well recognized inMexico and ITESM is a very well respected school on the international level aswell. However, one of the scandals he has faced is that his thesis from UP wasplagiarized and that due to his unoriginality he was not actually a viablegraduate from this specific university, more on this scandal later.  EPNbecame affiliated with PRI in 1984, at the young age of 18, after enrolling inUP to study law. However, this was not his first exposure to politics, in facthe is the nephew of two former governors of Edo. Mex (Arturo Montiel andAlfredo del Mazo Gonzalez) so he would often attend rallies for his familymembers and be exposed to political events. However, as he often tells, hebecame introduced to politics at the age of 15, in 1981, when he would help hisuncle del Mazo Gonzalez spread his campaign ideas through literature. This issaid to be the time where EPN decided he would want to pursue a politicalcareer. It wasn’t until 2005, when he was elected governor of Edo. Mex, wherehe really became a powerful and recognized politician in Edo. Mex and in Mexicooverall. Whenthe elections for the governor of Edo. Mex occurred, EPN was the least favoriteto win. However due to being the nephew of the previous governor (ArturoMontiel) and a historically PRI favored state, it could be said, this was asort of “Dedazo” once again even though that seemed to have disappeared onceFox took office in 2000, breaking the PRI regime. However, it would seem EPNtook office due to this. The election was fairly one sided, PRI got 47.45% ofthe vote, PAN got 24.79% and PRD got 24.17%, with a voter turnout of 48%[3]. This election came withsome controversy, not only PRI, but PRD and PAN. The candidate for PAN, RubenMendoza, was said to have made many mistakes in his campaign and at time evenshowing drunk to events. Mendoza would often make crude remarks and was caughton tape giving his followers “soccerballs out of a PRI vehicle”[4] instead of from his own campaign. Mendoza was theoriginal favorite to win over this crucial state, but due to his campaignmistakes, he lost the governorship. The PRD candidate, Yeidckol Polevnsky, wasa candidate with no political experience making him unappealing to the public.With the mistakes Mendoza made, it would’ve been assumed that Polevnsky wouldhave gotten his votes, but they went to EPN instead. PRI has a stigma of beingcorrupt and often buying elections to help further their agenda, and as PamelaStarr (an academic) put it eloquently “In a way it was a typical election withthe PRI buying victory. But that said, the PRI didn’t win…”[5] she argues that the PRD and PAN lost it instead,due to their mistakes on the campaign trail and on backing a candidate with noexperience. EPN won the election though, and his term served from 2005-2011and, like everything following his win, came scandals that would seem to hurt,but not enough to make him an unelectable candidate.Oncehe took office, it did not take much time for the first scandal to erupt. Onthe 3rd day of May 2006, State and Federal forces marched into SanSalvador Atenco and a violent stand-off occurred which led to “200 arrested, 50injured, 2 dead and 26 women raped”[6],a very controversial and, in the eyes of many, a very unnecessary actionordered by EPN. This whole thing began in 2002 under the administration of Fox,when he wanted to build a new international airport that served Mexico City inthe land surrounding San Salvador Atenco (Atenco for short). The people becamemad and would often protest against their removal of their own land, the FPDT[7]was a strong opposition of this new planned airport. The main protestors wereflower vendors and other vendors of agricultural products. Once the policeforces entered Atenco and violently starting arresting and beating thecitizens, a 10-hour long violence infested protest began. EPN having orderedthis raid was seen as the one culprit, and while he did assume theresponsibility years later, he was still called a “murderer” by many citizensof Atenco and Mexico in general. When asked about the incident, instead of blatantlysaying it was a terrible and disgraceful action he ordered, he would often tryto blame the media for the way it was portrayed or blame the citizens of Atencofor not welcoming the police with open arms, and instead inciting the violencethat followed, something that infuriated many people in Mexico and around theworld. Of the 26 women that were raped, 4 were not Mexican and they were “2españolas, una chilena y una alemana”[8]which also caused international stir. EPN, being the one who ordered this raidis seen as the only culprit in this horrendous act of human rights violations,and while one would hope none of these would ever happen again, unfortunatelyfor EPN he still has 2 more of these scandals coming up.Whilethis was the only big scandal he had as governor of Edo. Mex, it is one thatshould not be taken lightly. In many countries that are truly democratic, thiswould automatically disqualify a candidate from ever seeking a higher office,especially the office of