Mexico City

Mexico City (Spanish: Ciudad de México) is the name of a megacity located in the Valley of Mexico (Valle de México), a large valley in the high plateaus (altiplano) at the center of Mexico, about 2,240 metres (7,349 feet) above sea-level, surrounded on most sides by volcanoes towering at 4,000 to 5,500 metres (13,000 to 18,000 feet) above sea-level.

Politics

Due to its special situation as the home of the federal government, the local government of Mexico City has gone through several incarnations. Since independence, the city has sometimes had an independent local government and other times (the greater part of the 20th century) has been administered directly by the President of the Republic, who delegated his authority to a "Head of the Federal District Department", known more tersely as the Regente ("Regent" in English).

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This kind of political organization caused much resentment among the inhabitants of the city because for many years they were deprived of a government that properly represented them. The most serious situation arose in 1988 when people from Mexico City clearly voted for opposition candidates, despite which they were ruled for six years by the party that won the federal presidency.

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Under these circumstances, political reform became inevitable. First a local legislative assembly was established, and people were able to elect their mayor (jefe de gobierno or "Head of Government") for the first time (both institutions still had limited powers dependent on the federal congress and president).

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The first elected head of government was Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a former presidential candidate (who was, according to many, cheated out of victory in the closely fought 1988 presidential election). Cárdenas resigned later to compete in the 2000 presidential campaign and left in his place Rosario Robles, who became the first woman to govern Mexico City.

Related Topics:
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas - Rosario Robles

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A measure of the democratic development in Mexico is that the current (2000-06) chief of government in the Federal District is Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD, which has an left-leaning ideology (and even has some former members of the Communist Party among its numbers), while at the same time, the federal government has a conservative president, Vicente Fox Quesada.

Related Topics:
Andrés Manuel López Obrador - PRD - Vicente Fox Quesada

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López Obrador was deprived of his constitutional immunity as Head of Government in the Federal District on April 7, 2005. With 360 votes (489 total) from the Chamber of Deputies, he was impeached because he failed to obey a judge's order to stop a road from being built. It is called populary as "desafuero". This issue created a political crisis, which was resolved by the judiciary's ultimate decision to refrain from prosecuting López Obrador.

Related Topics:
Head of Government - April 7 - 2005 - Chamber of Deputies

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On July 29, 2005 López obrador resigned and left office to be able to run for the Presidency in 2006. Alejandro Encinas was appointed Obrador´s substitute as Head of Government

Related Topics:
Alejandro Encinas - Head of Government

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