Mexico’s Age of Agreement

Héctor Aguilar Camín and Jorge G. Castañeda, Foreign Affairs, 11/2012

Castañeda

Mexico has long been hostage to unchallengeable traditions: its nationalist approach to oil wealth, overly sensitive attitude toward sovereignty, entrenched labor monopolies, persistent corruption, and self-serving bureaucracy. Acquired over time, these attitudes and practices became cemented in the national soul and embedded in the habits of the government and society, sapping the country’s potential.

The good news is that all of this is rapidly changing, as Mexico leaves behind its hefty psychological baggage. Yes, the last 15 years, a time of too little economic growth and too few reforms, have been frustrating, especially for those who expected the transition to democracy to solve everything. But these years have unveiled a new national consensus: a broad agreement on values that, despite seeming normal for any other modern democracy, did not figure clearly in the Mexican public consciousness until very recently.

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Issue Brief: Mexico’s Fight Against Organized Crime

Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates on behalf of the Enrique Peña Nieto Transition, 11/21/2012

Enrique Peña Nieto

On December 1, 2012 Enrique Peña Nieto will be sworn-in as Mexico’s next president. This is the third in a series of issue briefs covering some of his policy priorities. Each brief will outline the president-elect’s vision for Mexico and proposed policies.

MEXICO WILL CONTINUE ITS FIGHT AGAINST ORGANIZED CRIME 

Mexico’s President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto supports the decision made by President Felipe Calderón to confront the threat of organized crime head-on. As Peña Nieto has stated “the law is not negotiable, it is to be applied.” The president-elect believes that enforcing the law is not an option, but rather an obligation of the Mexican State and its authorities.

Mexico slams “imposition” of consensus rule on U.N. arms treaty negotiations

Fox News Latino, 7/28/2012

The Mexican government criticized Saturday the inconclusive results of the U.N. diplomatic conference seeking to pass an international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), and deplored “the imposition of the consensus rule” as a condition for reaching an agreement.

“The government of Mexico decries the U.N. diplomatic conference postponing the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty,” the foreign ministry said in a communique.

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Mexico lawmakers push to raise 2012 budget deficit

Reuters, 10/20/11

Mexico may post a higher fiscal deficit in 2012 than originally proposed after the finance committee of the country’s lower house voted to change key budget forecasts.

The committee voted late on Wednesday to allow the 2012 budget deficit to reach 0.4 percent of gross domestic product, from the government’s proposal of 0.2 percent of GDP, excluding investment by state oil monopoly Pemex. Last year’s deficit cap was 0.5 percent.

Lawmakers also backed a lower growth forecast and changed the expected currency exchange rate in 2012 to 12.80 pesos per dollar, from 12.20 per dollar in the proposal from President Felipe Calderon’s government.

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Boeing gets $1-billion order from Mexico for three satellites

The Los Angeles Times, 12/21/2010

After years of cutbacks and shrinking orders, Boeing Co.‘s sprawling satellite-making operation in El Segundo got a major lift Monday with a $1-billion contract for three satellites for the Mexican government.

The deal, which also includes supplying ground-based communications equipment, was the second big satellite contract for Boeing this year and should help keep the production line humming at a time when the state is facing a 12.4% unemployment rate. The large order could help preserve high-paying engineering jobs in Southern California and throws a lifeline to hundreds of smaller firms that supply parts for the massive satellites.

Each satellite will be about the size of a school bus, take three years to make and cost about $250 million. The Mexican government declined to say exactly how they would be used but said that they would provide its police and military personnel with communications coverage throughout the country — a crucial capability as it continues to wage a bloody battle against local drug cartels.

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Mexican Drug Cartel Leaves Dire Calling Card

Washington Post, 4/22/2009

The bishop has now been warned.

Last week at a news conference, Héctor González Martínez, the Roman Catholic archbishop in the state of Durango, announced what many Mexicans suspect: that “everyone knows” where the country’s most wanted drug lord lives, “except the authorities.”

Events then took a deadly and macabre turn, as they often do in Mexico’s ongoing drug war. On Tuesday, two military officers were found dead near their bullet-riddled Ford Fiesta in the rough country of the Sierra Madre north of Durango, a region known as the Golden Triangle.

The two were found with arms tied and eyes bound with tape. They had been shot multiple times by AK-47 rounds. Nearby was a taunting message that read: “You’ll never get El Chapo — not the priests, not the government.”

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Calderón envisions an anti-crisis agreement (in Spanish)

Reforma, 1/7/2009

A variety of private and public organizations today will sign the National Agreement in Favor of Family Business and Employment. The document will be a compromise, according to the executive branch, between governors, legislators, the federal government, and the private sector on subjects from price stabilization to financial support for businesses. President Calderón will introduce the agreement.

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