President Obama called Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto to congratulate him on his apparent victory in the country’s recent presidential election.
Peña Nieto, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has raked in 38 percent of the vote in a sample count of polling stations and leads his closest opponent by a seven point margin, according to reports.
The PRI served as the governing party of Mexico for more than seven decades until its reputation for corruption and coercion caught up to it in 2000 when Vicente Fox, a member of the Alliance for Change party, beat the PRI candidate by seven percentage points.
According to a White House statement, the two leaders “reaffirmed the close bilateral partnership the United States and Mexico enoy massed on mutual respect, shared responsibility and the deep connection between our people.”
In his conversation with Peña Nieto, Obama said he looks forward to working with the new president-elect in “advancing common goals, including promoting democracy, economic prosperity and security in the region.”
