Calderon, one year later

Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office a year ago under inauspicious circumstances--emerging with a bare plurality in a bitter three-way race, accused of stealing the election, facing paralysis in the national capital as supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took to the streets.

Today, at least one poll has his approval rating over 60 percent. The apparent seriousness of his war on drug cartels, and his relatively quick response to the catastrophic floods in Tabasco, are winning over many people, it seems. He has five more years to consolidate these gains.

A full six years of good government could get Mexico out of two centuries of malaise and on the road to a real, functioning, prosperous democratic country. Think it can't be done? Spain did it, overcoming an equally bleak legacy that not so long ago, seemed to doom that country to near third-world status.

Read an English report on Calderon's one-year anniversary speech here.

War on drugs

We talk about a war on drugs, but in Mexico the use of the word "war" is no exaggeration. In a Reuters report on U.S. efforts to extradite a drug lord (lady?) known as the Queen of the Pacific, the reporter notes in passing that the war between rival Mexican drug gangs has claimed 2,300 lives this year. You read that right.

Come to think of it, that's not a "war on drugs." More like a "war over drugs."

President Calderon, however, appears to be waging a "war on drugs," putting 25,000 troops into action against the drug gangs, in the evident belief that just waiting for them to kill each other would not really work, tempting though that might be.

I said he "appears to be waging" this war because things in Mexico are not always (not hardly ever) what they seem. I have no reason to doubt Sr. Calderon's integrity, I would hasten to add.

I would only observe that in Mexico, an attempt to crack down on illegal activity has sometimes been little more than an attempt by people in authority to take over that activity and the income to be derived from it.

I recall during my days in El Paso in the 1970s, a new governor in Chihuahua state launched a ballyhooed crackdown on prostitution in Cd. Juarez. The old Mexico hands were laughing about it. Every new governor does this, they said--getting the whorehouses on board, plugged into their power structure, paying the proper portion of proceeds.

Of course, that was the bad old days of the PRI's one-party control. One hopes that Calderon is what he appears to be.

Cathedral controversy simmers down

The Federal District government and the Catholic archdiocese held closed-door talks aimed at reaching an accord on future security measures to prevent any more political incidents and intrusions into the religious precincts. W Radio has details.

Church officials seem to feel they have the upper hand in this. They want the government to agree to help track down the people responsible for Sunday's incident.

In other news, President Calderon reasserted his determination to defeat the nation's powerful drug cartels. He was speaking at a medal ceremony for members of the armed forces.

"We Mexicans continue to advance in this war against organized crime, until we see our country freed from the claws of criminals," he said. (my translation)

Read it here.