BajaNews
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Tijuana’s mayoral candidates focus on city issues
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/20/citys-mayoral...
By Sandra Dibble
June 20, 2010
For weeks, they’ve been crossing the city in colorful campaign buses, stopping at open-air markets, waving at passing traffic and debating before
business groups. On July 4, five mayoral candidates will go before Tijuana’s voters, and their choice is likely to be either Carlos Bustamante or
Carlos Torres.
The two men’s styles are a study in contrasts. The soft-spoken Bustamante, 65, an influential businessman whose family has deep roots in the city, is
a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Torres, a former federal congressman, represents a younger and brasher generation, and at
age 34 is already a political veteran with powerful connections in President Felipe Calderón’s National Action Party, or PAN.
Giant billboards at the San Ysidro border crossing call out their names to the thousands of daily commuters whose lives straddle Tijuana and San
Diego. This may be a Mexican municipal election, but many of the campaign’s key issues affect residents and workers of both cities: decreasing
congestion at the ports of entry, promoting economic development and ensuring public safety.
Torres is a law graduate of the Autonomous University of Baja California who has been active in the PAN since he was 13. He served as private
secretary to Calderón during the latter’s presidential campaign. “He’s not committed with any of the controlling groups in the Tijuana PAN, or
controlling economic groups in the city, that gives him a lot of freedom of action,” said Ascan Lutteroth, who heads Tijuana En Positivo, a
nonpartisan group of professionals and businessmen that has been backing Torres.
Bustamante was born in Paradise Valley Hospital in National City. He is fluent in English, attended Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, is a University
of San Diego business graduate and divides his time between Tijuana and his two-bedroom condo in downtown San Diego.
“The family has done a lot for Tijuana, they invested a lot of money,” said Dr. Juan Medrano, a longtime member of the PRI and supporter of
Bustamante. “He’s a good candidate who deserves to win.”
Victor Alejandro Espinosa, a political scientist at Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a Tijuana-based think tank, said the choice may come down to the
public image of each candidate: “I don’t see distinctive proposals,” Espinosa said. “I don’t see a big difference in their issues.”
Independent polls show only Torres and Bustamante have any chance of winning enough votes. Torres has a lead, and his victory would extend the PAN’s
control over Tijuana City Hall for three more years; Baja California’s dominant political force since 1989, the PAN has lost only one of the past
seven Tijuana mayoral contests.
The debates have brought out a range of topics: public transportation, border crossings, tourism, the need for more police stations. On the heels of
two turbulent years of drug-related violence and unprecedented efforts to root out police corruption, public safety is one of the top issues of the
campaign. But Tijuana has also been struggling economically, a topic that has come up frequently during political discussions.
Under PAN rule, Tijuana “has fallen into the worst economic and social depression of its history,” Bustamante charged during a recent debate sponsored
by the influential business group Coparmex.
Although the causes are debatable, Tijuana and the rest of Mexico last year suffered the worst economic decline in decades. Far from Mexico’s dominant
center, the region’s economy is closely linked to California’s. Signs of a turnaround have been showing this year, said Alejandro Diaz-Bautista, an
economist at Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
One way of boosting the economy, both candidates agree, is to bring tourists back.
In an interview from his 18th-floor office overlooking the city, Bustamante said a first step would be to dismantle the SIAVE, the Mexican federal
government’s electronic border inspections for southbound vehicles that he said compound congestion and discourage travel into Mexico. “It’s killing
us,” he said.
Torres has pronounced his support for medical tourism, a campaign by the state of Baja California to portray the region as a more affordable medical
alternative for U.S. residents. Cultural events will be key in his administration, Torres said — a means not only to draw tourism, but as a means for
promoting social welfare.
Interviewed last week inside his campaign bus, Torres said he plans to invest in welfare programs in the 20 most crime-ridden neighborhoods of
Tijuana, a proposal based on a model in Medellin, Colombia.
“This will allow us to create social networks,” he said.
Roy Campos, a political pollster in Mexico City, said the elections in Tijuana and elsewhere in Baja California are generating little national
interest. Instead, many people will be focused across Mexico on 12 gubernatorial races that day, he said.
In Tijuana, Espinosa, the political scientist, said he fears that participation will be low. “I can’t recall any elections that have generated such
little interest,” he said.
With elections looming, Espinosa said, residents are far more focused on another contest: the World Cup.
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tjBill
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaNews
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jun/20/citys-mayoral...
Bustamante said a first step would be to dismantle the SIAVE, the Mexican federal government’s electronic border inspections for southbound vehicles
that he said compound congestion and discourage travel into Mexico. “It’s killing us,” he said.
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Sounds like a good policy. 
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DENNIS
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Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by tjBill
Sounds like a good policy. |
It sure does. Maybe he could get a night job on the other side and try to instill a bit of decency there as well. God knows they can use some.
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