president. However, when the time came to selectcandidates for the 3 main parties, EPN was at the top of the list for PRI,something that didn’t sit well with the country. Even before he was president,and due to his actions as governor, he was disliked by the Mexican public, duemostly to his role in the raid of Atenco. In 2012 during his campaign a protestgroup formed known today as Yo soy 132[9]after a campaign event in Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. This groupbegan due to EPN’s response to a question regarding his action to raid the townof Atenco and commit several human right infractions. Even before hispresidency started, he was disliked and not due to his policy proposals but forhis actions. He came into the campaign trail in a disadvantage but then managedto pull up and influence the voters to his favor. Campaign and 2012 election:EPNwas pegged to represent PRI in the elections in 2012. This was first hinted atin several announcements and spots on TV in 2011 when he was still governor ofEdo. Mex. However, when it came time for el PRI to nominate a candidate to leadthem to retake back the presidency it was EPN who took this opportunity, andeventually came out victorious. While on campaign, EPN had some questionableand, while some were hilarious, lamentable moments. One of the most importantones came in May of 2012, under 2 months from the general election. When theDepartment of Justice of the USA, alongside the DEA, identified a closepersonal friend of EPN with ties to narcotics trafficking. This person was noneother than the ex-governor of the northern state of Tamaulipas, TomasYarrington. The DEA took back 2 properties owned by Yarrington worth overUS$9million. This was an important accusation as it in some way “proved” thelong assumed relationship between EPN and the narcotics trafficking. Otherblunders included the inability to name 3 of the books he’s read[10]at an international book fair, failure to respond to a question regarding theprice of “tortillas” and saying she was not the lady of the house so he did notknow, or in an interview when asked what his ex-wife died from, he seemed tonot particularly know exactly what it was (this made people angry and itstarted conspiracy theories that EPN killed his wife because after all he was amurderer as seen in Atenco) and seemed nervous to respond. These all minorthings caused the public to really dislike him, but his lead in the polls wasstill by a big margin. EPNhas also been said to have received “el respaldo de diversos medios decomunicación, destacadamente Televisa… lade mayor audiencia en México”[11]help in building his image due to many television spots, and also negativespots on his opponents, especially Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. This wasfurther denied by Televisa and by the candidate himself, but anyone whoactually watched the spots and knows about the history of Televisa knows that,EPN was their candidate of choice. This shows how el PRI has in reality notchanged, and they still in some way control the flow of information and themedia. Leading up to the election, EPN was held in a very attractive way,physically and politically, compared to his opponents. Theelection of 2012 was between 3 major candidates, EPN for PRI, Andres ManuelLopez Obrador (AMLO) for PRD and Josefina Vazquez Mota (JVM) for PAN. With EPNbeing the favorite to win, the result came as expected, EPN won the presidencyafter earning 38.2% of the votes, AMLO came in second with a 31.6% and JVM camein third with 25.4%, showing how more than 60% of the voters[12]do not wish to see EPN as president, a flaw with a three party system and analready hard hole to climb out of if one wishes to have his approval ratingskept high. So after a 12 year hiatus of PRI rule, in 2012 Mexico once againwelcomed into office a PRI president, yet even the election was subject tocontroversy.Theelections of 2012, came with 2 controversies, one fairly irrelevant compared toone that is huge. When poor people went out to vote in 2012, PRI “officials” orsupporters, would offer a pre-paid card to a grocery store if they would votefor EPN. Since the poor people in Mexico often don’t have enough disposablemoney to afford many groceries, these cards came as life savers and they wouldthen vote for PRI. This type of vote buying, or bribes, is an electoral fraudfueled by corruption, something the PRI has been historically linked with inprevious elections when they controlled the political scope of Mexico. Womenwho were indecisive on who to vote, would often vote for EPN due to his goodlooks, “Pena Nieto proved an effective campaigner who appealed especially towomen”[13]. Thesecond and bigger controversy came to light in 2016, when it was reported thata Colombian hacker named Andres Sepulveda told Bloomberg Businessweek that hewas hired by EPN to hack an election and help him secure victory. While EPN andhis team denied these allegations, Sepulveda has had a nearly decade longexperience hacking and influence other elections in Latin America. However, hisprevious