Archive for category Politics

Mexico hosts Green Solutions international sustainability conference

Nov 28

Posted by admin in Energy, Politics | No Comments

carbon credit As Mexico’s year-long presidency of the 16th edition of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP16) drew to a close, ProMéxico hosted the Green Solutions conference and exposition November 23 – 25, 2011 in Mexico City. The event consisted principally of three days of panel discussions on public policy related to climate change, amidst an exposition area featuring innovative products and services aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and overall depletion the world’s natural resources. The first edition of the Green Solutions conference took place during the COP16 international conference held in Cancun one year ago.

The conference provided an excellent opportunity for those involved or interested in climate change mitigation to exchange perspectives on the outlook for greenhouse gas reduction and learn about projects and initiatives taking place in various parts of the world. With the COP17 conference kicking off in Durban, South Africa today, at the forefront of discussion is the question of what will happen once the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012. The agreement currently establishes ostensibly binding greenhouse gas reduction targets for participating developed nations, and key signatories such as Japan, Russia and Canada are showing little enthusiasm for re-upping once the current period concludes. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: carbon credits, Cemex, COP16, Global Sustainability Institute, Green Solutions, Kyoto Protocol, Pemex, Sustainability

Update on Mexico’s 2012 presidential election campaign

Sep 13

Posted by Tom in Politics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Ballot box Some developments meriting commentary took place last week in the preliminary campaigns for next year’s Mexican presidential election. We laid out the general pre-candidacy landscape in this post, for anyone joining us mid-program.

First in the PAN: Since we last wrote on this topic two weeks ago, Josefina Vázquez Mota’s stock has clearly risen. President Felipe Calderón spoke favorably of his former Education Secretary at an event following the official launch of her campaign for the nomination, prompting speculation that he was not averse to an eventual Vázquez Mota candidacy. This was considered to be a signal of some significance, as Calderón’s personal preferred candidate is believed to be Ernesto Cordero. For his part, Cordero wasted no time in grabbing back the spotlight by resigning as Finance Secretary on September 9 in order to formally launch his own drive for the PAN nomination. The top three contenders Vázquez Mota, Cordero and Senator Santiago Creel have stepped up their campaigns in recent days and were further solidified as the front runners when Education Secretary Alonso Lujambio dropped out of the race on August 29. While Jalisco Governor Emilio González Márquez is still talking up his campaign, the rumor mill has him tabbed as the next casualty, possibly following the Panamerican Games to be held in Guadalajara October 14 – 30 [UPDATE: González Márquez officially dropped out of the race on September 22]. The coming weeks should be interesting for PAN-watchers, as the top three pre-candidates make moves to try to build buzz and momentum. [Permalink inexplicably out of order, please go here for the rest of this post] Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Emilio Gonzalez Marquez, Enrique Pena Nieto, Ernesto Cordero, Josefina Vazquez Mota, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican presidential election, Mexico 2012, PAN, PRD, PRI

Mexico’s 2012 presidential election campaign

Aug 23

Posted by Tom in Politics, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Mexican election With less than a year remaining before Mexico’s next presidential election, to be held July 1, 2012, not much is settled other than the front-runnership of the PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto. But the political parties have not yet launched their official campaigns, and there is still plenty of time for the landscape to shift. So from this vantage point, here is our view of the lay of the land.

The six year administration of President Felipe Calderón of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) has been one of the toughest in recent times for Mexico, beginning with a highly disputed election and beset by severe recession, the swine flu crisis, drought, flooding and a drastic increase in violence from warring drug traffickers. With this backdrop, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), still stewing over loss of the presidency to the PAN in 2000 following 70+ years of uninterrupted rule, appears to view its return to power next year as a foregone conclusion. The PRI has not yet formally selected its candidate, but Mr. Peña Nieto, currently Governor of the State of Mexico, is widely expected to be chosen. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Emilio Gonzalez Marquez, Enrique Pena Nieto, Josefina Vazquez Mota, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican presidential election, Mexico 2012, Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional, PAN, PRD, PRI

New teachers union an important step forward

Feb 15

Posted by Tom in Politics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Workin' hard or hardly workin'?

We have long held that the calamitous state of public education in Mexico is perhaps the single greatest impediment to the country’s economic and social progress. The corollary to this belief is that the national teachers’ union, the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, or SNTE, is the strongest obstacle to any genuine effort to improve education in Mexico. Since its formation in 1949, the SNTE served the single-party system as a key cog in the PRI corporatist machine. In the post-2000 multi-party era, the union has functioned as a power-broking lever in the service of its villainous, dictatorial leader, Elba Esther Gordillo. Notoriously corrupt, the SNTE has systematically enriched its leaders while rewarding only fealty to the system among the rank and file. Meanwhile, Mexico has steadily sunk in international assessments of basic education.

