On December 1st, 2006, as per Mexican law and custom, Felipe Calderon became the new president of Mexico, scheduled for a six-year term ending in 2006.
The challenges facing President Calderon are enormous. In fact, just getting into the Mexican Congress to take his oath of office was a challenge. Opposition lawmakers, who do not recognize Calderon's victory in the July 2nd presidential election, had attempted to prevent his taking the oath of office in front of Congress, as Mexican law and custom dictate. On November 28th, opposition legislators had rushed the platform at the front of the chamber, in an attempt to physically prevent Calderon's complying with the law. Meanwhile, lawmakers from Calderon's own political party also rushed the dais, to prevent the opposition from controlling it. And there the two groups stayed from November 28th to December 1st, camping out on the platform, each faction afraid that if it left, the other would take full control.
Meanwhile, the EMP (a joint military unit which protects the president - more or less equivalent to our Secret Service) was planning how to get Calderon into the legislative chamber to take his oath. They had several options. Maybe the most bizarre was to infiltrate EMP agents disguised as a drum and bugle corps! But in the end, that wasn't necessary.
What they finally did on December 1st, was simply usher Calderon (and Vicente Fox, whose term just ended) through a back door and into the legislative chamber, near the platform. From there, Calderon and Fox walked through their fellow party members, and made their way to the center of the dais. There, amids catcalls, Calderon took his oath of office and received the presidential sash. Then they all launched into a rendition of the Mexican national anthem. It had all taken less than 5 minutes, and Fox and Calderon left the chamber. The deed had been done.
The rest of the day was a typical Mexican inauguration day, in which Calderon delivered an address at the National Auditorum and reviewed Mexican troops on the parade ground.
Now comes the tough part. Calderon faces a divided electorate, an economy which needs to be much more dynamic, a high poverty level (40-50%) and a rising crime rate. The new president is quite aware of all these problems, in fact he has declared that his three priorities as president are security, poverty and jobs.
Will Calderon be able to deliver? Only time will tell. However, one advantage Calderon has is a good correlation of forces in the Mexican Congress. His PAN party can, in alliance with the PRI party, form a working majority to pass real reform in the Mexican Congress.
As a prosperous Mexico is in the interests of the United States , we Americans should also hope that the new president succeeds. We could begin by asking the Lord to grant Felipe Calderon wisdom, as he will definitely need a lot of it.
Allan Wall (allan39@prodigy.net.mx) recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq and currently resides in Mexico.
