Watching Calderon
“I know I am running risks, confronting strong forces,” he said on the presidential jet. “But I think the key to life is to live it intensely.”
He is making many promises as did Fox. And no mention of taxes. We’ll see.
These are bits from the International Herald Tribune today about Calderon’s presidency 100 days after the Dec 1 election that many here consider fraudulent:
“I enjoy my work as president,” he said during an interview aboard his official jet on Friday, his eyes bright behind rimless, technocrat glasses. “With all the problems and tensions, which are enormous, I am fulfilling a personal dream for which I have prepared all my life.”
The new president cracked down on violent protests that were tearing apart the colonial city of Oaxaca.
(Note: the only violence in the city was perpetrated by government thugs who have killed upwards of 20 people. The protests were peaceful.)
He has sent troops and federal agents into several states to combat drug cartels. He also extradited several high-level drug kingpins to the United States.
And this week he took a strong stand in meetings with President George W. Bush, re-establishing Mexico’s historic diplomatic neutrality in the region and firmly criticizing the United States for its immigration policies.
“It is spectacle, basically,” López Obrador said recently. “A media campaign. He is a president of the media. He’s president of the television, of all things to do with media. There is nothing serious.”
Calderon acknowledged the biggest challenges were ahead. He has said he wants to break up Mexico’s many monopolies, duopolies and cartels in various private sectors, from cement-makers to brewers.
He also wants to let private companies compete with the state electricity monopoly and persuade Congress to devote more of the profits from the state oil monopoly to exploration and drilling. Electricity rates are high and the oil monopoly, Pemex, is in trouble because the government continues to use its profits to subsidize the federal budget rather than to modernize the industry.
Calderón also seeks to overhaul the justice system. He wants to purge the local, state and federal police forces of corrupt officers, and train the forces to investigate crimes. And he would like to change the jail system so people are not detained for years before trial.
Asked about international affairs and Mexico’s role in the region, Calderón walked a fine line. He refuses directly to criticize Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan populist who has been using his country’s oil wealth to undermine United States hegemony. Yet he says he is worried about a trend he characterizes as “the very Latin American tendency to go back to authoritarians.”
He also said he admired Fidel Castro’s leadership abilities and praised him for spearheading the Cuban revolution. But he added that he did not agree with the “conditions of political life” under the Marxist government.
Calderón says he believes Mexico can promote democracy, but he has made it clear he will do so on his terms, not as a proxy for the United States. “Mexico has to play a very active role in Latin America,” he said, “a role of equilibrium, cooperation, leadership, specifically in this moment when Latin America is questioning its destiny and where it is going.”
Note: Tempting the gods? If he really tries to introduce all these reforms we will see how intensely he can live it without getting assassinated.
Tags: Mexico, Oaxaca
Zoe
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