Mexico
Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg News
Mexico is the third-largest trading partner of the United States and a majority middle-class country, but one held back by corruption, poverty, red tape and monopolies.
On July 1, 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled the country from 1929 to 2000, was elected president of Mexico. Troubled by a bloody drug war and an economic malaise, voters gave a comfortable victory to Mr. Nieto, sometimes called the Pretty Boy (or Gel Boy because of his styled hair).
Mr. Peña Nieto will succeed Felipe Calderón, who took office in 2006 in a hotly disputed election. Mexico’s presidents are limited to a single six-year term.
Mr. Peña Nieto’s victory was a stunning reversal of fortune for the centrist PRI, which was thought to be crippled after its defeat in the 2000 presidential election ushered in an era of real multiparty democracy here.
Buoyed by a strong machine across several states, by the youthful Mr. Peña Nieto’s capture of the television spotlight and by voters’ unhappiness with the direction of the country, the PRI defeated both the incumbent conservative party and the candidate who nearly beat the conservatives last time.
During the race, cynical commentators joked that it was essentially a battle between the Pretty Boy, the Quinceañera Doll and the Tired Has-Been.
Mr. Peña Nieto’s opponents were Josefina Vázquez Mota, a former education secretary under Mr. Calderón, who is a conservative. She is called the Quinceañera Doll because she is always smiling, but her party — the P.A.N., or National Action Party — has been in charge for 12 years, a time of rising violence and continued corruption.
The other candidate was Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a liberal former mayor of Mexico City who lost the last election in 2006 by 0.6 percentage points. The oldest of the candidates, he is sometimes called the Tired Has-Been.
Mr. Calderón will step down at the end of 2012. After a turbulent first year in office, Mr. Calderón cemented his hold on power, divided the main opposition party and launched a full-scale offensive against drug cartels. The wave of violence that followed consumed his presidency. More than 50,000 Mexicans have been killed since Mr. Calderón dispatched his military to take down the traffickers.
For more on the struggle against Mexican drug traffickers, click here.
Promising a Shift in the Drug War Strategy
During the 2012 presidential campaign, Mr. Peña Nieto promised a major shift in the country’s drug war strategy, placing a higher priority on reducing the violence in Mexico than on using arrests and seizures to block the flow of drugs to the United States.
Mr. Peña Nieto, while vowing to continue to fight drug trafficking, said he intended to eventually withdraw the Mexican Army from the drug fight. He is concerned that it has proved unfit for police work and has contributed to the high death toll.
He did not emphasize stopping drug shipments or capturing drug kingpins. He suggested that while Mexico should continue to work with the United States government against organized crime, it should not “subordinate to the strategies of other countries.”
United States officials were careful not to publicly weigh in on the race or the prospect of a changed strategy, for fear of being accused of meddling. Still, the potential shift, reflecting the thinking of a growing number of crime researchers, has raised concern that the next president could essentially turn a blind eye to the cartels.
Seeking to Recast Relationship With the U.S.
Mr. Peña Nieto met with President Obama in late November, in advance of taking office on Dec. 1. They discussed a range of issues, including negotiations on Mexico’s role in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement being worked out among Asian and Western Hemisphere nations.
Mr. Peña Nieto has made it clear that Mexico’s poor image abroad has slowed its economic growth. His team plans a strong push to “modernize” trade deals, speed up or add new crossings at the border for commerce, court foreign investment to take advantage of vast, newly discovered shale gas fields near the United States border and generate more quality jobs.
A senior Obama administration official said Mr. Peña Nieto’s team made it clear from the start of talks after the July election that it would emphasize economic progress. But, the official said, “there will also clearly be things that we will want to see Mexico do, like accelerate judicial reforms, like being as open and as forward-leaning as possible on reducing human rights abuses when they occur, like ensuring that they do as much as they say they are going to do on corruption issues.”
A Growing Economy; Hosting the G-20 Summit
In 2011, Mexico’s economy grew faster than Brazil’s, and it looks set to outpace its larger Latin rival again in 2012.
