Diego Alfredo Torres Rosete is a native of México City who lived in the US as an economic migrant for 20 years. He learned about the Morena party and supported it from the US. After experiencing deportation, detention and a denial of political asylum, he returned to México City where he went to work for Morena’s secretariat for Mexicans Abroad and International Policy. He’s now an independent journalist, a defender of immigrant rights in the US, and a worker for international solidarity.

In the US, we’ve had two and only two major parties throughout our history, with other small parties arising from time to time. What’s the party system like in México?

In 2014, Morena became a party, at first serving merely as an electoral vehicle for AMLO. With his victory in 2018 and the increasing success of Morena in subsequent elections, Morena is still figuring out how to be a political party of a new type in Mexican history.

Candidates for president in the US are chosen by party "primaries." Anyone can run, and party members — and only party members — vote to pick the candidate. How are candidates chosen in México?

The traditional method for choosing the candidate we call the dedazo, from the Spanish dedo, meaning finger. The outgoing president would point to the person he wanted to succeed him. Simple! For 70 years, each president was selected by his predecessor.

Because of internal problems within Morena, the party decided that a public poll in which everyone could vote, regardless of political affiliation or lack of one, administered by a neutral polling group, was the best solution. Not to look less democratic, the conservative opposition coalition used the same method.

Using the dedazo, one person decides. In choosing the 2024 Morena candidate, 12,500 people selected the nominee.

Mexico has no Vice President. Why? 

We had vice presidents after independence from Spain, but in Mexican history, the two top leaders were often in conflict — including assassinations. The vice president was usually a leader who thought they should be president. So, in 1917 after the Revolution, the Constitution was amended to abolish the position of vice president.

Who can vote, and what has been the rate of voter participation?

Anyone over the age of 18 can vote, but they must register. US Mexicanos, even those born in the US, are eligible to vote if their parents were born in México. Unfortunately, few take advantage of that opportunity, and it’s something that Morena needs to address.

The US has an electoral college, so voters are actually voting for an elector. Is that true in México?

No, voters choose the president directly, and he/she wins by a plurality of votes. The president can only serve a single six-year term.

What about money in politics? Are there limits to what individuals or businesses can donate to a candidate’s campaign?

Political parties and campaigns receive money from the government in proportion to the number of votes they received. For example, since Morena had twice as many votes as PAN in the 2018 election, they receive twice as much money for their party expenses. The parties also receive extra for electoral campaigns.

The law is that each party can raise privately no more than the amount they receive from the government. But campaigns cost more than what parties are allotted and are allowed to raise. So it’s difficult to stay within the law.

Defense of Mexico’s electoral commission, the INE, became a rallying cry for AMLO’s opposition. Why all the fuss?

In order to punish AMLO, the INE disqualified two Morena candidates from running for office over minor infractions of the campaign spending rules. On the other hand, it is well known that Peña-Nieto vastly overspent in his 2012 campaign, and the INE looked the other way. The INE President had also made public political statements against AMLO, which is outside of INE’s function.

Do you think that history will see 2018 as a turning point for democratizing elections in México?

2018 was notable for sure. But 2024 and the next six years are even more important — and we won’t have AMLO. The 4T will keep going because much of the groundwork has been laid: the Tren Maya is nearly complete, the Dos Bocas oil refinery, new social programs. But now, we’ll have to start confronting the problems not addressed under AMLO.

The next president’s term will be either the beginning of the end of the democratization of Mexican politics, or the consolidation of the gains made during AMLO’s term. If we consolidate, 2018 will be remembered as México entering a new era. If we backslide, by the 2030 election no one will remember 2018.