On December 23, 2020, the campaign season for Mexico’s 2021 midterm elections officially kicked off with the announcement that the three major opposition parties — the PRI, the PAN, and the PRD — will be joining together in a common front against the ruling party, MORENA. The coalition, Va por México (“Go for Mexico”), will field candidates in eleven of the fifteen gubernatorial races and around 180 of the 300 single-member electoral districts for the Cámara de Diputados (“House of Deputies”) in an attempt to seize a majority in the lower house and bring the program of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) to a standstill.

In response, MORENA launched an ad that was censured by the National Electoral Institute for supposedly violating campaign rules, causing it to go viral on social media. It is worth quoting in full:

For years, the PRI, PAN, and its allies have had a pact that has damaged Mexico. In 1995, they raised IVA [Value-Added Tax] from 10 percent to 15 percent. In 1998, they approved the bailout of their friends’ and bankers’ businesses with FOBAPROA. In 2006, the PRI helped the PAN orchestrate its electoral fraud. In 2012, many members of the PAN called for a vote for Enrique Peña Nieto, including Vicente Fox. Then, the PRI, PAN, and PRD signed the Pact for Mexico and approved the reforms that affected the entire country. In 2017, they approved the new gasoline taxes and the Interior Security Law. In 2018, they did all they could to prevent the change that Mexico needed. Following their defeat, in 2019 and 2020 they have opposed the advance of the “fourth transformation,” and the reforms that guarantee the right to a pension, scholarships, and the elimination of the fuero [immunity from prosecution for officeholders]. Today, the PRI, PAN, and PRD are finally removing the mask and are joining together in a perverse electoral alliance, demonstrating that they are the same and represent the same interests. We will not allow them to once again betray the people. Let’s remove the tumor of corruption.