This Thursday, the Organization of American States (OAS) appointed former Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz as head of the Mission that will observe the election on June 2 in Mexico.
This was announced by the general secretary of the regional organization, the Uruguayan Luis Almagro, through a message spread on his social networks.
“I have appointed the former Foreign Minister of Chile Heraldo Muñoz as head of the OAS Electoral Observation Mission in Mexico. I wish success to the OAS team that will observe the 2024 elections in Mexico,” Almagro wrote in his X account.
Heraldo Muñoz, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs during the term of President Michelle Bachelet between 2014 and 2018, will lead what will be the largest Electoral Observation Mission that the OAS has ever sent to a Mexican election.
Until now, the exact date of the arrival of the OAS Electoral Observation Mission to Mexico is unknown, but the presidential candidate of the opposition coalition Xóchitl Gálvez had asked the organization to monitor not only the electoral day but also the previous process.
Muñoz has held senior positions in Chilean diplomacy including representing Chile before the United Nations. She also led the investigation into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
In 2021, the OAS Electoral Observation Mission sent to observe the electoral process on June 6 of that year in Mexico was led by Argentine lawyer Santiago Cantón who expressed his confidence in the INE but who also expressed serious concerns about violence against candidates.
Doctor in international relations from the University of Denver, former chancellor Muñoz is considered one of the leaders of the democratic transition in Chile, participating in the executive committee of the campaign in favor of “NO” during the plebiscite in 1988 that led to the exit of Augusto Pinochet from power.
According to information from the OAS, the Electoral Observation Mission sent to observe the 2018 electoral process in which Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected president included 65 experts and observers and was led by former Dominican president Leonel Fernández.