The strange case of candidate Fox and president Hyde [In Spanish]

Letras Libres, 05/2012
Ricardo Cayuela Gally

Vicente Fox

In this article, Cayuela Gally remembers the presidential election of 2000, which became exemplary as the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) delivered concise results on time, the leaving president congratulated the winner and the political class in general behaved up to the standards of a society that sought for change.

Vicente Fox appeared agile and attractive in the eyes of the press. He promised to clean up Los Pinos yet proved to be an leader of great ignorance. During his administration, however, he was able to accomplish two important changes: the creation of the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information (IFAI) and of a climate of respect toward freedom of expression. Finally, Mexicans are aware of how much their politicians spend and how they use public funds.

Unfortunately, those two feats do not compensate the negative balance of his six-year term. Fox committed errors that created an enmity with the Mexican middle class. He also let loose the inner working of the corporate system. He was an unrealistic man who thought that his mere presence would suffice in order to bring the Chiapas rebellion to a halt.

In sum, democracy suffered and became polarized in the 2006 elections. Fox was not impartial but rather became a strong advocate for this political party albeit his personal distance with Felipe Calderón.

Read full article here.

AL DÍA: ¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día: 5/16/12

The Mexico Institute, AL DÍA: News and Analysis from the Mexico Institute, 5/16/12

Each morning, through the Mexico Portal feature, “¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día”, we will bring you an assortment of op-ed pieces from five major Mexican dailies: Reforma, El Universal, La Jornada, Excelsior and Milenio. Enjoy!

Cada día, por la entrada titulada, “¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día”, vamos a traerles un surtido de artículos de opinión de cinco periódicos populares de México: Reforma, El Universal, La Jornada, Excelsior y Milenio. ¡Que lo disfruten!

Op-ed: Immigration and the New Old Me

New America Foundation, 5/16/12

Los Angeles

Despite my family’s rootedness in Southern California, migration has had an inordinate effect on my life. Now that it has come to a virtual halt, how do I see myself? Angeleno, as always.

The news that Mexican immigration to the United States has come to a virtual halt has me thinking about all the ways that will change things. It will affect politics, culture, labor and the nation’s racial climate. And it will also change how we see each other and ourselves as Americans and as Californians, me included.

I’m one of those mythical native Californians you might have read about. I was born near the corner of Sunset and Vermont in Hollywood. My father was born in L.A. and baptized, as was I, at La Placita Church downtown. My mom was born in northern San Diego County and baptized at the San Antonio de Pala mission there. My paternal great-grandfather arrived in the U.S. — Arizona — from Mexico in 1893. My family has been American so long that sometimes I think I should wear one of those buckled Pilgrim hats.

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Carlos Fuentes, Mexican Writer, Dies at 83

The Associated Press / The New York Times, 5/15/12

Author Carlos Fuentes, who played a dominant role in Latin America’s novel-writing boom by delving into the failed ideals of the Mexican revolution, died Tuesday in a Mexico City hospital. He was 83.

Mexico’s National Council for Culture for the Arts confirmed the death of Mexico’s most celebrated novelist. The cause was not immediately known, said the culture official, who was not authorized to speak to the media. Mexican media reported Fuentes died at the Angeles del Pedregal hospital, where he was being treated for heart problems. The loss was immediately mourned worldwide via Twitter and across Mexican airwaves.

A message on President Felipe Calderon’s Twitter account said “I deeply lament the death of our beloved and admired Carlos Fuentes, a universal Mexican writer.” Fuentes himself tweeted only one day, March 19, 2011, his last saying: “There must be something beyond slaughter and barbarism to support the existence of mankind and we must all help search for it.”

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Carlos Fuentes passed away [In Spanish]

Animal Político, 5/15/2012

“Writing is a struggle against silence.” – Carlos Fuentes

Renowned Mexican writer, Carlos Fuentes, passed away this afternoon at the Hospital de Ángeles in Mexico City. He was 83 years old.

According to the first medical reports, the cause of his death was a heart condition. President Felipe Calderón and Consuelo Saizar, head of Conaculta, confirmed the death of the writer through their Twitter accounts.

