The Mexican Green Ecologist Party achieved a breakthrough in the country’s July 6 midterm elections, becoming the nation’s fourth largest political party. But at the celebrations, respected environmentalists were notable only for their absence. According to the party’s own statistics, the Greens won 6.5% of the combined vote for Mexico’s federal lower chamber and for local and state legislatures. That’s the best the party ever has done running alone. With final calculations under Mexico’s complex electoral system now complete, the party has wound up with 17 seats in the 500-member chamber of deputies. This compares to 18 won in 2000, but the showing came in the context of an electoral alliance with President Vicente Fox’s cresting National Action Party (Pan). The alliance broke up... [Log in to read more]