LatinNews Monitor: Mexico - 26 November 2015

Mexico’s two main left-wing political parties have announced leadership appointments to gear up for the 12 gubernatorial elections due in June 2016 and the next presidential elections in 2018. It came as no surprise that the Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) elected its founder, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as party president for the period 2015-2018 on 21 November. By far the more intriguing appointment was that of Agustín Basave two weeks earlier as the new president of the main left-wing party, Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD). Basave, a political analyst with a doctorate in political science from Oxford University, is not a party stalwart. His main challenge will be unifying and revitalising the PRD and resisting the encroachments of Morena.