| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2008 
Today We Have both Freedom and Democratic Institutions: President Calderón
 Presidencia de la República
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| | President Felipe Calderón awards National Youth Prize 2007 | | |
Mexico City - During the National Youth Prize 2007 Award Ceremony, President Felipe Calderón stated that, unlike 40 years ago, when the events of Tlatelolco occurred in 1968, we now have freedom and democratic institutions.
He said that in 1968, a sad chapter in the history of Mexico, there was a lack of freedom and democratic institutions to create an atmosphere of tolerance and plurality.
He pointed out that one way of honoring the young people that lost their lives 40 years ago is to consolidate an atmosphere of plurality, tolerance and mutual respect, without which there can be no democracy. "This involves consolidating the unity of Mexicans and rejecting violence throughout the country," he explained.
In the Central Courtyard of the National Palace, accompanied by Public Education Secretary Josefina Vázquez Mota and the Director General of the Mexican Youth Institute, Isabel Priscila Vera Hernández, President Calderón said that Mexicans today have to make a series of decisions and deal with a great number of problems that have been aggravated over the years, the cost of which must be paid now.
For example, he cited impunity, which was allowed to grow unchecked for decades and which is now creating serious problems of crime and lack of law and order.
“It is necessary, for example, to recover our freedom and safety and make Mexico a safer country, a country of laws and freedoms in which young people can fully develop," he noted.
President Calderón added, “Because we want to leave the youth and young people after you a free country, and one that is free of violence and the crime that is attempting to take over Mexico's future. That is why we are fighting a battle against crime by attacking its operating and financial structures and transforming its police institutions.
He urged young people to join the fight for a safer, addiction-free Mexico.
He pointed out that a few days ago, he submitted a bill to Congress to combine the efforts of local and federal authorities to jointly fight retail drug dealing, a crime that harms our communities and particularly affects the young.
A propos of this, he suggested reforming the Federal Penal Code and the General Health Law in order to clearly establish the sanctions that must be applied to those that supply drugs to our young people and to understand that this is not merely a penal or criminal problem but also a health problem.
He explained that the aim is for the law to distinguish between criminals wishing to poison young people and children and those who are only victims and suffering from an illness, an addiction that must be treated as a health rather than a criminal problem.
That is why the bill seeks to make preventive and rehabilitation treatment compulsory, for anyone possessing drugs, regardless of the penal sanctions that may be applied.
Moreover, he added, “Contrary to what has been said, the aim is not to depenalize drugs or consumption, but to establish objective criteria concerning specific quantities in order to define the crime of drug trafficking in order to eliminate the corruption derived from what has been established in the law today.” |
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