hacking jobs did not include hacking and tapping phones of politicalopponents, but simply defacing candidates’ websites and pages. When he wasapproached by a middle man to work for PRI and their money resources, “$600,000,the Peña Nieto job was by far his most complex” and it came costly at theexpense of not only PRI but Mexico. This hacking job was mainly to get theupper hand on the opponents of EPN, AMLO and JVM and he did so by “tap[ping]the phones and computers of anyone using the network, including the candidate”allowing him to see everything the candidate and their team were doing in realtime[14].Thisstory broke out in 2016, 4 years removed from the election, and during a timewhere EPN was already suffering in the approval polls due to his policies andother scandals that came to light. What goes to show during this election andthe events leading up the election of EPN is that Mexico is not a completedemocracy and corruption will always have the upper hand. The election, whileEPN did win by a large enough margin, is plagued to be invalid or tamperedwith, making it in a sense a pseudo-democracy. While the public did vote EPNinto power, there are many other factors and evidence that could prove that theelection was illegitimate, making EPN an illegitimate president. EPN as president and relevance today:Scandals as president that have brought hisapproval rating down:Rightnow the approval rating of EPN is at a historically low 12%[15]which is something that is very unheard of in democratic countries. This can beattributed to the numerous scandals and controversies that have occurred duringhis first 5 years in office, and also some of the policies he has implemented.Some of the controversies are smaller and the details are not too many and arescarce so their description and analysis will not be as complete as theprevious section of this paper. However, these scandals and controversies haveled to a historically unpopular president and the potential rise of an extremepresident which could be worse for Mexico. Tracking approval ratings, mightseem like a useless statistic, but they go to show many things about a country.A disapproved president will often lead to a rising of a politically dangerouscharacter which threatens to go to the extreme to fix the country in a way thecurrent president is unable to do so. The approval ratings can also go to showhow democratic a country is, a president with an approval rating of less than50% or less than what he won the election by (38.2%) goes to show how flawed acountry might be democratically. EPN has never been a very popular candidate,yet he won the presidency, he has been surrounded by multiple scandals, yet hehas not been removed or investigated. Once in power in Latin America, andMexico, it is hard to remove said power and this often leads to crises, as onecan see with the Venezuelan economic crisis as well as Argentina with ChristinaKirchner. Latin America, Mexico and PRI in particular are often characterizedwith corruption and it can be one of the factors why EPN is still in power evenafter many of the scandals presented below.Themost damaging scandal by EPN and his administration is without a doubt the caseof Ayotzinapa and the 43 missing students. This scandal is a huge human rightsviolation and it has negatively grappled the administration of EPN. On 26September 2014, students from Ayotzinapa were on their way to Mexico City for acommemoration of the events of October 2, 1968[16]on many buses. They were intercepted and attacked by police, army and a militiagroup known as Guerreros Unidos[17]in the community of Iguala in the state of Guerrero. During the shootout, 8people were killed, 25 of them were injured and 43 remain missing to this day. Oneof the suspects in this is the mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, and his wifeMaria de los Angeles. Maria de los Angeles is relative of many members of thedrug cartel Beltran-Leyva, so the evidence is against them. Right after thisshootout, they escaped from Iguala and went to Mexico City to hide, furtheringtheir guilty stigma. EPN is also said to have played a part in this, similar tothe Atenco case, and EPN also left the country on a visit to China when thishappened. A crisis of this magnitude would normally keep the president in thecountry and try and solve it. Not only did he “flee” to China, but he did noteven acknowledge the event until after a few weeks, “hasta el día 11 que Peñapor primera vez hablaría del caso”[18].His failure to appreciate the magnitude of this crisis alongside, how he spokeabout the event itself made the public angry and they blamed him for doingthis, which is not the first time he would’ve approved a police/militaryintervention on protests. When he spoke about the crisis, instead of showing astrong, sad, and ashamed tone, he would often just say “superemos esta etapa”which means “let’s move on from this phase”. This whole speech and his way ofexpressing it made people curious as to whether or not he actually cared aboutthe disappearing of 43 students, and the