Mexico: The election that ended one‑party rule
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In July 2000 an historic election in Mexico saw a change of government for the first time in 71 years.
Vicente Fox of the National Action Party was elected president, defeating the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which had held power since 1929.
Marketing strategist Francisco Ortiz worked on the Fox campaign. He speaks to Helen Ledwick about an election many thought impossible.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.
(Photo: A Fox supporter wears a Fox mask during election celebrations. Credit: Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.2 | Things just swirling around my head. |
| 0:09.6 | Am I really the product of this? |
| 0:12.1 | Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests. |
| 0:17.0 | Little did I know what more was to come. |
| 0:19.5 | I'm Jenny Clemen, and in the new series of The Gift, we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database. They did know that I was different. You had kids together. Yeah. Then you met. Then we met. The Gift. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:43.3 | Hello, welcome to witness history from the BBC World Service with me, Helen Ledwick. |
| 0:48.1 | We're the podcast that takes you back to a moment in history by speaking to those who were there. |
| 0:53.7 | Episodes are just nine minutes long and they come out every weekday. |
| 0:56.9 | So if that sounds like your kind of thing, then hit subscribe and don't forget to turn |
| 1:01.2 | your push notifications on. |
| 1:03.5 | I'm taking you back to the year 2000 for a pivotal moment in Mexico's history, a presidential |
| 1:10.4 | election that saw a change of government |
| 1:12.3 | for the first time in 71 years. 10pm on the 2nd of July, Election Day. And in Mexico City, |
| 1:21.5 | the main opposition candidate Vicente Fox is at party headquarters with his team. They've been |
| 1:26.8 | camped out in what they call the war room, |
| 1:29.3 | monitoring the results as they come in, TV screens, phones, faxes. |
| 1:32.9 | They've even hired their own satellite feed, |
| 1:35.4 | so they don't have to rely on official channels. |
| 1:38.5 | And then... |
| 1:39.8 | It happens. |
| 1:42.5 | So before we had the official results, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 17 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.