section_path: History/Contemporary Mexico
section_name: Contemporary Mexico
paragraph_text: Contemporary Mexico
  
  In 2000, after 71 years, the PRI lost a presidential election to Vicente Fox of the opposition conservative National Action Party (PAN). In the 2006 presidential election, Felipe Calderón from the PAN was declared the winner, with a very narrow margin (0.58%) over leftist politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). López Obrador, however, contested the election and pledged to create an "alternative government".
  
  After twelve years, in 2012, the PRI won the presidency again with the election of Enrique Peña Nieto. However, he won with a plurality of about 38% and did not have a legislative majority.
  
  After founding the new political party MORENA, Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the 2018 presidential election with over 50% of the vote. His political coalition, led by his left-wing party founded after the 2012 elections, included parties and politicians from all over the political spectrum. The coalition also won a majority in both the upper and lower Congress chambers. His success is attributed to the country's other strong political alternatives exhausting their chances as well as the politician adopting a moderate discourse with a focus on conciliation.
  
  Mexico has contended with high crime rates, official corruption, narcotrafficking, and a stagnant economy. Many state-owned industrial enterprises were privatized starting in the 1990s, with neoliberal reforms, but Pemex, the state-owned petroleum company is only slowly being privatized, with exploration licenses being issued. In a push against government corruption, the ex-CEO of Pemex has been arrested.
  
  Although there were fears of electoral fraud in Mexico's 2018 presidential elections, the results gave a mandate to AMLO. Andrés Manuel López Obrador won a landslide victory in the July 2018 presidential elections and became the first leftwing president for decades. Claudia Sheinbaum prevailed in the 2024 presidential election and will become the first woman to lead the country when she takes office in October.