MEXICO: DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT
Opinion
Washington Post
September 5, 2006
By Enrique Krauze
To get a sense of the danger hovering over Mexican democracy, consider these numbers: In the 681 years between the founding of the Aztec empire in 1325 and the present day, Mexico has lived for 196 years under an indigenous theocracy, 289 years under the absolute monarchy of Spain, 106 years under personal or party dictatorships, 68 years embroiled in civil wars or revolutions, and only 22 years in democracy.
This modest democratic 3 percent of Mexico's history is divided over three periods, far separated in time: 11 years in the second half of the 19th century, 11 months at the beginning of the 20th century, and the past 10 years. In the first two instances, the constitutional order was overturned by military coups.
Scarcely 50 years ago, armed groups of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (known as the PRI, its initials in Spanish) attacked polling stations with pistols and submachine guns, gunning down suspect voters and stealing ballot boxes. Scarcely 20 years ago, the PRI -- which had refined its methods -- prided itself on being a nearly infallible machine. The government and the PRI (symbiotic entities) controlled every step of the elections, from the preparation of voting rolls and the discretionary issuing of voter registration cards to the counting of votes. Many bureaucrats and members of worker and peasant organizations were carted to polling stations where they were instructed to vote in mass for the official candidate chosen by the outgoing president. The voters were given sandwiches and gifts; their leaders were given government posts, sinecures and money. Many times the ballots were marked in advance and stuffed days before the election into "pregnant" ballot boxes; the establishment of secret polling places was common, and some people were registered many times over.
CUBAN TRANSITION MAKES NO WAVES
The Miami Herald
Aug. 31, 2006
One month to the day after Fidel Castro ceded power to his younger brother, Raúl, Cuba appears to be much like a plane on autopilot with no final destination.
There has been no visible indication of political change on the communist-ruled island, no visible increase in rule by Raúl, no apparent change in the machinery of government. There have been no stepped-up challenges by dissidents or increases in the number of rafters fleeing by sea.
Neither has there been any explanation for what caused the man who ruled Cuba for 47 years to undergo intestinal surgery on July 31 and surrender his monopoly on power for the first time.
IN BOLIVIA, NEW SETBACKS TO A LEADER'S LOFTY VISION
The Washington Post
August 31, 2006
BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 30 -- Intensifying labor strife, political infighting and budgetary pressures are threatening to chip away at the domestic support of Bolivian President Evo Morales, who took office in January promising to nationalize the natural gas industry and to achieve social equality for the country's indigenous majority.
During his first months in office, Morales announced a series of sweeping reforms that have helped make him one of the most popular presidents in modern Bolivian history and heightened expectations in a country eager to shed its label as South America's poorest. In May, he donned a hard hat and announced that all foreign energy companies had to surrender operational control to the state's energy company. This month, he celebrated the creation of a newly elected assembly to rewrite the country's constitution, a key demand of indigenous supporters who view Morales, of Aymara Indian heritage, as an advocate.
PROTEST KEEPS FOX FROM GIVING STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH
The New York Times
September 2, 2006
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 1 — Leftist lawmakers who have charged that fraud marred the presidential election in July staged a protest inside Congress that prevented President Vicente Fox from making his final state of the union speech to lawmakers on Friday, ending a tense day of political brinksmanship here.
Federal riot police officers and soldiers with water cannons had sealed off the Mexican Congress with miles of steel fence to protect Mr. Fox from thousands of leftist protesters camped out in the city’s center.
The president had vowed he would give his last state of the union message, despite threats from the leftist candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his followers to stop him.
MANY PANAMANIANS SAY NO TO CANAL UPGRADE
The New York Times
September 3, 2006
Correction Appended
PANAMA — Once the equivalent of a modern, multilane highway, the Panama Canal may be on the verge, say those who run it, of becoming something closer to an old, congested country road.
The increasing number of ships hovering off shore awaiting a chance to cross the isthmus is just one sign of the 92-year-old canal’s status as a bottleneck. On top of that, hundreds of modern superships are too wide to squeeze into the canal’s aging locks at all.
All this would seem to be evidence of the need to modernize the canal. But a government plan to do that, which Panamanians will vote on in a referendum in October, may be in danger of failing because of a host of considerations that say much about this country’s difficult past and challenging present.
