Texas Ex in the Running for Presidency

By Lynn Freehill in Special, TXEX on June 19, 2012 at 10:02 am | No Comments

With the election coming fast, a Texas Ex has a chance of becoming president.

Not of the United States, but of our major trade partner and southern neighbor, Mexico.

Gabriel R. Quadri de la Torre, MA ’81, is the surprise dark-horse candidate in Mexico’s four-way race to lead the country. Voting takes place July 1, and 80 million Mexicans are eligible to take part.

Quadri de la Torre studied economics at UT and went on to become both a banking executive and respected environmentalist in his home country.

He was pressed into serving as a candidate this spring by friends after Mexico’s New Alliance Party, or PANAL, split from the coalition with the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Green Party. Now he is being called the “citizens’ candidate.”

Similar to U.S. counterparts like Ralph Nader or Ross Perot, Quadri de la Torre is not likely to win the presidency.

Still, his presence in the race could change the outcome—whether his perspectives on the economy and environment influence the positions of other candidates or he siphons votes from other candidates, making the race closer. There are no runoff elections in Mexico; the candidate who wins the most votes on July 1 will assume office Dec. 1 for a six-year term.

This election is considered pivotal in Mexico, where drug cartel-related violence has stabbed at the country’s social fabric and often reached over the U.S. border in recent years.

Photo by World Economic Forum via Flickr Creative Commons.

Tags: Felipe Calderon, Gabriel Quadri de la Torre, Mexican election, Mexican presidential election, Mexico election