Mexico’s presidential election is just a few months away.

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Parties have already chosen their candidates, independent candidates have already been determined and the pre-campaign period is over. All is set for the major political event in the Latin American country.

Here are the social justice issues that voters hope candidates will address.

The Candidates

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, leader of the National Renewal Movement, Morena, has been leading all polls since last year. He is known as “El Peje” or “You know who” and represents the left, even though he has showed himself more conciliatory and liberal-leaning in the past years.

This is the third time he runs for president and has claimed to be the legitimate winner in the past two electoral processes. He has been virtually in campaign since 2006 and has visited all 2,446 municipalities in Mexico. Now, he's the candidate of the “Together We'll Make History” alliance, which includes his Morena party, the Workers’ Party, PT, and the conservative Social Encounter Party, PES.

Ricardo Anaya is the right-wing candidate and comes second in the polls. He was the president of the National Action Party, PAN, before proposing himself as presidential candidate in the “To The Front For Mexico” alliance, which includes center-left Citizen Movement and Democratic Revolution Party. His proposal was so controversial it caused a major schism within his party, which led to many people leaving. Others decided to stay, but have expressed their rejection towards whom they call an “authoritarian” candidate.

Jose Antonio Meade comes third in the polls and is being promoted as the “party-less” technocrat candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, which has ruled the country for more than seven decades and is currently in office. The move seems to have been a desperate way for the PRI to distance itself from itself, presenting Meade as a citizen candidate that never formally belonged to the party.

A Real Alternative

The political scenario in Mexico is characterized by a lack of trust towards political parties and the government in general. In 2017, the Pew Research Center revealed only six percent of Mexicans were satisfied with their government, out of which only two percent really trusted it. That was the lowest degree of trust in all of the study’s history.

We can then suppose Mexicans want a change and an alternative outside of the mainstream political sphere, but the current situation doesn't seem to offer that. The PRI and PAN parties represent “more of the same,” as they have already been in government and didn't prove to take the direction the Mexican people want.

This year, independent candidates were allowed to run for president if they gathered enough signatures, but the outcome was disappointing to many. Only three “independent” candidates made it to the polls: Margarita Zavala, wife of ex-president Felipe Calderón; Jaime Rodriguez “El Bronco,” the governor of Nuevo Leon currently “on license;" and Armando Rios Piter, a virtually unknown senator.

Zavala is presenting herself as the only “woman” candidate, but her point of view and agenda distance her from any feminist or LGBT friendly policy. She broke with his husband's PAN after Anaya nominated himself instead of her and then decided to run as an “independent” candidate, but her past still haunts her.

Rodriguez gained famed when he promised to dismantle organized crime after being involved in two shootouts with criminal organizations. He then became the independent governor of Nuevo Leon after breaking up with the PRI, but maintains ties with them. Nuevo Leon's business sector supports him. He is popular and stays away from “ideologies,” but is liberal in practice. Polls give him no chance.

Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, or “Marichuy,” an Indigenous Nahuatl healer and political activist, represented the grassroots anti-capitalist, feminist, Indigenous alternative who “promised nothing” but helping dismantle the political establishment and the economic system. She was supported by the National Indigenous Congress and the National Liberation Zapatista Army, or EZLN, two radical but peaceful Indigenous organizations. She didn't get enough signatures to be in the ballots, but the supporting organizations will continue with their programs, which didn't include seizing power anyway.

This year, Morena represents the alternative, but only because is the viable option for change, as small as it can be. However, their alliance with the PT and the right-wing PES seems to be a shady strategy that made most progressive supporters distance themselves from them.

Security

With over 29,000 violent deaths in 2017 alone and a massive amount of reported and unreported missing people in the last few years, security is a major concern in Mexico. The new Internal Security Law proposed by the PRI promises to reduce these concerns, but experts say it will only extend and legalize military presence on the streets.

None of the candidates seem fit to provide a solution to the heavy violence problem in the country. Anaya comes from the same party that as former President Felipe Calderon, responsible for the “war on drugs” that in 2006 started a new age of violence when the military and the navy went out to the streets to take over civil security duties. His administration outcome was 120,935 murders.

The PRI, Meade's “new” party, administration has accumulated almost 120,000 violent deaths since it came to power in 2012, including the Tlatlaya massacre in 2014 at the hands of the military and the disappearance of 43 rural students on the same year.

Morena is a newly formed party and doesn't have a violent record yet, but many of its members defected from the mainstream parties. Its leader, Lopez Obrador, states that reconciliation might be the right formula for peace, but his proposal to give “amnesty” to the leaders of criminal organizations and corrupt politicians didn't make happy a lot of people.

Corruption

Besides security, this is the other major concern in the minds of the Mexicans. Corruption practices are widespread and have been de facto normalized in the political sphere, but people are tired of seeing their tax money enriching politicians.

The PRI represents the perfect example of corruption in Mexico, with proven ties with organized crime. It's the current ruling party and holds many of the state governments. Out of nine state governors for money laundering, organized crime activities, embezzlement and abuse of authority during this administration, seven belong to the PRI. Some of them are still in prison and other one, Cesar Duarte, fled the country and has at least two deportation petitions. No surprise Meade comes as a far third option.

The remaining two governors accused of these crimes belong to the PAN. They represented the opposition party for decades until they won the presidency in 2000. They don't have a corruption stigma yet, but their recent internal discussions seem to reveal an obscure internal process.

Corruption has been the main issue for Morena. Lopez Obrador has been campaigning against corruption since 2006, which he claims remains at the top political sphere rather than on the common citizens' actions. Many will vote him because they believe he's honest about this, but he has constantly included corrupt politicians in his party as they leave their former parties.

Earthquake

A 8.2 magnitude earthquake hit the southern Pacific coast of Mexico on Sept. 7 last year. Many towns in Chiapas and Oaxaca were completely destroyed. Thousands lost their homes.

Less than two weeks later, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the center of the country, killing hundreds in Mexico City and neighboring states. Since then, earthquakes in south Mexico have been a regular thing, affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands.

Many victims in center and south Mexico were left homeless. Entire families have been camping outside their former homes fearing the government, constructors or real estate companies will take over their lands if they leave. PRD's government in Mexico City has proved inefficient in solving this crisis and corruption scandals regarding irregular construction permits emerged.

Now, some people were giving credits to rebuild their homes they had already paid with years of effort. People are organizing to demand a fair deal, but authorities have turned a deaf ear.

A candidate that addresses these problems up front and in a credible way will most likely gain a wide advantage. Issues such as LGBT rights or drug legalization are off the agenda since Morena joined forces with the conservative PES, and won't return anytime soon.

Mexico faces desperate times, and that might lead to a desperate decision.