Alejandro Tello Cristerna took office as governor of Zacatecas in a ceremony on Monday morning at a convention center in the city of Zacatecas, the state’s capital. A member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Tello Cristerna won a hotly contested election on June 5 with 38 percent of the vote.
Monday’s ceremony did not take place in the statehouse because legislators affiliated with the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) had taken over the building that houses the state legislature to protest the state election authority’s decision to annul their candidate’s victory in the race for mayor of the capital. After Morena’s Soledad Luévano won the June 5 election to become mayor of Zacatecas, the state election authority found that she had violated election regulations by campaigning before the official campaigning process had begun, annulled the result and ordered a new election. Luévano’s supporters say that the ruling is a politically-motivated action by a government agency controlled by the PRI.
In a speech after formally taking office as governor of Zacatecas, Tello Cristerna said that his government will be transparent and austere. He announced specific plans to create a new anti-corruption agency, as well as a special prosecutor for environmental crimes, and general plans for public works that will improve the lives of Zacatecas residents and create 40,000 jobs over the next five years.
Tello Cristerna will serve a five-year term as governor of Zacatecas, and will be eligible for reelection in 2021.