death of 8. After this horrific event,it would be the first time people would disapprove EPN more than they wouldapprove of him, and with good reason. This event still has no solid culpritsand it is still a very sore subject for the administration of EPN. This killingand kidnapping of innocent protesters also comes on the heels of a differentmassacre that occurred on June 30, 2014.June30, 2014 is another day that the administration of EPN has wanting to ignore orforget, known as the Tlataya Massacre. This came in the very early morning ofsaid day when a group of military men saw an armed person protecting awarehouse. The military decided to check it out and a stand-off occurred withthe military shooting first to draw the people inside the warehouse out. Thepeople inside the warehouse came out and surrendered. However, the military didnot stop there and they executed the people in the warehouse one by one. Thisis a gross violation of human rights and it ultimately caused the death of 22people. While the executed people were doing illegal activities by having womenkidnapped in the warehouse, and some other criminal activity, the fact that themilitary executed them goes to show the lack of control the president has onhis own military force. As of now 8 of the military members involved in thisshooting were put on trial, with only 1 of them sentenced for a minimumsentence of 1 year in prison. Another interesting fact of this massacre wasthat the crime scene was tampered with to make it seem the deaths of theexecuted people was due to a standoff, but multiple witnesses and a report fromthe CNDH[19]shows it was in fact an execution of the Mexican military, in control by EPN.This massacre and Ayotzinapa are two terrible events that the president has notaddressed or seemed to care too much about. These have made him look like amurderer or complicit with the murderers of the innocent people, which is whyhis approval rating have sunk since these 2 events at a drastic pace. Oneof the most pathetic things to ever happen to EPN was when Joaquin “El Chapo”Guzman escaped in 2015 from a maximum security prison. EPN and hisadministration did manage to capture him twice, once in 2014 and the other in2016, but the simple fact he managed to escape in the first place is one of thethings that EPN whished he would’ve done more to avoid. The escape of “ElChapo” is seen as a lack of security around, arguably, the most wanted man onearth, and the escape came at a time when EPN was already on “thin ice” inregards to his approval rating. This was seen as a laughing stock on the globalscene and EPN suffered from it. While this was not his fault, the fact that ithappened caused EPN to become very disliked by the Mexican community and theglobal community. Other smaller, yet relevant, scandals and controversies have plagued EPN and in turn made him a very disapproved president. The most recent scandal was the capture of the ex-governor of Veracruz and close friend of EPN, Javier Duarte for money laundering and embezzlement. This comes as no shock, as there are many ties between EPN and criminal activities and corruption. In 2016 it was found that EPN’s thesis from school showed that of his 200 page written document “28.9 percent, [was] found to be plagiarized”[20] which may be shown that he is in fact not a real graduate or a real lawyer. A scandal known as La Casa Blanca[21] shows that TV star Angelica Rivera, and wife to EPN, purchased a house valued at $US7.5million from Grupo Higa, a construction group which was a favorite of EPN. This house was purchased at preferential price by Rivera, and this is shady as Grupo Higa had just won the rights to build a train from Mexico City-Queretaro. This came just weeks after the Ayotzinapa scandal in 2014. The visit by Donald Trump in October 2016 was also seen as a weak move by the president. His coffin, in terms of approval ratings, comes at the beginning of 2017 with a scandal known as “gazolinazo”, when to attract investment and save government funds, the government got rid of the subsidies it has on fuel and it eventually led to a 20% increase in gasoline prices. The country revolted and protested this. This is the backlash of the energy reform EPN passed in 2013 that allowed international competition in a monopolistic market of gasoline controlled by PEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos). This energy reform was a great thing and it was received with many applauses and approval by almost everyone. The “gasolinazo” is part of the energy reform and it was part of the backlash, this is what drove EPN to have an approval rating of 12%. EPNhas seen a steady decline in his approval ratings since 2013, and most of it isrelated to the scandals he has surrounded himself in, most of which woulddamage any president. EPN in some ways brought these scandals upon himself andit is no shock that he is a very disliked president. This tracking of approvalratings is relevant, in the eyes of society, to see how exactly a person thathas committed so many violations and scandals could’ve