[ryberg]

Just in case anyone wants to know, looks like mostly same as usual in politics here. The long-time champs the PRI party (the ones who had a 70+ year run on the presidency of Mexico until Fox was elected a few years ago) has won the governorship of Quintana Roo as well as having landing the mayoral positions in both Benito Juarez (read "Cancún") and Solidaridad (read "Playa/Tulum").

Perhaps the best news is that the former mayor of Cancún, the infamous "Chaco," who to date cannot account for millions of dollars he had control over while in office there, lost the race for governor. Yes, in Mexico you can not only make off with millions but at the same time run for a higher office, and in fact in this case, you can win a substantial portion of the vote, looks like about 1/3 overall. (He's a populist and many of the more disenfranchised apparently vote for him.)

The new mayor here is Carlos Joaquin, a member of the Joaquin family of Cozumel (think "Kennedy" for the context of this region and you basically have it), whose fortunes began when the now elderly Nassim Joaquin basically single-handedly turned the region into a tourist destination by hitching his wagon to the cruise ship industry in Cozumel. It seems that the government saw what the light and caught on and then decided to create Cancún more or less out of thin air, after which of course Playa and the Riviera Maya began to experience growth, as well. Carlos Joaquin has said that infrastructure improvements such as more street paving and an increase in the educational offering are among his priorities.

Actually Cozumel produced one of the only surprises: the PRI lost to a PAN rival who was with the PRI until he lost the nomination, at which point he jumped parties. This is also amazingly common here, creating an effect like free agents jumping teams at the drop of a hat.

Well just in case you wanted to know...

Steve