Breathe
By Nurit Martínez
After the first 45 days of the presidential campaign in Mexico, the candidates have spoken little to young people, but the most surprising thing is that the candidate Jorge Máynez, who could identify with them, speak their language, has not done so either.
This could happen if at least in their messages, both Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez, had concrete proposals articulated to provide them with a future with certainty, with opportunities for them to be the protagonists of Mexico in the middle of the century.
We are less than six months away from the end of the government that was presented as the administration of hope and, in these years, only a group of young people were able to obtain scholarships to continue studying and support to learn trades if they had neither work nor studies, but they have not been enough.
The diagnoses on the development conditions of the youth show a future of uncertainty: reduced alternatives to pursue higher education, scarce or precarious working conditions, but the most worrisome thing is that in these years they have been the protagonists of violence.
The leading cause of death among teenagers is homicide; one third of those who died violently in the country were young people, and three out of ten of those who were sentenced for homicide in the same period also belong to this group.
We cannot forget that in this period femicides of young women increased by 40 percent, according to The Future of Poor Youth in Mexico, a study funded by the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies and conducted by the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology, El Colegio de Michoacán, El Colegio de San Luis and the Mora Institute.
In the analysis of the electoral roll, the first thing that the political parties in dispute have noticed is that they are the most complex group to convince in the electoral contest.
According to this study conducted in Baja California, Mexico City, Chiapas, Estado de México, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Sonora and Veracruz, young people lack effective access to social rights and are victims of different forms of violence, but this does not mean that they are spectators of their own situation, quite the contrary.
"Their participation continues to be extremely relevant for the survival of their households, where they have a significant burden of responsibilities. They accuse that the conditions of their jobs are reprehensible and are willing to perform different types of activities to earn a living, even if they involve risks and lack benefits."
In the face of all this, the three candidacies have not been able to speak directly to the young people, but rather it has been the university students who have put them on the spot in different closed meetings.
The proposals are general and none of them create expectations to build a scenario that allows them to glimpse a future where, for example, education is revalued as social mobility and not only as an alternative to have resources to survive. Education is more than that.
We are in the middle of the electoral process and time is running out to reach young people in a concrete and clear way. Something more is needed to provide certainty and to conquer the scarce vote of young people who are approaching politics; otherwise, the candidacies contribute in this way to alienate them even more.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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