Public Comment

Mexico’s new president Felipe Calderón took office on Dec. 1. In a televised inauguration, congressmen could be seen fighting for control of the podium where Calderón was to be sworn in—some attempting to block him, others to ensure that he was able to take his oath of office. Calderón and outgoing president Vicente Fox, both members of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), entered through the back door and hastily carried out the oath of office amidst shouting that made it impossible to hear what they were saying. 

Calderón has promised repeatedly that he will fight poverty in Mexico. He announced a cut in the salaries of government officials, including his own. But he failed to mention that his budget cuts include cuts to programs and services that benefit needy sectors of the population. 

A look at some of the personalities who make up the key posts of his administration shows that Calderón’s new cabinet has clear connections to Washington and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Agustín Carstens, Secretary of Treasury, was educated in the United States and held an important position at the IMF. Luis Téllez, Secretary of Communications and Transportation, has a graduate degree from the United States and worked in the administration of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988 to 1994). He is indirectly linked to the Mexican broadcasting company Televisa and is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Javier Lozano Alarcón, Secretary of Labor, is also a member of the PRI. 

Calderón is following the programs implemented during the administration of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. But he doesn’t have the money to carry out the public work projects that Salinas was able to finance through the sale of government-owned corporations. 

Among his first actions in office, Calderón has ordered the public education budget be cut by the equivalent of 1.2 percent (approximately $3.281 to $3.236 billion U.S. dollars)—despite increases in the cost of living, the number of students and the need for school renovation throughout the country. 

Raúl Alejandro Padilla Orozco, PAN Congressman and president of the Mexican House of Representatives Budget Committee, supported the budget cuts to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which is considered to be among the 100 most important universities of the world. This has generated an outcry of protest throughout Mexico. 

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that a reduction in the education budget represents a threat to the social development of Mexico, where poverty has maintained at the same level for two decades. As more social programs are slated to be cut, critics say it’s unclear how Calderón will fulfill his promise to reduce poverty in the country. 

Two cabinet posts may offer a clue as to what to expect from Mexico’s domestic politics and administration of justice. Calderón’s appointment to Secretary of the Interior, Francisco Ramírez Acuña, has been accused of torture and the repression of protests in his term as governor of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Followers of the PRI have called him “arrogant” and uninterested in negotiating. 

Another controversial choice was Eduardo Medina Mora as Secretary of Public Safety. He is a member of El Yunque, an ultraconservative group similar to the U.S. Christian right, who has strong ties to banking interests. Critics worry that the application of justice could be influenced by politics—another lost opportunity, they say, in advancing democracy in Mexico. 

This may explain the new administration’s close involvement in the social conflict in Oaxaca, where leaders of the opposition were arrested while the disputed Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruíz Ortíz remained in power. Oaxaca has been the center of a wave of protests in the past six months that have resulted in at least a dozen deaths, hundreds of injuries, the loss of millions and a profound social crisis. 

The brawls at Calderón’s swearing-in ceremony demonstrated the deep political divisions that exist in Mexico. Though many Mexicans didn’t take Calderón’s “express” inauguration seriously, critics say these divisions could become explosive if the new administration continues in the direction of Calderón’s first steps in office.