SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero says she will not challenge her party’s decision not to support her quest for re-election.
The Morena party, entrenched as Mexico’s ruling party and led by Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, instead chose to endorse Ismael Burgueño Ruiz’s candidacy.
“I’m not going to challenge, I would never raise my hand against the president,” Caballero said in a statement issued through her social media.
On Wednesday, Morena Party leaders issued a list of preferred candidates and Caballero’s name was not on it. Because she was considered a virtual lock for a second term, the omission has come as a surprise to many.
The mayor has always been a staunch party supporter and was seen as a rising star within Morena.
Initially, Caballero said on Facebook she would seek a legal challenge to what she considered the “snatching of her project” in favor of Burgueño.
Caballero had said she was baffled because she had won the party’s straw poll for mayor of Tijuana, which traditionally determines who gets the party’s endorsement, support and funding.
“I will respect my party’s decision,” she said. “I will continue to be a militant for Morena, and I’m grateful to President López Obrador who allowed me to become mayor of Tijuana.”
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