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 Editorials | Issues | September 2007 
Mexico's Leader Stands Tall with Tough Talk
 Sam Enriquez - Los Angeles Times
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 |  | Calderón has a game plan, where Fox ricocheted from one priority to another; one month it was immigration, next month it was fighting the drug war.
- George Grayson |  | |
Mexico City — Mexican President Felipe Calderón often is shown in caricature as a small, blunt-featured man, wearing an oversized general's cap and a field jacket too long for his arms. The image derives from a photo last winter of Calderón launching his military campaign against violent drug traffickers.
Calderón is indeed a short man with big ambitions, and time will tell whether his reach exceeds his grasp. Political opponents today hope to block the delivery of his first state-of-the-union speech in the traditional congressional chambers and force him to address the nation Sunday from somewhere else.
But that is a small obstacle compared to what the conservative president has taken on during his first nine months in office: drug violence, corruption and a tax system that long has been the butt of jokes.
Calderón also has sought compromise with a contentious Mexican Congress and is negotiating a landmark U.S. aid package designed to strengthen security ties between the countries and help rescue Mexico's foundering drug war.
He already has won approval for social-security changes and has sidelined the charismatic leftist he narrowly defeated in last year's presidential election.
In his state-of-the-union address, Calderón is expected to highlight economic growth and expansion of Mexico's public-health system and his ongoing fight against drugs.
While the jury is out on his prospects for fixing Mexico's many troubles, analysts agree that since taking office in December, Calderón has shown himself a far shrewder politician than predecessor Vicente Fox, a fellow member of the National Action Party.
"His style is more discreet, more professional, less concerned with the spotlight and more focused on results," said Gabriel Guerra, a political analyst and former Mexican diplomat. Compared to Fox, he said, the Calderón administration "makes fewer mistakes, fewer gaffes, fewer foot-in-the-mouth outbursts."
Calderón's campaign pitch was a call for order in the face of rising leftist chaos, crime and drug trafficking. It resonated with a silent majority that recoiled at the demonstrations that swept the capital last summer after Calderón's narrow, and disputed, election win over Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
López Obrador inadvertently boosted Calderón after the tight balloting victory by declaring himself Mexico's "legitimate" president, a claim that alienated all but his core supporters. López Obrador remains a leader of Mexico's poor, but with only symbolic authority.
"Certainly Calderón is much more established than when he first took office," said Jorge Chabat, an analyst at the Center for Economic Teaching and Research, a Mexico City think tank. "He has much more control over domestic politics, and he'll probably have even more in the coming year."
Calderón has kept a tight rein over his administration and its message: orderly progress, his way, versus chaos, everybody else's. He has promised growth and new jobs, which the economy has nudged favorably in his direction. His advisers pray for U.S. prosperity to keep it going. Any downturn sends more citizens north.
The joke here is that Fox looked like a president — tall, handsome and engaging — while Calderón acts like one. And although charming in private conversation, Calderón maintains a serious presence at the lectern, a no-nonsense leader who can stand up to drug cartels, political opponents, even the United States.
Even as Calderón seeks $1 billion in U.S. aircraft, spy technology and training to combat drug traffickers, he refuses the role of supplicant. This is not an aid package, Calderón aides say in deep background conversations. Transnational drug gangs, arms smuggling and money laundering are a joint problem, they say, and the U.S. needs to own up.
Some of Calderón's tough talk is strictly for domestic consumption. While Fox was derided for betraying Mexican pride by cozying up to President Bush despite his failure to deliver on promised immigration reform, Calderón , despite his words, has acted as a reliable ally.
Since January, Mexico has tallied a record number of extraditions to U.S. courts, 64, compared to lower annual totals in past years. And unlike Fox, he largely has kept out of the U.S. debate over immigration reform. In a show of independence from U.S. influence, Calderón is repairing diplomatic relations with Cuba and Venezuela.
Calderón's balancing act has translated into a 64 percent approval rating. His support comes despite the one-third of the country that is still convinced fraud played a role in his election.
"Calderón has a game plan, where Fox ricocheted from one priority to another; one month it was immigration, next month it was fighting the drug war," said George Grayson, a professor at the College of William & Mary in Virginia and author of "Mexican Messiah," a book about López Obrador. "Calderón has a limited number of priorities, with fiscal reform at the top of the social agenda and the fight against drug cartels the major enforcement issue."
Calderón has rallied a congressional majority behind a simplified tax plan that will shift some reliance on oil revenues to tax-paying businesses. The bill is expected to be enacted in the fall. A more reliable and broad tax base is seen as essential to improving the lives of Mexicans and keeping more of them from fleeing to the United States.
But, Grayson added, "You move the ball down the field slowly in Mexico. His accomplishments so far don't come close to satisfying Mexico's overwhelming needs."
Cecilia Sanchez and Maria Antonieta Uribe of the Los Angeles Times' Mexico City bureau contributed to this report. |
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