Brazil’s slowdown can be attributed partly to debt-burdened consumers and the erosion of industrial production, which is tied to the recent strength of Brazil’s currency, the real. On top of that, slowing global growth, particularly in China, has pushed down prices of the commodities that Brazil exports.
Meanwhile, Mexican factories are exporting record quantities of televisions, cars, computers and appliances, replacing some Chinese imports in the United States and fueling a modest expansion.
Mexico’s strengthening economy underlies the glossy veneer on display as President Calderón hosts the Group of 20 leaders of major industrialized and emerging economies at the luxury beach resort of Los Cabos on June 18 and 19, 2012.
In contrast to the widening crisis in the euro zone, which will be the focus of the talks, Mexico will be able to point to 17 years of macroeconomic stability, low inflation, manageable debt, an open economy and increasing competitiveness. The gross domestic product expanded 3.9 percent in 2011, ahead of Brazil’s growth of 2.7 percent.
And there are encouraging signs for the years ahead. Nissan, Mazda and Honda all announced that they would build new plants in Mexico, and new investments in aerospace and electronics are also on the horizon.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, Mr. Peña Nieto promised a major shift in the country’s drug war strategy, placing a higher priority on reducing the violence in Mexico than on using arrests and seizures to block the flow of drugs to the United States.
Mr. Peña Nieto, while vowing to continue to fight drug trafficking, said he intended to eventually withdraw the Mexican Army from the drug fight. He is concerned that it has proved unfit for police work and has contributed to the high death toll.
He did not emphasize stopping drug shipments or capturing drug kingpins. He suggested that while Mexico should continue to work with the United States government against organized crime, it should not “subordinate to the strategies of other countries.”
United States officials were careful not to publicly weigh in on the race or the prospect of a changed strategy, for fear of being accused of meddling. Still, the potential shift, reflecting the thinking of a growing number of crime researchers, has raised concern that the next president could essentially turn a blind eye to the cartels.
Seeking to Recast Relationship With the U.S.
Mr. Peña Nieto met with President Obama in late November, in advance of taking office on Dec. 1. They discussed a range of issues, including negotiations on Mexico’s role in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement being worked out among Asian and Western Hemisphere nations.
Mr. Peña Nieto has made it clear that Mexico’s poor image abroad has slowed its economic growth. His team plans a strong push to “modernize” trade deals, speed up or add new crossings at the border for commerce, court foreign investment to take advantage of vast, newly discovered shale gas fields near the United States border and generate more quality jobs.
A senior Obama administration official said Mr. Peña Nieto’s team made it clear from the start of talks after the July election that it would emphasize economic progress. But, the official said, “there will also clearly be things that we will want to see Mexico do, like accelerate judicial reforms, like being as open and as forward-leaning as possible on reducing human rights abuses when they occur, like ensuring that they do as much as they say they are going to do on corruption issues.”
A Growing Economy; Hosting the G-20 Summit
In 2011, Mexico’s economy grew faster than Brazil’s, and it looks set to outpace its larger Latin rival again in 2012.
Brazil’s slowdown can be attributed partly to debt-burdened consumers and the erosion of industrial production, which is tied to the recent strength of Brazil’s currency, the real. On top of that, slowing global growth, particularly in China, has pushed down prices of the commodities that Brazil exports.
Meanwhile, Mexican factories are exporting record quantities of televisions, cars, computers and appliances, replacing some Chinese imports in the United States and fueling a modest expansion.
Mexico’s strengthening economy underlies the glossy veneer on display as President Calderón hosts the Group of 20 leaders of major industrialized and emerging economies at the luxury beach resort of Los Cabos on June 18 and 19, 2012.
In contrast to the widening crisis in the euro zone, which will be the focus of the talks, Mexico will be able to point to 17 years of macroeconomic stability, low inflation, manageable debt, an open economy and increasing competitiveness. The gross domestic product expanded 3.9 percent in 2011, ahead of Brazil’s growth of 2.7 percent.
And there are encouraging signs for the years ahead. Nissan, Mazda and Honda all announced that they would build new plants in Mexico, and new investments in aerospace and electronics are also on the horizon.
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