The canal means everything to Panamanians, who view it as Saudis might view their oil or Kenyans their wildlife. It is what makes their tiny country stand out on the map and generates a good portion of its outside income.
CARACAS MAYOR LAYS CLAIM TO GOLF LINKS TO HOUSE POOR
The New York Times
September 3, 2006
CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 2 — No place in this country symbolizes the resilience of Venezuela’s moneyed elite more than the Caracas Country Club, a bastion of tropical luxury from the 1920’s, conceived in part for foreign oilmen and designed by American landscape architects who invoked the feeling of a vast coffee plantation.
So imagine the reactions in Caracas, a city choked by shantytowns and traffic congestion, when the mayor ordered the “forced acquisition” this week of the club’s 18-hole golf course, and another exclusive course near the United States Embassy, to make way for homes for as many as 11,500 poor families.
“We’ve done studies that show that 20 families survive for a week on what’s needed to maintain each square meter of grass on a golf course,” said Juan Barreto, the mayor and a close ally of President Hugo Chávez. “Their use is private and benefits certain sectors which are not the middle class or the poor.”
COLOMBIAN WARLORD'S BODY FOUND IN GRAVE
The Miami Herald
Sep. 04, 2006
BOGOTA, Colombia - Carlos Castano, a founder of Colombia's brutal far-right militias, has died, officials confirmed Monday. He was 39.
Mario Iguaran, Colombia's chief federal prosecutor, said that a skeleton unearthed from a shallow grave was that of Castano, who had muscled his way to the top of a shadowy, drug-financed underworld to become one of the nation's most powerful and feared men.
"The federal prosecution has the full identification that this is Castano," he said, pointing to a 99.99 percent match between Castano's DNA and that of the skeleton.
A militia gunman who confessed to killing Castano in April 2004 led investigators on Friday to a shallow grave where he said he had buried the warlord.
CASTRO SAYS WORST IS BEHIND HIM, BUT HE STILL
FACES A 'PROLONGED' RECOVERY
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
Cuban leader Fidel Castro says the worst of his health crisis is behind him, although he lost 41 pounds in the 34 days since he fell ill and still faces a ''prolonged'' recovery.
''It can be affirmed that the most critical moment has been left behind,'' Castro said in a statement published in today's issue of the Cuban Communist Party's Granma newspaper. ``Today, I recover at a satisfactory pace.''
Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother Raúl on July 31, saying he had surgery for an unspecified intestinal illness that caused sustained bleeding. The state of his health has been reserved as a state secret, fueling rumors that he suffers from a variety of diseases, including cancer.
In his statement, he asked for the Cuban people not to blame anyone for the secrecy that he asked government leaders to observe.
CALDERON BECOMES MEXICAN PRESIDENT-ELECT
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Felipe Calderon became president-elect of Mexico on Tuesday, two months after disputed elections, when the nation's top electoral court voted unanimously to reject allegations of fraud and certify his narrow victory.
His leftist rival, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, had said he would not recognize the ruling. His supporters wept as the decision was announced and the courthouse shook as protesters set off fireworks outside.
"Felipe Calderon didn't win. Fraud won," opposition supporter Francisca Ojeda said, screaming to be heard over protesters throwing trash at the court and screaming "Fraud! Fraud!"
The court found no evidence of systematic fraud, although it threw out some polling place results for mathematical errors, irregularities, and other problems that trimmed Calderon's 240,000-vote advantage to 233,831 votes out of 41.6 million cast.
A FINAL RULING
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
MEXICO CITY - (AP) -- Mexico at last will have a final decision today on its disputed July 2 presidential race, with the nation's top electoral court expected to declare ruling party candidate Felipe Calderón president-elect.
But the long-awaited ruling by the Federal Electoral Tribunal -- which comes two months, three days, and tens of thousands of pages of legal challenges after voters cast their ballots -- is unlikely to end potentially explosive uncertainty gripping the country.
Most court rulings so far have favored Calderón, who has a 240,000-vote advantage over leftist rival Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
''We are very calm, very sure,'' Juan Camilo Mourino, who heads Calderón's transition team, said on Monday. ``Tomorrow, Felipe Calderón will be president-elect.''
BOLIVIA GOES AFTER HIGH-POWERED FIGURES
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
LA PAZ, Bolivia - For six weeks, Marcela Nogales has been jailed without charge for letting a besieged government make emergency withdrawals from Bolivia's central bank in October 2003 when she was its general manager.
