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 Editorials | Environmental | March 2007 
Calderón Praises Wind Power
 Kelly Arthur Garrett - The Herald Mexico
Felipe Calderón visited Oaxaca for the first time as president Thursday, making only a brief and indirect reference to the violent unrest that paralyzed the state capital last year.
The president´s appearance came a week after the family of slain U.S. journalist-activist Brad Will demanded that the Calderón administration investigate the death of their son and some 20 others in Oaxaca during the June- November protests.
It also came a day after the Chamber of Deputies passed a resolution urging the Supreme Court to probe the Oaxaca murders, none of which have been investigated by state authorities.
But the president mostly limited his remarks to the benefits of the new La Venta II wind power plant he had come to inaugurate, and spoke only in general terms toward the end of his speech about the need for reconciliation.
"It´s indispensable that we banish the problems that are aggravating the condition of the people of Oaxaca," the president said at the ceremony in the town of Juchitán. "That we banish corruption, impunity, abuse, hatred and violence."
The Will family has been outspoken in its belief that the state government of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whose ouster was a central demand of the protesters, was responsible for their son´s murder.
Calderón and Ruiz appeared together at the ceremony.
Calderón´s National Action Party (PAN) refused last fall to support an effort in the Senate to use legal procedures to have Ruiz removed from office, though several PAN senators urged him to step down.
Ruiz, who has been accused of rigging the gubernatorial election and repressing his political opponents, enjoys the solid backing of his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Ruiz, who greeted Calderón at the airport with a hug that was not returned, expressed support for the president.
"We Oaxacans back the struggle you are leading against organized crime," he told the president. "We´re with you in the task of building the legislative accords, the economic reforms, the political reforms and the social reforms that the nation needs"
Calderón lauded the La Venta II wind power project as an important step in reducing Mexico´s consumption of fossil fuels. The project, the first of its kind in Mexico (La Venta I was experimental), will provide 13 percent of Oaxaca´s electricity needs, according to the president.
"We need to invest more in efficient energy sources," Calderón said. "We´re going to take advantage of the great potential that this marvelous Isthmus wind gives Mexico."
EL UNIVERSAL staff writer Sergio Javier Jiménez, in Juchitán, Oaxaca, contributed to this report. |
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