New President of Mexico Vows to Focus on Economy
From The New York Times
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and KARLA ZABLUDOVSK
"This is Mexico's moment," Mr. Peña Nieto declared in his inaugural address before a gathering of domestic and foreign leaders at the national palace,
including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., seated in the front row, while demonstrators kept far from the scene vandalized buildings and clashed
with riot police officers outside.
Mr. Peña Nieto, 46, a lawyer who had been governor of Mexico State, has pledged to work closely with the United States to strengthen security and
economic ties, which he believes would bring Mexico closer to a middle-class society and reduce the kind of drug war violence that has left tens of
thousands dead in the past several years.
He made no promise to dismantle the drug-trafficking organizations, a focus of his immediate predecessor, Felipe Calderón. Instead, he unveiled a
sweeping 13-point agenda focused more on domestic goals for crime prevention that would revise the penal code to attack impunity, give more attention
to victims of violence, lessen poverty and hunger, improve schooling and even build new passenger train lines and expand Internet access.
"We are a nation that is growing at two speeds; some live behind and in poverty and others live in the developing part," he said, alluding to new
manufacturing plants and investments but also grinding poverty that affects half the population.
"There are a great number of Mexicans who live every day worried about the lack of employment and opportunities," he added. "Those conditions also
damage the image of Mexico abroad, and that is the Mexico that must be transformed."
Still, his administration will be watched to see if it is propelling Mexico forward or backward.
Mr. Peña Nieto ushers in a new era for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which ruled Mexico for more than 70 years before the
more conservative National Action Party toppled it in 2000 and again in 2006.
Mr. Peña Nieto and his associates say they represent a new, chastened party bent on promoting efficiency and economic change -- there were no public
inaugural celebrations -- and promising to fight the kind of corruption long associated with it.
"It's a very common misconception to think that the PRI's return to power means the return of something that is already in history," Luis Videgaray,
who led the president's transition team and is now finance minister, said in a recent interview.
"The PRI of today is like any other party: a party that competes in a democracy, that accepts results and understands that only through good
government would it be able to compete again in elections," he said.
But Mr. Peña Nieto hardly begins with a mandate; he won 38 percent of the vote and faces a divided legislature, where his party often blocked
significant changes proposed by Mr. Calderon. He recited the oath of office before Congress amid cheers and jeers, mostly from leftist legislators,
and left the congressional chamber quickly.
Later, outside the national palace, scores of mostly young masked people, shouting anti-PRI slogans, clashed with the police, set fires, threw rocks
and vandalized hotels and stores along several blocks. More than 90 were arrested and several were injured, and Mayor Marcelo Ebrard later blamed
anarchist groups for the trouble.
When Mr. Peña Nieto announced his cabinet on Friday, it was clear that he had relied largely on PRI stalwarts, including five former governors. But he
also placed several foreign-educated technocrats from his inner circle, including Mr. Videgaray, in prominent positions.
Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute in Washington, said Mr. Peña Nieto seemed intent on reaffirming the power of
the state, a hallmark of his party, while also hinting at taking on interest groups. He specifically promised an end to entrenched employment in the
education system, seen as a jab at the powerful teachers' union, which has stymied changes.
"After several years of decentralized government in Mexico, Peña Nieto seems intent on showing that the Mexican state is back and that all of the
interest groups in the country will need to respect his authority," Mr. Selee said. "How significant these efforts are in reality depends on what he
does next, but symbolically Peña Nieto reasserted the power of the presidency after years of what many Mexicans feel has been fragmented and
ineffective government."
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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