Prosecutors contend Nogales abused her office by releasing money that facilitated a military crackdown whose repercussions - some 60 people shot to death - prompted a president to flee into exile.
But to many Bolivians, the "preventative detention" of this 47-year-old career woman and mother of two preadolescents is a political vendetta of the highest order.
They fear that President Evo Morales' government, in its zeal to redress historic injustices in favor of the indigenous poor majority, is callously trampling on civil liberties, using the courts to silence opponents and move loyalists into key state agencies.
COLOMBIA'S CLASS WARS NOW ON TV
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
BOGOTA - As far as reality TV goes, this one may be too real.
Colombia's Caracol station, seeking to raise the stakes of television's Survivor franchise, is pitting lower-, middle- and upper-class groups against one another in one of its shows.
''This Survivor intends to show that people aren't born, they are made,'' hostess Margarita Rosa de Francisco said when she introduced the show, evoking the notion that life is a meritocracy.
But in a place with a large concentration of wealth in few hands, half the population living below the poverty line and a four-decades-old war between Marxist guerrillas and the government tearing the country asunder, some believe that the show is in bad taste.
''It's difficult to see what values they're promoting with a war between social classes,'' said Omar Rincón, a communications professor and TV critic at the country's largest newspaper, El Tiempo. ``Everything has become a joke. We look at war between social classes and we see it as entertainment.''
13 DRUG LORD'S GIRLFRIEND TELLS HER STORY
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
BOGOTA, Colombia - If history's most notorious drug trafficker was such a low-life, how did he manage to seduce a sophisticated socialite who was a superstar model, actress and TV hostess?
The question has been obsessing Colombians ever since the late Pablo Escobar's former lover surfaced in the United States in July and held up an unflattering mirror to Colombian society by detailing alleged ties between the elite and organized crime.
In an hour-long statement broadcast on Colombia's RCN network, Virginia Vallejo alleged Escobar had ties with various prominent Colombians, including two former presidents. Having already named some names, she is reportedly planning to publish a book next month, and Colombians are excitedly waiting to see who else she'll drag through the dirt.
She also supported allegations that veteran politician Alberto Santofimio had urged Escobar to kill Luis Carlos Galan, a presidential candidate crusading against the drug lords.
LÓPEZ OBRADOR'S SUPPORT DWINDLING
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
MEXICO CITY - In the days after ballot results showed him losing an agonizingly close presidential election, candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador was in fine form, leading the largest rallies Mexico has ever seen and convincing most Mexicans of the need for a recount.
Six weeks later, the Mexican public has largely turned its back on the charismatic leftist, who has been transformed into a marginal figure -- to a degree even within his own party.
If the July 2 election were held now, conservative Felipe Calderón would trounce López Obrador by 24 percentage points, a recent newspaper poll showed.
Some analysts say the former Mexico City mayor has done irreparable harm to his political career by sowing unrest and refusing to accept the constitutional rules for resolving the close election.
TEXT OF "MESSAGE FROM FIDEL TO THE PEOPLE OF CUBA," PUBLISHED SEPT...
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
Text of "Message from Fidel to the people of Cuba," published Sept. 5 in the Cuban daily Granma, translated by The Miami Herald
Dear compatriots:
In recent days, some film images and several photographs were published, which I know much pleased our people.
Some opined, with reason, that I looked a little thin, as the only unfavorable element. I am very glad that they perceived it. This allows me to send you several more recent photos and, at the same time, to inform you that in a few days I lost 41 pounds. I add that very recently [the doctors] removed the last surgical stitch, after 34 days of convalescence.
Not on a single day, even on the most difficult ones since July 26, did I fail to make an effort to rectify the adverse political consequences of such unexpected health problem. The result is that, to my relief, I moved forward on several important issues. I can tell you that the book "One Hundred Hours With Fidel," by [Ignacio] Ramonet -- in which, during the days I was ill, I reviewed in detail every answer I gave -- is practically finished and will be published soon, as I promised you. That did not keep me from strictly performing my duties as a disciplined patient.
CALDERON TO FOCUS ON MEXICO'S POOR
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
MEXICO CITY - President-elect Felipe Calderon, a pro-business lawyer educated at Harvard, has pledged to pursue his predecessor's free-market policies. But a strong challenge from his leftist rival is forcing him to focus more of his conservative party's attention on the millions of Mexico's poor.
