Social Encounter Party (, PES) was a Mexican

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

political party established on the national level in 2014 and dissolved in 2018. It was part of the coalition ''

Juntos Haremos Historia Juntos Haremos Historia () was a Mexican political coalition encompassing the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), Labor Party (Mexico), Labor Party (PT), and Social Encounter Party (PES), the latter of which was consequently absorbed into th ...

'' with the

National Regeneration Movement The National Regeneration Movement (), commonly referred to by its syllabic abbreviation Morena (), is a major left-wing political party in Mexico, often described as oscillating between social democracy and populism. As of 2023, it is the la ...

and Mexico's Labor Party for the 2018 Mexican election. It preceded the

Solidarity Encounter Party The Solidarity Encounter Party (, PES) is a state-level List of political parties in Mexico, political party in Mexico. The party president is Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes. It is supposed to be the functional replacement for the Social Encounter ...

, established as its replacement in 2019 and granted national party status in 2020.

History

The Social Encounter Party was founded in 2006 by Dr. Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes, a pastor of a Neo-Pentecostal church that supported

Felipe Calderón Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (; born 18 August 1962) is a Mexican politician and lawyer who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 and 2004. ...

in the 2006 presidential election. It had previously been a "national political grouping", which does not receive public funding. The party made many of its early successes in the state of

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. In 2007, it supported the successful candidacy of

José Guadalupe Osuna Millán José Guadalupe Osuna Millán (born December 10, 1955) is a Mexican economist and politician member of the National Action Party (Mexico), National Action Party (PAN) who served as Governor of Baja California. Life and education Osuna graduat ...

of the PAN, but in 2013, it allied with the PRI in Baja California instead, which led it to elect a state deputy to a district in

Tecate Tecate () is a city in Tecate Municipality, Baja California. It is across the Mexico–United States border, Mexico–US border from Tecate, California. As of 2019, the city had a population of 108,860 inhabitants, while the metropolitan area ha ...

and four council members in

Tijuana Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...

. In July 2014, it obtained federal registry. After doing so, eight of its nine political assemblies were nullified, as bribes were given to attendees. The party was primarily composed of Evangelical Christians, though it has declared itself as "not religious" in character.

2015 Mexican legislative elections

The 2015 legislative elections was the first election where PES participated at a federal level. It managed to obtain eight proportional representation seats in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

as a result of obtaining 3.3 percent of the vote.

2018 Mexican general elections

The

2018 Mexican general election General elections were held in Mexico on 1 July 2018. Voters elected a new president to serve a six-year term, 128 members of the Senate for six years and 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies for three years. It was one of the largest electio ...

was the first general election where the PES participated with a candidate aspiring for the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

, as the party formed a coalition with left-wing

(MORENA) and Labor Party (PT). The parties nominated

Andrés Manuel López Obrador Andrés Manuel López Obrador (; born 13 November 1953), also known by his initials AMLO, is a Mexican former politician, political scientist, public administrator and writer who served as the 65th president of Mexico from 2018 to 2024. He se ...

as their presidential candidate.

Coalition with MORENA

On 24 June 2017, the PT approved to stand for election in 2018 in an electoral alliance with MORENA; however the coalition was not officially registered before the

National Electoral Institute The Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) (Spanish for ''National Electoral Institute'') (formerly Federal Electoral Institute) (, IFE) is an autonomous, public agency responsible for organizing federal elections in Mexico, that is, those relat ...

, the electoral authorities of the country. For MORENA, the alliance was facilitated as a result of

Óscar González Yáñez Óscar González Yáñez (born 6 October 1964) is a Mexican politician from the Labor Party (PT). He served in the Chamber of Deputies during the 59th, 61st and 64th sessions of Congress representing the State of Mexico. He also served as a l ...

, the PT gubernatorial candidate in the State of Mexico, withdrawing from the race and endorsing MORENA candidate

Delfina Gómez Álvarez Delfina Gómez Álvarez (born 15 November 1962) is a Mexican politician affiliated with the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) who has served as the Governor of the State of Mexico since 2023. She previously served as the head of the Sec ...

. At first, there was speculation about the possibility of a front grouping all the leftist parties: MORENA, PRD, PT and Citizens' Movement (MC). However, Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected any kind of agreement due to political differences, especially after the elections in the State of Mexico, when the candidates of the PRD and MC continued with their campaigns refusing to support the candidate of MORENA. At the end of November 2017, the leaders of MORENA and the PES announced that they were in talks to form a possible alliance. In this sense, Hugo Eric Flores said, "We don't negotiate with the PRI, we have two options, go alone or with MORENA."

