MEXICO CITY – The three candidates vying for the presidential nomination of the governing National Action Party, or PAN, took part in a debate marked
by a lack of concrete proposals for dealing with Mexico’s biggest problems.
Josefina Vazquez Mota, Ernesto Cordero and Santiago Creel took part in Tuesday night’s debate, which was streamed live on the PAN’s Web site and
carried by two cable television channels.
Vazquez Mota, according to the polls, has a wide lead over Cordero and Creel ahead of the party’s primary election on Sunday.
If a clear winner does not emerge from the primary election, the PAN will hold a runoff on Feb. 19.
The candidates stuck to their scripts, focusing on getting their messages across and spending little time going after rivals’ proposals.
Vazquez Mota, who a poll published by the Mexico City daily Reforma shows drawing 65 percent support among likely primary voters, laid out some
concrete proposals, calling for life prison terms “for politicians who cut deals with organized crime groups.”
She also proposed expanding scholarship programs and reforming the labor code to add 400,000 people annually to the formal labor market.
Vazquez Mota, an economist, businesswoman and politician, is aiming to become Mexico’s first female president.
She became the first woman to head the Social Development Secretariat in 2000 and served as education secretary from 2006 to 2009.
Cordero, a former finance secretary, defended the performance of President Felipe Calderon’s administration and praised it for producing “proven
results in managing the country’s economy.”
Creel, who competed with Calderon for the PAN’s presidential nomination in 2005, said the next president would need to deal with the problem of crime,
arguing that “if there is no security, there is no climate for investment.”
The candidates, however, made no firm policy proposals for dealing with the drug-related violence that has left about 50,000 people dead since
Calderon declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006.
The winner of the PAN’s primary will face Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and former Mexico City
Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is the candidate of a leftist coalition, in the July 1 general elections.
Polls show Peña Nieto drawing the support of about half of likely voters.
The PRI, which governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000, is trying to regain the presidency after two straight losses to the PAN.
Some 80 million Mexicans will be eligible to vote for a new president, 628 legislators and thousands of other officials in the general elections. EFEDavid K - 2-2-2012 at 07:52 PM
IF she is PAN, than she CAN!shari - 2-3-2012 at 09:13 AM
hmmm...cause for reflection before voting for her.