Calderon, 44, opposes abortion and the legalization of drugs, and has promised to wield a "firm hand" against crime, a pledge applauded by the business community
He said his policies would be centered on bettering the plight of poor families - the mantra of defeated leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Shortly after the disputed July 2 elections concluded, Calderon - leading by less than 1 percent after an initial vote count - asked those who had supported Lopez Obrador to give him a chance to show that he, too, could provide social policies aimed at lessening poverty and increasing equality.
A lawyer who holds a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University, Calderon is a member of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, founded in 1939 by a group of politicians including his father.
In 2000, the party, with Vicente Fox as its presidential candidate, became the first to end 71 years of single-party, authoritarian rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
BRAZIL SAYS AMAZON DESTRUCTION DECLINING
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The rate of destruction of the Amazon rain forest is slowing, although ranchers, loggers and soybean farmers are illegally removing thousands of square miles of trees each year, the Brazilian government said Tuesday.
The rain forest, as big as Western Europe, lost 6,450 square miles between 2005 and 2006, a decrease of 11 percent from the year before, the environment ministry said citing preliminary figures.
"We are now, once again, seeing a declining trend," Environment Minister Marina Silva told reporters in Brasilia, adding: "We have to combat illegal deforestation."
Silva credited increased law enforcement and stringent environmental regulation for the slowdown. In recent months, the environment ministry and federal police have carried out a series of highly publicized arrests of corrupt environmental protection agency agents accused of falsifying logging certificates to facilitate illegal logging.
The environmental group Greenpeace estimates three-quarters of rain forest logging is illegal, as ranchers ignore regulations requiring landowners to leave 80 percent of forested areas untouched.
MEXICO POLITICAL FUTURE STILL UNCERTAIN
The Miami Herald
Sep. 05, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Protesters still occupy Mexico City streets. The country is still divided along class lines. Two candidates each still claim to be the next president.
A ruling by the Federal Electoral Tribunal on Tuesday ended two months of uncertainty over the winner of the July 2 elections but did little to clear up Mexico's political future.
In a way, it couldn't have. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist who claims fraud robbed him of victory, had already said the court was corrupt and vowed to run his own government from the streets.
The key question is how many supporters Lopez Obrador has left, and how far they are willing to go to defend his cause.
Certainly, his numbers are dwindling. While more than 14.6 million Mexicans voted for the leftist candidate, only a few thousand man the protest camps that line Mexico City's main Zocalo plaza and its elegant Reforma avenue. Many of the protest tents erected two months ago remain empty.
Many of Lopez Obrador's supporters were turned off when protesters barged in on a Mass being celebrated at Mexico City's Cathedral. Others felt he went too far when lawmakers from his party seized Congress and kept President Vicente Fox from delivering his annual state-of-the-nation address.
NINE WEEKS LATER, CALDERÓN NAMED MEXICO LEADER
The Miami Herald
Sep. 06, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Calderón declared Mexican president
Mexico's top electoral tribunal on Tuesday declared conservative Felipe Calderón president-elect of Mexico, more than nine weeks after the disputed July 2 election, but the decision was unlikely to end protests by supporters of Calderón's leftist opponent.
The tribunal's seven judges unanimously rejected claims by Andrés Manuel López Obrador that Calderón's victory was fraudulent, clearing the way for Calderón's inauguration on Dec. 1.
But the court criticized business supporters of Calderón and outgoing President Vicente Fox for actions that the judges said tainted the results, though not enough to merit annulling the elections.
''There is no perfect election. . . . To think otherwise would be a utopia,'' said Judge Alfonsina Navarro Hidalgo. ``As the work of humans, elections are susceptible to the fallibility of mankind.''
CALDERON NAMED MEXICO'S PRESIDENT-ELECT
THE MIAMI HERALD
The Miami Herald
Sep. 06, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Defeated leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rejected a court decision awarding Mexico's presidency to Felipe Calderon, insisting he will never recognize his rival's legitimacy and vowing to create a parallel government from the streets.
Calderon celebrated his long-delayed victory by reaching out to the millions of Mexicans who did not vote for him and calling on his main adversaries, including Lopez Obrador, to help heal the nation's divisions.
