The Mexican Left and the 2006 Election

Date: Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Time: 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Location: Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, Room 253 (Map Room)
Free and open to the public
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Flyer [ PDF (53.09 KB) ]

The Trans-Border Institute hosted an educational roundtable, featuring prominent guest speaker Dr. Agustín Basave, a former Mexican Congressman, Ambassador and renowned expert political analyst from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Dr. Basave visited the University of San Diego and shared his expert political experience in a presentation entitled, "The Mexican Left and Mexico's 2006 Presidential Election." Dr. Basave specifically discussed the PRD presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), and the implications for Mexican politics, economic and bi-lateral relations with the United States in the event that AMLO becomes the next President of Mexico.

Dr. Basave received his B.S. in Management Information Systems from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, and his Master of Science from Purdue University in the United States. Dr. Basave then obtained a doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Oxford. Dr. Basave's published works include, Mexico Mestizo, an investigative project about the quest for Mexican identity, Historia Silencia, a chronicle of the Mexican House of Representatives, Sonar no Cuesta Nada, El Sueno es Vida and others. Dr. Basave is a regular columnist in Mexico's leading newspapers and the Los Angeles Times. He is also the host of "Detras de la Noticia" a radio program in Mexico.

Dr. Basave presents a impressive résumé of public service in Government in Mexico. He is a former member of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He served as a PRI Federal Deputy, representing his home state of Nuevo Leon, in the Mexican Congress from 1991 until 1994. While serving his term in Congress Dr. Basave was appointed President of the Border Affairs Committee and Secretary of the Committee for Budget and Planning.

From 1994 to 1995, he served as General Director for Political Development at the Department of the Interior. That same year, he became President of the Colosio Foundation, the PRI's national think-tank. Dr. Basave founded the "Renaissance Movement," and other similar campaigns within the PRI which pressured for democratic reform of the Mexican Government. Dr. Basave officially resigned from the PRI in 2001.

Mexico's President Vince Fox (National Action Party, PAN) appointed Dr. Basave to the Commission for State Reform Studies. From 2001 until 2004, Dr. Basave served as Mexico's Ambassador to Ireland. Since that time Dr. Basave has endorsed Mexico's center-left party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).