OAS - Organization of American States

05/07/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/07/2021 16:28

OAS to Observe Federal and Local Elections in Mexico

Press Release


OAS to Observe Federal and Local Elections in Mexico

May 7, 2021

The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) will send an Electoral Observation Mission to observe the federal and local elections to be held in Mexico on June 6. To lead the Mission, Secretary General Luis Almagro has designated Argentinian lawyer Santiago Cantón.

Cantón is an International Visiting Scholar at American University Washington College of Law. In 2021, he was Chief of the OAS Special Mission to El Salvador. From 2001 to 2012 he was the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In 1998 he was elected as the first Rapporteur for the Freedom of Expression in the Inter-American System. Moreover, he has served as Secretary of Human Rights of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was also the Executive Director of Robert F. Kennedy Partners for Human Rights, among many other positions.

The Mission will begin its work the week of May 10 with a series of virtual meetings to hear the perspectives of various actors on the electoral process underway. The Mission will arrive in the country in a staggered manner starting the last week in May. This will be the fifth Mission deployed by the OAS in Mexico, after having observed elections in 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018.

Reference: E-049/21