MEXICO CITY (AP) — More than 8.3 million people in Mexico were pulled out of poverty between 2022 and 2024, according to a report released by Mexico's statistics agency on Wednesday.
It marks a nearly 18% drop in people living in poverty in a country that has long struggled with high levels of economic precarity and unemployment. The number of people living in extreme poverty dropped 23% while those in moderate poverty dropped more than 16%, according to the report by Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). Today, one in three Mexicans still live in poverty.
“This is a photograph” of the country, said Claudia Maldonado, a researcher at INEGI.
While INEGI took over research of poverty rates from a previous government entity, official and independent researchers say the data is comparable.
Manuel Martínez Espinoza, a researcher at Mexico’s National Council of the Humanities, Sciences and Technologies, said the dip can be largely be attributed to two policies championed by former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The Mexican populist, who remained highly popular even after he left office last year, built his political movement on heavy support from poorer and rural-dwelling Mexicans with the promise that he would put the poor first and more equally distribute wealth in the Latin American nation.
Martínez Espinoza said that while the decrease in poverty is likely due to a range of factors in an economy as diverse as Mexico's, López Obrador raising Mexico's minimum wage and instituting a roster of social welfare programs appears to have paid off.
Access to social security, food security and dignified living conditions have all gone up, according to the INEGI report, though gains in other things like access to health services didn't catch up to major losses felt in years past.
Between 2018, the year López Obrador took office, and 2025, Mexico's minimum wage tripled, jumping from 88.40 pesos ($4.75) to 278.80 pesos ($15) a day.
At the same time, López Obrador's government scrapped a host of existing social programs and installed their own, quickly increasing overall social spending to unprecedented heights for senior citizens, unemployed youth, students, farmers and people with disabilities.
The programs have also been criticized as the reforms dramatically shifted who was getting that money, as universal pension benefits also put money in the pockets of Mexico’s wealthiest who didn’t really need the cash injection.
Martínez Espinoza noted that the cash transfers may not be a long-term solution to tackle poverty in Mexico, as poverty could jump once again if such programs end.
“If people stop receiving (the transfers), they could fall back into poverty because there wasn't enough investment in things other than addressing people's most immediate needs,” he said.
FILE - Pedestrians walk on the Zocalo in the Historic Center of Mexico City, Aug. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco, File)
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda’s presidential election was plagued by widespread delays Thursday in addition to a days-long internet shutdown that has been criticized as an anti-democratic tactic in a country where the president has held office since 1986.
Some polling stations remained closed for up to four hours after the scheduled 7 a.m. start time due to “technical challenges," according to the nation's electoral commission, which asked polling officers to use paper registration records to ensure the difficulties did not “disenfranchise any voter.”
President Yoweri Museveni, 81, faces seven other candidates, including Robert Kyagulanyi, a musician-turned-politician best known as Bobi Wine, who is calling for political change.
The East African country of roughly 45 million people has 21.6 million registered voters. Polls are expected to close at 4 p.m. Thursday, according to the electoral commission. Results are constitutionally required to be announced in 48 hours.
Impatient crowds gathered outside polling stations expressing concerns over the delays Thursday morning. Umaru Mutyaba, a polling agent for a parliamentary candidate, said it was “frustrating” to be waiting outside a station in the capital Kampala.
“We can’t be standing here waiting to vote as if we have nothing else to do," he said.
Wine alleged there was electoral fraud occurring, noting that biometric voter identification machines were not working at polling places and claiming there was “ballot stuffing.”
“Our leaders, including Deputy President for Western Region, arrested. Many of our polling agents and supervisors abducted, and others chased off polling stations,” Wine wrote in a post on social media platform X.
Museveni told journalists he was notfied biometric machines were inoperable at some stations and he supported the electoral body's decision to revert to paper registration records. He did not comment on the allegation of fraud.
Ssemujju Nganda, a prominent opposition figure and lawmaker seeking reelection in Kira municipality, told The Associated Press he had been waiting in line to vote for three hours.
Nganda also noted biometric machines were malfunctioning, in addition to the late arrival of balloting materials, and predicted the delays likely would lead to apathy and low turnout in urban areas where the opposition has substantial support.
"It’s going to be chaos,” he said Thursday morning.
Nicholas Sengoba, an independent analyst and newspaper columnist, said delays to the start of voting in urban, opposition areas favored the ruling party.
Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.
Museveni has served the third-longest term of any African leader and is seeking to extend his rule into a fifth decade. Some critics say removing him through elections remains difficult, but the aging president’s authority has become increasingly dependent on the military led by his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
Museveni and Wine are reprising their rivalry from the previous election in 2021, when Wine appealed to mostly young people in urban areas. With voter turnout of 59%, Wine secured 35% of the ballots against Museveni’s 58%, the president’s smallest vote share since his first electoral campaign three decades ago.
The lead-up to Thursday's election produced concerns about transparency, the possibility of hereditary rule, military interference and opposition strategies to prevent vote tampering at polling stations.
Uganda's internet was shut down Tuesday by the government communications agency, which cited misinformation, electoral fraud and incitement of violence. The shutdown has affected the public and disrupted critical sectors such as banking.
There has been heavy security leading up to voting, including military units deployed on the streets this week.
Amnesty International said security forces are engaging in a “brutal campaign of repression,” citing a Nov. 28 opposition rally in eastern Uganda where the military blocked exits and opened fire on supporters, killing one person.
Museveni urged voters to come out in large numbers during his final rally Tuesday.
“You go and vote, anybody who tries to interfere with your freedom will be crushed. I am telling you this. We are ready to put an end to this indiscipline,” he said.
The national electoral commission chairperson, Simon Byabakama, urged tolerance among Ugandans as they vote.
“Let us keep the peace that we have,” Byabakama said late Wednesday. “Let us be civil. Let us be courteous. Let’s be tolerant. Even if you know that this person does not support (your) candidate, please give him or her room or opportunity to go and exercise his or her constitutional right."
Authorities also suspended the activities of several civic groups during the campaign season. That Group, a prominent media watchdog, closed its office Wednesday after the interior ministry alleged in a letter that the group was involved in activities “prejudicial to the security and laws of Uganda.”
Veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate, remains in prison after he was charged with treason in February 2025.
Uganda opposition presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known as Bobi Wine, right, greets election observers, including former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, at his home in Magere village on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)
Billboards of Uganda President and National Resistance Movement (NRM) presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni are seen in Kampala, Uganda, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Samson Otieno)
Electoral workers deliver ballot boxes to a polling station during presidential election in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Voters are reflected in a police officer's sunglasses as they wait in line after voting failed to start on time due to system failures during presidential election in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Voters wait to cast their ballots during the presidential election in Kampala, Uganda, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
