Calderón Evaluates Last Stage of Electoral Process (Translation)

eluniversal.com.mx ^ | July 10, 2006 | eluniversa.com.mx ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

Calderón Evaluates Last Stage of Electoral Process (Translation)

The virtual winner of the July 2 elections maintained a meeting with his team to analyze the challenge to the election and his defense of the vote before the TEPJF¹

While beginning the planning period of governmental transition, the PAN presidential candidate, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, met with his advisory team to evaluate the last stage of the electoral process.

In a communication, Calderón Hinojosa's press office informed the meeting that through this Monday the PAN candidate has maintained his work team.

It was specified that in that meeting he spoke of the state of efforts to defend against the challenge and [his upcoming] defense of the vote before the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF).

According to the communication, the working group served as a starting point for the articulation of approaches and negotiations which serve the building of a national unity government which the Michoacano² politician has summoned.

Among the collaborators who met with Calderón were Josefina Vázquez Mota³, Juan Camilo Mouriño⁴, Ernesto Cordero⁵, Maximiliano Cortázar⁶, Juan Molinar Horcasitas⁷ and others.

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Translator's Notes:

¹TEPJF is the acronym for the Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación or the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation, which will handle Lopez Obrador's challenge to the election.

²Felipe Calderón is from the Mexican state of Michoacan.

³Josefina Vázquez Mota, former Mexican Social Minister is a high-level functionary in Calderón's presidential campaign.

⁴Juan Camilo Mouriño, 34 years old, is an American-educated economist from Campeche and served as Calderón's principal presidential campaign coordinator. He has worked with Dick Morris and Rob Allyn on Calderón's campaign strategy -- something he only obliquely admits.

⁵Ernesto Cordero, former Engineering Consultant, is Calderón's advisor on energy policy, especially relating to the nationalized Mexican oil company Pemex, for which Calderón's campaign called for direct foreign investment to stimulate production, a move Lopez Obrador opposed.

⁶Maximiliano Cortázar has served as Calderón's press secretary during the campaign.

⁷Dr. Juan Molinar Horcasitas has been a PAN party leader and deputy from San Lázaro in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in Mexico's lower house of Congress. A well-known editorialist and author, he has served on the advisory board of the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

[StJacques]

This was a short article, easy to translate after dinner, but which I thought worth posting for those of you who have been paying attention primarily for the notes I have above, which give you a good look at some of Calderón's team, they are a very interesting, and I would argue -- modern, bunch. More so than the team Vicente Fox brought, although Calderón himself was Secretary of Energy in Fox's administration. As far as the article itself, I treat most of it as public relations, but Calderón is beginning to act like a winner and the press is reporting it that way, which is worth knowing.

But there is something very interesting on the web page of the original article which I translated here. If you look to the right of the page you will see a little "Related Notes" section (Notas Relacionadas). There is nothing but good news for Calderón there. In addition to Spain's already announced congratulations to Calderón, which they clarified to say was not a prejudging of the election results; Guatemala, Honduras, and Great Britain have all called to congratulate him. Javier Solana of the European Union has called with his congratulations. A minor candidate in the election, but well known as a columnist, Victor Gonzales Torres has called upon everyone to support Calderón. And Fidel Herrera, the PRI Governor of Veracruz has recognized Calderón's victory.

To sum all of this up, I see Calderón gaining steam and Lopez Obrador's challenge off center stage right now.

[StJacques]

A Mexican post-election ping for you all. You might want to take a look at who Calderon's aides are from the links I have above.

Nothing new of any great interest, I may not put anything up tomorrow or the next day, but then maybe I will anyway, who knows.

You can track all my translations using the unique keyword -- STJTRANSLATION

[sockmonkey]

To sum all of this up, I see Calderón gaining steam and Lopez Obrador's challenge off center stage right now.

Good News. Thanks for the update, (and please keep us posted).

[Reverend Bob]

I thought you were done translating? Glad to see couldn't stay away. :-)

[wildwood]

used to be that to avoid putting the country through turmoil and possible violence and extreme division, honorable candidates bowed out before that could happen.

i suppose that outcome is in question when one candidate is anointed by God to be king, parading around the world whining about his mistreated his highness butt is being mistreated.

[BunnySlippers]

I think it would be very hard for Obrador to manage to turn this around.

[StJacques]

"I thought you were done translating? Glad to see couldn't stay away." :-)

This one didn't even take 15 minutes. I really wanted to put up the notes, the one on Dick Morris and Rob Allyn helping out is an interesting piece of information in my opinion. Evidently conservatives here in the U.S. took a good look at Lopez Obrador and decided it was better to get off our duffs and get Calderon's campaign going. I'm very pleased about that.