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Tamaulipas: Attack against El Mañana, the seventh one in 6 years [In Spanish]

Animal Político, 5/12/2012

The attack against the journal El Mañana represents the seventh attack with explosives and firearms against the media in Tamaulipas in the last 6 years. On February 6th, 2006, El Mañana became the first journal to be victim of an attack when armed gunmen entered the journal’s offices where they threw a grenade and fired their arms, leaving a journalist gravely wounded.

Article 19 manifested its concern over this new aggression as it exhibits the ineffectiveness and absolute absence of actions to guarantee freedom of expression in Tamaulipas, where attacks of this magnitude go unpunished. Once again, Article 19 makes a call upon the Mexican state and the government of Tamaulipas to investigate this crime and carry out the necessary actions to guarantee freedom of expression for local journalists.

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AL DÍA: ¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día: 5/15/12

The Mexico Institute, AL DÍA: News and Analysis from the Mexico Institute, 5/15/12

Each morning, through the Mexico Portal feature, “¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día”, we will bring you an assortment of op-ed pieces from five major Mexican dailies: Reforma, El Universal, La Jornada, Excelsior and Milenio. Enjoy!

Cada día, por la entrada titulada, “¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día”, vamos a traerles un surtido de artículos de opinión de cinco periódicos populares de México: Reforma, El Universal, La Jornada, Excelsior y Milenio. ¡Que lo disfruten!

Mexico’s leading presidential candidate is handsome, popular and still a mystery

The Washington Post, 5/14/12

In his campaign for president, Mexico’s handsome front-runner, Enrique Peña Nieto, looks down from towering billboards with a movie-star smile. “Tu me conoces,” he says. You know me. But the fact is, many don’t.

With the July 1 presidential vote only weeks away, Peña Nieto holds a solid double-digit lead in the polls. But Mexican voters and U.S. observers confess that they do not really know what the candidate stands for. Nor are they sure how he would govern Mexico, a vital trade partner for the United States, Mexico’s ally in the fight against drug cartels. “Do people really know him?” asked independent pollster Roy Campos. “No, but they want to get to know him.”

Disparaged by his opponents as a pretty puppet and telegenic con man, the 45-year-old Peña Nieto is a masterful retail politician who, through message discipline and sophisticated marketing, has made himself the new face of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Known as the PRI, the autocratic political machine fell from power in 2000 after running Mexico with a blend of corruption and coercion for 71 years.

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Mexico candidate blames opposition as bodies pile up

Reuters, 5/14/12

The main opposition political party is at the root of the violence engulfing Mexico, ruling party presidential candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota said after one of the worst atrocities in the country’s drug war. Fighting to close a big gap with Enrique Pena Nieto, the front-runner for the July 1 election, Vazquez Mota sharpened her attacks on his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, saying it had made life easy for brutal drug traffickers in Mexico.

Support for her conservative National Action Party (PAN) has been eroded by the rising tide of brutality that has swept across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon sent in the army to fight drug gangs soon after taking office in December 2006. In an interview late on Sunday after 49 decapitated bodies were found on a highway outside the northern city of Monterrey, Vazquez Mota said the origins of Mexico’s violence can be traced to years of neglect or collusion during decades of PRI rule.

“Seven out of 10 murders committed by organized crime happen in states governed by the PRI, which is an unequivocal sign that there has been omission, indifference and complicity that must be proven by the proper authorities,” she told Reuters.

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The Week in Review: 5/14/2012

Katie Putnam, The Mexico Institute’s Elections Guide, 5/14/2012

The PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto appears to hold his lead in the polls after the first presidential debate, and some observers bemoan the lack of interest among young Mexicans in the election and politics more generally.

The first polls after the first presidential debate suggest that the PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto held on to his lead. According to Mitofsky polling firm, Peña Nieto increased his lead slightly by 0.7 percent since May 1 to 38.5 percent. The PAN’s Josefina Vázquez Mota dropped by half a point to 21.4 percent, her lowest in the campaign yet. Andrés Manuel López Obrador rose by almost a percentage point to 19 percent and PANAL candidate Gabriel Quadri reached 1.9 percent, up from 1.1 percent.

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