Editing History of Mexico (section)

===1988 Presidential election===
Candidates in the [[1988 Mexican general election]] were [[Carlos Salinas de Gortari]] (PRI); [[Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas]], who broke with the PRI and ran as a candidate of the Democratic Current, later forming the [[Party of the Democratic Revolution]] (PRD);<ref>Kathleen Bruhn, ''Taking on Goliath:  The Emergence of a New Left Party and the Struggle for Democracy in Mexico''. University Part: Penn State Press 1997.</ref> and the PAN candidate [[Manuel Clouthier]]. Irregularities on a massive scale marked the election. During the vote count, the government computers were said to have crashed; one observer said, "For the ordinary citizen, it was not the computer network but the Mexican political system that had crashed."<ref>Enrique Krauze, ''Mexico: Biography of Power.'' New York: HarperCollins 1997, p. 770.</ref> When the computers were said to be running again after a considerable delay, the election results they recorded were an extremely narrow victory for Salinas (50.7%), Cárdenas (31.1%), and Clouthier (16.8%). Cárdenas was widely seen to have won the election,{{clarify|date=August 2023}}, but Salinas was declared the winner. There might have been violence in the wake of such fraudulent results, but Cárdenas did not call for it, "sparing the country a possible civil war."<ref>Krauze, ''Mexico: Biography of Power'', p. 772.</ref> Years later, former Mexican President [[Miguel de la Madrid]] (1982–88) was quoted in ''The'' ''New York Times'' stating that the results were indeed fraudulent.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/world/ex-president-in-mexico-casts-new-light-on-rigged-1988-election.html|title=Ex-President in Mexico Casts New Light on Rigged 1988 Election|first=Ginger|last=Thompson|work=The New York Times|date=9 March 2004|archive-date=30 December 2018|access-date=19 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230081349/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/world/ex-president-in-mexico-casts-new-light-on-rigged-1988-election.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
His presidency was marked by ambitious economic reforms, including the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada in 1994. Despite these challenges, Salinas' presidency is often remembered for its economic transformation and its lasting impact on Mexico's position in the global economy.