possibly been elected tooffice, and even kept in office after discovering. This disapproval has givenrise to the extreme-left in Mexico with a possible president like AMLO (now acandidate for MORENA), and he might be more dangerous than EPN could ever be.Disapproved and disliked presidents usually lead to extremes rising out, and inthe previous years Latin America has been bound by a “Left-turn” causing countriesto go towards more left leaning candidates. Conclusion:Mexicois far from being a perfect democracy, and it could be argued that no countryis. The case of EPN is a very interesting and clear one, his approval ratingswere down since he took office due to his previous entanglements with socialunrest, and the fact that over 60% of the voters did not want him. Trackingapproval ratings seems to be a useless and unheard of practice, but these maydetermine the future of a country. Extreme candidates are the biggest threat tolow approval ratings and with presidents who have been synonymous with the wordscandal. In Mexico AMLO (an extreme left-Chavez loving-candidate) is gainingmore and more steam ahead of the 2018 elections and this could be dangerous. InFrance as well, Marine Le Pen (a far-right candidate) was favorite to win thepresidency[22]due to the 4% approval rating of Hollande. Approval ratings in some way alsoshow how effectively a democracy is working, high approval rating usually meanthe public is content with their elected leader (in this case the government isof the people), the opposite is true of low approval ratings, they are usuallyonly in power due to themselves controlling the power and unwilling to let itgo. EPN has been surrounded by corruption his whole career, it comes as nosurprise that he may be in power due to this as well, something very common inLatin American countries. If a person is this disliked, why not get rid of himor at least seriously investigate him? I guess power and corruption are thetrue leaders of Latin America and Mexico.Bibliography#YoSoy132. “Manifestoof #YoSoy132 to the Peoples of Mexico.” 23 May 2012.Kraul, Chris, and CeciliaSanchez. “PRI Wins Governorship of Mexico’s Most Populous State.” Los Angeles Times. The World, 04 July2005.Aguayo Quezada, Sergio. Remolino: El Mexico de la SociedadOrganizada, los poderes facticos y Enrique Pena Nieto. 2014Candon-Mena, Jose Ignacio.“Movimientos por la democratización de la comunicación : los casos del 15My #YOSOY132.” Razon y Palabra 82 (2013). Conn, Clayton .“Mexico Remembers 2006 Atenco Tragedy When Police Raped, Killed.” Telesur. 3 May 2016.Emequis. “Peña Nieto: ¿Por qué ycómo ganó la Presidencia?” Vanguardia.11 July 2012.Gomez,Magdalena. “Ayotzinapa: de la crisis humanitaria a la crisis deEstado.” ElCotidiano 30.189 (2015): 50-59Negrete-Cárdenas,Sergio. “La brújula perdida de Enrique Peña Nieto.” Analisis Plural (2016):45-58.Okeowo, Alexis. “THEGAS-PRICE PROTESTS GRIPPING MEXICO.” TheNew Yorker. 24 Jan. 2017Politico,Animal. “Así ocurrió la matanza del Ejército en Tlatlaya, según laCNDH.” Vanguardia.22 Oct. 2014.Robertson, Jordan, MichaelRiley, and Andrew Willis. “How to Hack an Election.” Bloomberg. Bloomberg Businessweek, 31Mar. 2016.Stargardter,Gabriel. “Los 8 escándalos que han marcado el sexenio de Peña Nieto.”Reuters. 21 Aug. 2016“Tlatlaya,a un año de la masacre.” El Economista.30 June 2015.“A8 años del conflicto y abusos en San Salvador Atenco.” Terra. Redaccion Mexico, 2 May 2014 [1] This means that “by pointing a finger” to someone the presidentchose as the next president[2] This was the case in the 2000 election when PAN (Vicente Fox) got42.52% and PRI (Francisco Labastida) got 36.11%[3] The voter turnout was unusually low, due to the candidates notbeing the optimal choices of the public[4] Chris Kraul and Cecilia Sanchez in the LA Times[5] A quote given to the LA Times[6] Conn. A violent and unnecessary intervention[7] Community Front in Defense of Land[8] 2 Spanish girls, a Chilean girl and a German girl. Terra[9] I am 132. A group of 131 student formed this protest group, with amanifesto, to stand up against EPN and his actions in Atenco claiming he is nota viable presidential candidate to represent them [10] He named the Bible and a book by an author which was not thecorrect author of the book[11] Endorsement from the biggest television communication company inMexico. Vanguardia[12] There was a 63% voter turnout[13] Chris Kraul and Cecilia Sanchez in the LA Times[14] Bloomberg Businessweek story on Andres Sepulveda[15] As of January 2017[16] Known as the Tlatelolco Massacre were police attacked citizensprotesting[17] United Warriors [18] Until day 11 when EPN talked about the case. It is unclear if thismeans 11 days after the event or the day 11 of October[19] Human Rights National Commission report on the massacre[20] Reuters by Stargardter [21] The White House scandal[22] The elections that took place on April 23, 2017 put her in secondplace behind a centrist Emmanuel Macron, which is good newsGet Help With Your EssayIf you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!Find out more