Posted on 12/05/2006 8:12:25 AM PST by SmithL
One of the first things Felipe Calderon did after taking the oath of office as Mexico's president was to promise budget cuts, starting with a 10 percent reduction in his own salary and those of his Cabinet members. But that gesture won't buy peace with a leftist opposition that refuses to recognize his legitimacy.
Calderon's principal opponent in last July's presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has vowed to prevent the new president from governing. And so far his refusal to admit defeat in Mexico's closest-ever presidential contest has been supported by many Mexicans and lawmakers in the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), who tried to stop Calderon from being sworn in and forced him to exit hastily from the Chamber of Deputies and deliver his televised inaugural address from a safer location.
Mexico deserves better than this. It has serious problems that can be overcome, if at all, only through multiparty cooperation. Calderon's conservative National Action Party (PAN) lacks a majority in Congress and thus must work with both the leftist PRD and especially the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled all but unopposed for seven decades until its presidential candidate lost to the PAN's Vicente Fox in 2000. Fox did increase aid for poor families and helped many middle-class Mexicans to buy homes. But he flinched from taking on entrenched business, labor and political interests to achieve more fundamental reforms.
Lopez Obrador's bellicose refusal to recognize Calderon's victory -- certified by Mexico's highest electoral tribunal -- bodes ill for the immediate future. He seems determined to make Mexico ungovernable, a prospect that implies increased violence, already seen in the impoverished south, which badly needs a modern infrastructure.
To win popular confidence, Calderon must go beyond modest good-faith gestures and push for wide-reaching reforms, from breaking up monopolies
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
It was the Democrats who started this foolish idea of questioning every election that they lose. Now it's spread to Latin America, and is threatening the stability of the entire democratic world.
It's no wonder that Russia and China look at democracy with such contempt.
Well, he should try the "New Tone" approach. It has worked wonders for Dubya.
6 years later and W still doesn't understand his "new tone" was a signal of weakness. And it does not appear he's capable of learning.
Well it was the Democrats in modern times. It seems to me there was quite a dispute betwixt Jefferson and Burr as well.
Why this guy's head is not on a pike will be one of the great mysteries of our time.
Leftist pukes make life hard for everyone. They are selfish, bitter, and rotten to the core.
Yes, and Bush 41's "Kindler/Gentler" approach was just as weak.
Expect more hispanics crossing the border when civil war breaks out in Mexico.
If Calderon is actually able to govern and implements some effective policies, then Obrador would have less of a chance to get into power. So Obrador would rather plunge Mexico into chaos than allow Calderon to fill out his term. It's a similar strategy to what's going on in Iraq, where schools, wells, roads and other infrastructure that benefits the Iraqi citizens are particular targets for the terrorists; no good can be allowed to come from their opponents, regardless of the cost to anyone.
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