Lopez Obrador's supporters threw trash at the headquarters of Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, whose seven magistrates voted unanimously Tuesday to declare Calderon president-elect. The decision rejected Lopez Obrador's allegations of systematic fraud and awarded Calderon the presidency by 233,831 votes - a margin of 0.56 percent. The ruling cannot be appealed.
"I do not recognize someone who tries to act as the chief federal executive without having a legitimate and democratic representation," Lopez Obrador told thousands of supporters in Mexico City's main Zocalo plaza.
"To hell with their institutions," the former Mexico City mayor cried, to raucous applause and chants of "Felipe, the people don't want you!"
ANOTHER LEGAL SETBACK FOR EX-JUNTA CHIEF
The Miami Herald
Sep. 06, 2006
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A federal court judge ruled Tuesday that a presidential pardon of a former junta leader was unconstitutional, the state news agency Telam said.
Judge Norberto Oyarbide's ruling was another legal setback for 81-year-old Jorge Rafael Videla, who is under house arrest as authorities investigate alleged crimes he committed during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship.
Videla led the junta during what human rights groups say was the harshest period of the dictatorship. He retired in 1981 and was succeeded by other junta leaders.
Nine former junta leaders including Videla were convicted and imprisoned in 1985 on charges of abduction, torture and execution, but were pardoned by former President Carlos Menem in 1990.
Nearly 13,000 people are officially listed killed or missing as a result of what prosecutors described as the dictatorship's systematic crackdown on dissent, known as the "Dirty War." Human rights groups say the toll is closer to 30,000.
Legal experts said Videla would appeal the ruling. The case will next go to Argentina's Supreme Court.
CASTRO SAYS HIS RECUPERATION IS GOING WELL BUT WILL BE LONG
The Miami Herald
Sep. 06, 2006
Cuban leader Fidel Castro says the worst of his health crisis is behind him, although he lost 41 pounds in the 34 days since he got sick and still faces a ''prolonged'' recovery.
''It can be affirmed that the most critical moment has been left behind,'' Castro said in a statement published in Tuesday's issue of the Cuban Communist Party newspaper, Granma. ``Today, I recover at a satisfactory pace.''
Saying he recently had his last surgical stitch removed, Castro added that he would be welcoming ''distinguished visitors'' in the coming days -- an apparent reference to next week's Non Aligned Movement summit in Havana.
It was the third statement Castro released since July 31, when he temporarily ceded power to his brother Raúl, saying he suffered an intestinal illness that caused sustained bleeding. The state of his health has been reserved as a state secret, fueling rumors that he suffers from a variety of diseases, including cancer.
Castro's message, and the accompanying photographs published by Granma, did little to dispel the mystery over his ailment, and his chances of a full recovery.
STUDENT PROTEST IN CHILE TURNS VIOLENT
The Miami Herald
Sep. 06, 2006
SANTIAGO, Chile - Student protest turns violent
Hundreds of high school students clashed with police Tuesday for the third time in a month, hurling rocks and erecting barricades to protest what they consider the Chilean government's failure to satisfy their demands for educational reforms.
Police Maj. Victor Cancino said 85 students were arrested and four officers were wounded, none seriously. The detained students were expected to be released after their identities and addresses were checked.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse students who marched in the Maipu suburb of the capital of Santiago, throwing rocks at officers, vandalizing advertisements and garbage cans and blocking several intersections with tires and rocks.
Student leaders have said the protests are part of a strategy to press the government to follow through on promises it made after massive and often violent protests in June that included as many as 700,000 demonstrators.
Those protests ended after President Michelle Bachelet agreed to allocate $200 million to repair school buildings and to improve meals for poor students.
CALDERÓN'S RELIGIOUS ROOTS RARE AMONG MEXICAN PRESIDENTS
The Miami Herald
Sep. 06, 2006
MORELIA, Mexico - The roots of Felipe Calderón's ascent to Mexico's presidency lie in one of the darkest periods of the country's history, when the public expression of religion was banned, Roman Catholic churches and chapels were closed and priests were forbidden to wear clerical garb or voice opinions on public affairs.
Calderón's father was among the many who took up arms in defense of the church, and it was that sense of persecution that led him in 1939 to join with other conservative Catholics to found the National Action Party, or PAN in its Spanish initials, the party whose banner Calderón appears to have carried to victory.