=Confirmation

= On December 13, the coalition between MORENA, the PT and the PES was formalized under the name ''Juntos Haremos Historia'' (English: Together we will make history). Following the signing of the agreement, Andrés Manuel López Obrador was appointed as a pre-candidate for the three political formations. It was a partial coalition that promoted López Obrador as a presidential candidate and, with respect to the legislative elections: MORENA was assigned to choose candidates in 150 federal electoral districts and 32 districts to the Senate; PT was assigned to choose 75 deputies and 16 senators, and the PES was assigned to choose 75 deputies and 16 senators. The alliance has received criticism as it was a coalition between two leftist parties (MORENA and the PT) with a formation related to the evangelical right (PES). In response, the national president of MORENA,

Yeidckol Polevnsky Yeidckol Polevnsky Gurwitz (born 25 January 1958 in Mexico City as Citlali Ibáñez Camacho) is a Mexican politician. She was the General Secretary of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) between 2017 and 2020. She was the Party of the ...

, mentioned that her party believes in inclusion, joint work to "rescue Mexico" and that they will continue to defend human rights, while Hugo Eric Flores Cervantes, national president of the PES, mentioned that "the only possibility of real change in our country is the one headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador" and that his party had decided to be "on the right side of history." Results and dissolution The results for the ''Juntos Haremos Historia'' coalition were strong; López Obrador was elected president in a landslide victory, as well as winning five of the nine state governorships (one of them for PES candidate

Cuauhtémoc Blanco Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo (; born 17 January 1973) is a Mexican politician and former professional footballer serving as a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He served as the Governor of Morelos from 2018 to 2024 under the coalition ''Juntos H ...

Morelos Morelos, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos, is a landlocked state located in south-central Mexico. It is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Mun ...

), and the coalition resulted in the election of 55 federal deputies and 7 senators belonging to the party. However, the party failed to attract three percent of the vote in the elections for president, federal deputies, and senators, which under Mexican law prompts the loss of its federal registry and the appointment of a liquidator by the INE to dispose of the national party's assets. The PES and

New Alliance Party The New Alliance Party (NAP) was an American political party formed in New York City in 1979. Its immediate precursor was an umbrella organization known as the Labor Community Alliance for Change, whose member groups included the Coalition of Gr ...

, the other party to lose its registry after the 2018 elections, challenged the results to no avail and on 3 September 2018, the party was dissolved as it had not reached the 3% of the national vote.

Reincarnation in 2020

PES was reborn as the

(''Partido Encuentro Solidario''), using the same initials, and granted preliminary recognition to participate in the

2021 Mexican legislative election Legislative elections were held in Mexico on 6 June 2021. Voters elected 500 deputies (300 in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post and 200 by proportional representation) to sit in the Chamber of Deputies for the 65th Congress. Th ...

on September 2, 2020.

Policy positions

The PES tended to include many strands of

Christian humanist Christian humanism refers to two intellectual movements: the anti-paganizing wing of sixteenth century Renaissance humanism (the scholarly movement and worldview that recovered the classical humanities and ideals of citizenship and human dignity; ...

thought and was generally

socially conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional social structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institu ...

, and Flores has stated that it was a "family" party. The Baja California state party used a stylized

ichthys The ichthys or ichthus (), from the Greek (, 1st cent. AD Koinē Greek pronunciation: , "fish") is, in its modern rendition, a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to ...

in its logo, which was not used by the national organization. The party characterized itself as the "party of the family". It opposed

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

and was responsible for reforms to the Baja California constitution in 2008 that established marriage as "between one man and one woman". In 2015, the PES gubernatorial candidate in the state of

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí, officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí, is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 59 municipalities and is named after its capital city, San Luis Potosí. It ...

compared homosexuality to

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

and

violence Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...

. Likewise, it opposed abortion and pornographic magazines. Other proposals made by the PES included shifting the collection of

value-added tax A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...

to the states instead of the federal government and consolidating it with

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Congressional elections

Chamber of Deputies

Senate elections

References

External links

Social Encounter Party websiteSocial Encounter Party FacebookSocial Encounter Party TwitterSocial Encounter Party YouTubeSocial Encounter Party Google +
{{Authority control 2006 establishments in Mexico 2018 disestablishments in Mexico Christian political parties Conservative parties in Mexico Defunct political parties in Mexico Political parties disestablished in 2018 Political parties established in 2014