Op Ed: Mexico’s critical, fragile compromises

The Globe and Mail, 11/15/2013

Just about everything except the mouths of politicians seems to the paralyzed in the U.S. political system, especially Congress. Getting one big thing done seems next to impossible.

In Canada, the government can get things through the Commons and Senate, courtesy of its majority in both houses. But negotiate with the opposition parties? Are you crazy?

In Mexico, by contrast, something remarkable and controversial is unfolding. In less than a year, President Enrique Pena Nieto and his party are negotiating with both other parties in Congress on an array of reforms that would leave the legislatures of Canada and the United States breathless.

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Protesting Mexico teachers may decamp in time for president’s ‘cry’

Los Angeles Times, 9/13/2013

Possible good news for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto: A leader of a striking teachers union whose campouts and roadblocks have wreaked havoc on this chaotic capital for weeks suggested Thursday that the group would probably clear out of the historic main square to allow the president to issue the famous “Cry of Independence” there Sunday evening.

Francisco Bravo, the leader of a branch of the striking National Coordinator of Education Workers, or CNTE, said in a radio interview that “all signs indicate that we’re leaving” the massive tent city that the group erected weeks ago in the Zocalo, or central square, according to the news service Milenio.

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Mexico’s left wages campaign to derail Peña Nieto’s agenda

Los Angeles Times, 9/9/2013

In recent weeks, thousands of members of a feisty teachers union have descended upon Mexico City, blocking streets to protest an education reform measure that includes a controversial new scheme for evaluating teachers. Last weekend, they were joined by thousands more people who oppose Peña Nieto’s plan to open the state-owned oil company, a longtime source of national pride, to foreign investment.

The Approval of the Education Reform, Teachers’ protests and NSA Spying of Enrique Peña Nieto – Weekly News Summary: September 6

The Mexico Institute’s “Weekly News Summary,” released every Friday afternoon summarizes the week’s most prominent Mexico headlines published in the English-language press, as well as the most engaging opinion pieces by Mexican columnists.

What the English-language press had to say…

This week the press largely covered the approval of the Education Reform in the midst of the teachers’ protests. Mexico’s Senate overwhelmingly passed a reform of the notoriously dysfunctional public school system early Wednesday, handing President Enrique Pena Nieto an important victory in his push to remake some of his country’s worst-run institutions.

The New York Times noted that despite being considered a major step toward instituting evaluations of public schoolteachers and ending their practice of buying and inheriting their posts, analysts allege violent protests by teachers had led Congress to include provisions in the new legislation that might undermine the overhaul. The pressure resulted in concessions that “diluted key aspects” of the original plan like the provision that mandatory evaluations would remain confidential.

Teachers angry over education reform partially block main approach to Mexico City airport

The Associated Press via The Washington Post, 9/6/2013

Teachers angry over the passage of a national education reform partially blocked the main approach to Mexico City’s airport Thursday, forcing many passengers to leave their cars and rush through the streets on foot to catch flights.

Hundreds of police guarded the airport to prevent the members of a dissident teachers union from blocking other entrances. Airport management advised passengers to take alternate routes to the airport, including the subway.

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Governing Mexico: The suits v the street

The Economist, 9/6/2013

“MEXICAN presidents used to go to Congress on September 1st waving at the people in the streets like Stalin passing through Red Square. Soon they’ll be addressing the nation from a bunker.” So Lorenzo Meyer, a leftist Mexican historian, satirised Enrique Peña Nieto’s first state-of-the-nation address on September 2nd. The president delivered it not to a full house of Congress, as used to be common, nor in the National Palace. Instead—a day later than originally scheduled—he addressed a select audience under a canopy outside his home. From there his televised message was broadcast nationwide.

It must have been galling. In a country that once invested so much power in its leaders it was dubbed “the perfect dictatorship”, September is the month of most presidential pomp. Two weeks after his speech to the nation, Mr Peña is due to deliver the annual “grito”, or cry of independence, from the balcony of the National Palace. But the balcony is boarded up for security, and anyone trying to get there has to trip over the tents and tarpaulins of thousands of striking teachers who are camped in the Zócalo, as the central plaza is called, protesting against Mr Peña’s education reforms.

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Mexican lawmakers pass education overhaul

The Washington Post, 9/5/2013

Lawmakers approved a major overhaul of Mexico’s public education system early Wednesday, giving President Enrique Peña Nieto a crucial victory in his drive to fix some of the country’s most dysfunctional institutions.

Mexican senators voted 102 to 22 for a package of measures that will establish a standardized testing system for evaluating teacher performance and hiring faculty, ending the corrupt practices that allowed union bosses to buy and sell classroom jobs and pad their pockets at the expense of students.

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