This article examines the origins, trajectory and limitations of the Mexican students' movement, #YoSoy132 (YS132, I Am [number] 132), that emerged during the 2012 presidential election campaign in opposition to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI, Institutional Revolutionary Party) candidate, Enrique Peña. The movement's electoral engagement led to internal crisis, and demobilisation following the PRI's return to power. After its creation at a private university, the movement became the first nationwide student movement since 1968. It will be argued that the internal tension between democratisation and electoral inclination and engagement did not allow the movement to develop autonomously from the party system nor to organise around its own political agenda.