Also, and this is somewhat more difficult to explain for me but very important, the fact that Calderon was the Energy Secretary under Fox, and given that he is keeping Ernesto Cordero, who is urging for reforms of the way Pemex does business, as one of his most important advisors says something very important to me about the kinds of policies Calderon wants to pursue. The Mexican government very badly needs to increase its revenues and that means that they need to expedite the exploitation of their oil reserves, which are most extensive in the offshore regions of the Bay of Campeche and nearby. Calderon has obviously put a premium on this and that makes me hopeful, because Pemex has been nothing but a "jobs factory" and a "honey pot" for corrupt politicians to enrich themselves. I'm very enthused to see what I read about Cordero and Calderon himself with regard to the possible reform of Pemex, one of many Calderon needs to implement.

[mjolnir]

Thanks!

Calderón seems like a serious, competent guy, rather than the celebrity that Fox was.

Maybe the tide of leftism in Latin America has reached its high mark, and Calderón's success will put it down even more.

Good to hear even the Socialists in Spain congratulated him-- that really gives me confidence that it's close to over!

[Reverend Bob]

I hope you're right. I'm still amazed by the number of American "Conservatives" who've been rooting for the leftist over the guy who might actually take some steps in the direction of reform. He may not get far in his reforms, but at least it won't be a step backward.

[StJacques]

". . . I'm still amazed by the number of American "Conservatives" who've been rooting for the leftist over the guy who might actually take some steps in the direction of reform. . . ."

I got into it with them last night and through today.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1662627/posts

It starts about post #17. They know Calderon supports the legalization of immigrants and nothing else matters. Even though you and I know that Lopez Obrador would support the same thing of course, but they don't have him on record on that. And you cannot discuss with them anything about what is happening in Mexico. No, all Mexicans are bad, Calderon wants to legalize the status of illegals here now, therefore they support Lopez Obrador. I showed a pic that Lopez Obrador's people were flying the communist flag. It didn't matter, they don't care about that. Calderon supports legalizing immigrants in this country so he must be the devil. I tried to explain that if Mexico falls apart they will have a bigger immigration problem than they have ever seen. They got mad and told me they don't care about Mexico and we can't talk about it. Calderon supports legalizing immigrants in this country so they're against him. I tried to explain that if they want "voluntary deportation" to succeed then Mexico will have to improve first. No answer.

I think you get the picture.

[CedarDave]

Thanks for being out front with this. I read that thread Sunday and saw FReepers that were totally unreasonable. Because Obrador has not said anything about immigration and Calderon did, Calderon is immediately the bad guy. I understand the politics of what he is doing AND also support immediately strengthening our borders to cut the flow of illegals. But just because he didn't say "stay home" to his people anyone on here who tries to reason with them that the better candidate won is attacked and flamed.

By the way, the drive-by-media has annointed Obrador as the "anti-poverty" candidate which shows the depth of their understanding.

[Dane]

Thank you again Jacques for your translation. Much appreciated.

[StJacques]

". . . I understand the politics of what he is doing AND also support immediately strengthening our borders to cut the flow of illegals. . . ."

So do I Dave, and if you caught up with my final comments on that thread I made clear my support for building the border fence and strengthening laws that punish employers hiring illegals and more. I'm a true Conservative and like all true Conservatives I want the law to work and it obviously is not working now.

There are a number of things that contribute to the complexity of the immigration problem and unfortunately, as is frequently the case with tough issues, one of them is that there are antagonists on both sides who contribute nothing to the debate except to "stir up the bees" and prevent everyone in the middle from sitting down and rationally working out a solution for the benefit of all. There are a number of those here on our board. But the one thing about them that struck me as a revelation of the real hatred for Mexicans that spurs them on is that they refused to consider that improving conditions in Mexico would encourage some of those here illegally to return there. If approached from the standpoint of logic alone that is sheer madness. Why would anyone who wants illegal immigrants from Mexico to return there not listen to evidence and argument of a scenario that will bring about exactly that result? And beyond that, why would they flame the very person who explains to them how that outcome can come about?

The inescapable answer I am confronted with is that they will only accept a solution to the problem of illegal immigrants from Mexico that is predicated upon a recognized hatred of Mexicans as a whole. If the problem is solved without public condemnation of Mexicans they will be most upset.

[StJacques]

This is a special ping to the group keeping an eye on the Mexican post-election controversy.

Some of you may have noticed that ABC News, and some of the cable news networks I presume, are broadcasting Lopez Obrador's claim that he has a videotape showing fraud at a polling place during the election. I only saw this on ABC News, which did not broadcast any response from PAN.

I am working right now and I do not have time to get to this at the moment, but PAN has responded that the video was taken by a PRD election official at a polling place in Guanajuato and that it does not show anything illegal. According to the PAN spokesman the very same official who took the video also signed the document reporting the vote tally for the casilla as a legitimate count.

I'm going to post something later this evening on this. I finish up work around 5:00 p.m. Central and I should be able to translate the PAN response and get it up around 7:00 p.m. Central for all of you to see.

Here is the link just in case you want to look at it:

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/361544.html

Look for something from me this evening.

And as usual, never trust the American MSM to give you the full story.

[BunnySlippers]

Excellent. Thanks for letting us know. I guessed it was a film taken by the PRD before the election ... but the real reason is better. Shame on Obrador!

[nopardons]

bttt