Calderón, 43, will be the first Mexican president whose life is steeped in the brand of conservative Catholicism that gave rise to the Cristero guerrilla movement, which fought against the anti-clerical policies of Mexico's ruling generals from 1926 to 1929.
How that will affect church-state relations in Mexico, which until the 1990s had some of the toughest laws separating church and state in the world, is unknown. Most Mexicans profess to be Catholics, but comments on public affairs by church leaders are viewed as controversial. Until 1992, priests couldn't vote and the church couldn't own property.
AT LAST, A VICTOR IN MEXICO
The Christian Science Monitor
September 06, 2006
MEXICO CITY – After two months sifting through allegations of fraud and recounting ballots in a process that echoed the US election in 2000, Tuesday Mexico's top electoral court certified conservative Felipe Calderón as the nation's new president. The decision cannot be appealed.
While the postelectoral saga has come to a close, there is no storybook ending to Mexico's closest presidential race in history.
The challenges for Mr. Calderón, a bespectacled lawyer who has been called a bookworm, remain formidable. Some say his political savvy and a shift in the congressional balance of power might make it easier to push through the energy, labor, and fiscal reforms that eluded President Vicente Fox. But his skills at negotiation and patience, as he seeks to unify a deeply divided country, will be fully tested.
Unlike Al Gore in 2000, Mexico's runner-up Andrés Manuel López Obrador (aka AMLO) has refused to concede defeat. The populist leader - who has slept in a tent with his followers in the middle of Mexico City for more than a month - has vowed to set up a "parallel" government and says that Mexico needs a "revolution."
ELECTION RULING IN MEXICO GOES TO CONSERVATIVE
The New York Times
September 6, 2006
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 5 — Felipe Calderón, a conservative from President Vicente Fox’s party, was declared Mexico’s next president on Tuesday by the nation’s highest electoral court, officially ending a bitterly contested election that has polarized the country.
Though the decision settled legal challenges to the most contentious election in Mexican history, it did not put an end to the political crisis that has gripped the country since voters went to the polls here on July 2. Mr. Calderón’s first challenge as president will be to defuse the anger of leftists who believe the election was fraudulent.
It will not be easy. The losing candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former mayor of Mexico City, refused to recognize Mr. Calderón’s victory. He has threatened to continue a campaign of mass protests and civil disobedience to thwart the new president’s ability to govern.
FELIPE CALDERÓN: A POLITICIAN AT BIRTH
The New York Times
September 6, 2006
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 5 — It was more than 30 years ago that a seventh-grade history teacher in Morelia, a quaint colonial city in central Mexico, went around the room surveying the career plans of his 12-year-old pupils.
There were future doctors, lawyers and teachers in the room; no surprise, as this was the city’s leading school. But one boy — chubby, serious, with a wild mane of hair — announced that day that he wanted to be president of Mexico.
Alma Delia Álvarez Zamudio, a classmate who became a teacher, remembers the moment well. “We all said normal jobs but Felipe surprised us all,” she recalled. “He said it like he knew it was going to happen. He said, ‘presidente de la república.’ ”
As of Tuesday, Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, 44, was on his way to becoming just that, one of Mexico’s youngest presidents.
MEXICAN COURT DECLARES CALDERÓN PRESIDENT-ELECT
The Washington Post
September 6, 2006
MEXICO CITY, Sept. 5 -- Felipe Calderón, a former energy minister and onetime long-shot candidate, was unanimously declared president-elect of Mexico on Tuesday in a court decision that capped a two-month legal battle but did not end the nation's political crisis.
Calderón's opponent, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, refused to recognize the decision. During a fiery address before thousands of supporters in Mexico City's downtown square, the Zocalo, he mocked Calderón as an "illegitimate president" and pledged to create an "alternate government" to "refound the Republic and reestablish constitutional order" before the Dec. 1 presidential inauguration.
Speaking moments later, Calderón called for conciliation, saying, "Mexicans can think differently, but we are not enemies." He declared that "the electoral process is over and the hour has arrived for unity." The dueling speeches were tracked minutely by Mexicans both puzzled and fascinated by the prospect of two men simultaneously claiming to lead the nation.
"We are entering into uncharted territory," said Rafael Fernández de Castro, a political analyst in Mexico City. "Calderón is going to have to demonstrate what he's made of."
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