Mexico election diary: #YoSoy132 at a crossroads

The Economist: MEXICO’S presidential candidates have had two official televised debates, one in Mayand another earlier this month. On June 19th there was a third, unofficial one, hosted by a student movement called #YoSoy132. The pressure group, which was born in May after a disastrous visit by Enrique Peña Nieto, the leading candidate, to a Mexico City university, got the candidates together for two hours of discussion ahead of the election, which is now little more than a week away.

It was a decent debate. The questions put by students were good and specific; candidates had to answer simply yes or no, before outlining their proposals in more detail, which cut down on the off-topic speeches that politicians often like to dive into. It was transmitted on the internet, complete with severe technical problems due to heavy traffic (or perhaps, Twitter rumours ran, to sabotage). Read more.