Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012
THEN
Feb. 5, 1917, the modern Mexican constitution is ratified by the Mexican Constitutional Congress—with Venustiano Carranza serving as the country’s first president—following a bloody seven-year Mexican revolution. Two years after the successful removal of dictator Porfirio Diaz, the 1917 Mexican constitution is ratified providing for progressive land reforms, rights for workers and farmers, freedom of religion, prohibitions against various forms of discrimination and a one-term, six-year limit on the presidency.
NOW
Tomorrow, government offices, banks, private business and schools will be closed as Mexico celebrates its 95th annual Constitution Day in this election year. With the current rise in drug violence in parts of Mexico under the watch of President Felipe Calderon and the conservative National Action Party, the International Revolutionary Party—the previously ruling party in Mexico that managed to maintain power for the majority of the 20th century—is making considerable gains toward the 2012 presidency. Recently, politicians in Mexico have expressed frustration with the lack of adequate campaign finance law reform to address the significant problem of Mexican drug cartels and violent gangs funding local and possibly presidential campaigns.
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