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The following is an exerpt from an update on Mexico City that I got in an email from TheEconomist.com. Sorry I couldn't find the actual article, but this should be good enough I guess. It kind of goes back to what Elisa and I were talking about the other day about the upcoming elections in Mexico.

MEXICO CITY BRIEFING
December 2005

News this month

The electoral march
On December 4th, the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) chose its candidate for next year’s mayoral race. Marcelo Ebrard, a former chief of police of Mexico City and an ally of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former mayor and current front-runner in the presidential race, defeated Jesús Ortega, a party senator, by 60% to 40%. Mr Ebrard now approaches next July’s elections as the man to beat—the PRD has held the mayoralty since 1997, when it was first put to popular vote (previously, the mayor was appointed by the president). However, he will face a strong challenge from Beatriz Paredes, the expected Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate, who is renowned as a political operator.

Mr Ebrard’s nomination can be seen as an affront to Vicente Fox, the Mexican president, who had him fired from his police post over his response to the killing of two federal agents in November 2004. After his victory, Mr Ebrard appeared at a joint press conference with Mr López Obrador, stressing their alliance. Mr López Obrador is an enormously popular figure in the city, but will probably spend much time on presidential campaigns elsewhere, relying on Mr Ebrard to shore up his local base.