Earlier this month, a new teachers’ union independent of the SNTE was granted authorization by the federal government. The new union, called the Sitem, was immediately denounced by the SNTE as a tool of anti-labor political groups seeking to undermine the legitimate aspirations of education workers. Even the fiercely anti-Gordillo dissident current within the SNTE – the CNTE – decried the creation of the new union. Somewhat ironically, however, the leftist political party PRD hailed the emergence of the Sitem. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: education, Elba Esther Gordillo, Sitem, SNTE, union

Marcelo Ebrard awarded World Mayor Prize

Dec 9

Posted by Tom in Politics | 4 Comments

Mexico City's 'green' mayor

The pieces just continue to line up for Marcelo Ebrard. Mexico City’s mayor this week was awarded the World Mayor Prize for 2010 by self-described urban affairs think tank The City Mayors Foundation. According to the organization’s web site, the prize is intended to “honour those who have made long-lasting contributions to their communities and are committed to the well-being of cities nationally and internationally.” The honor, which we suspect did not take Ebrard by surprise, comes directly on the heels of his hosting of the Local and Regional Leaders World Summit 2010 in Mexico City and participation in the 16th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP16) in Cancun.

This latest coup by Mr. Ebrard is yet another click in the ratcheting up of his long-running stealth campaign to run for president of Mexico in 2012, which we commented on in a recent post. That same clicking sound may have been heard again recently with another political development: the selection of Senator Gustavo Madero as the new leader of the ruling National Action Party (PAN). What could a dodgy internal election in the bible-thumpers’ party have to do with the aspirations of Mexico City’s gay-loving, tree-hugging leftist mayor? The answer may be lurking between the lines of Senator Madero’s comments shortly after tying up his bid for PAN leadership. Calling the currently favored PRI’s belief they will win back the presidency in 2012 a ‘wild fantasy’, Madero reiterated his support for anti-PRI electoral alliances with other parties – such as Mr. Ebrard’s PRD. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2012 election, alianzas, AMLO, Marcelo Ebrard, PAN, PRD

Marcelo Ebrard, COP16 and the 2012 presidential election

Nov 22

Posted by Tom in Politics | 1 Comment

Marcelo Ebrard

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard must be feeling pretty large right now. The Local and Regional Leaders World Summit 2010, which Ebrard hosted here in Mexico City, wrapped last week with a pact to reduce urban emissions signed by 138 mayors from around the world. He may now rub his hands with glee for a few days before packing off to the 16th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP16), another international environmental summit to be held in Cancun, Mexico, beginning November 29.

Mr. Ebrard is gearing up for a run at the Mexican presidency in 2012, and his roles in these high profile international events fit perfectly into a subtle presidential campaign he has been implementing in careful steps for years now. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2012 Presidential election, COP16, environment, Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City

Trucking dispute yields new duties

Aug 19

Posted by Tom in Politics, Trade | 1 Comment

No can do

On August 18, 2010, the Mexican government published an updated list of U.S. products on which import duties will be applied, beginning August 19, 2010. The duties were originally introduced in March 2009 in retaliation for the U.S. Congress’ termination of a pilot program allowing Mexican freight trucks to cross the border to complete deliveries in the United States. Cross-border trucking, including the circulation of Mexican trucks in the United States, was intended to be implemented under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but is currently blocked by the United States.

The original list of 89 products affected by the Mexican duties has now been expanded to 99, by the addition of 26 items and removal of 16. The current list includes key agricultural products in addition to processed foods, household goods and personal care items, among others. Import duties under the scheme range from 5% to 25%. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: border, duties, NAFTA trucking dispute, Teamsters, Trade

Gubernatorial elections held in relative peace

Jul 5

Posted by Tom in Politics | 1 Comment

vote for pedro On Sunday, July 4, Mexicans went to the polls to vote in gubernatorial elections in 12 states, as well as numerous mayoral and state legislature elections. Today, headlines are dominated by analysis of gains for the PRI and multiple cases of electoral manipulation. Hallelujah!

In the not-too-distant past, such an outcome on election day would primarily be cause for anger, frustration and concern. But, as a great thinker once said, that was then and this is now. Realistically speaking, many of us feared the elections would be the target of attacks by the drug cartels, particularly in the wake of last week’s murder of the front-running candidate for governor in the border state of Tamaulipas. But when we crawled out of our hiding places this morning, we were greeted mostly with tales of corruption and gangstery old-school politics. Just like the bad old days, which are actually starting to look kind of good by comparison.

The strong showing by the PRI is seen in some quarters as an ominous foreshadowing of return to the single-party domination and strong-arm tactics of yesteryear. Certainly the reports of extreme electoral monkey business in Hidalgo and Veracruz suggest the PRI hasn’t forgotton how to throw a good old fashioned Mexican election. Initial returns, however, indicate that the PRI actually lost the governorships of the states of Oaxaca, Puebla and Sinaloa, which are known for many nice things but seriously people pristine electoral democracy is not one of them. Perhaps most promising, voter turnout in a good number of states was over 50%, according to published figures. Even turnout in Tamaulipas approached 40%, which isn’t bad considering we’re on the verge of changing the state motto to “Hail of gunfire.” So in light of widespread concerns about catching the “bullet flu” at the polls yesterday, on balance Mexicans should be commended for exercising their political rights. Hopefully, the incoming governors, mayors and state legislators will show a similar commitment to democracy. Hopefully.

Tags: Cartels, Election, PRI, Tamaulipas

Great leap forward near for net metering?

Apr 22

Posted by Tom in Energy, Politics | 1 Comment

Be the first on your block

Mexico’s progress in making greater use of renewable energy sources has long been shackled by regulatory restrictions on independent energy generation by private enterprises and citizens. This, of course, has much to do with the histrionics of political sectors that oppose energy reform for reasons wholly unrelated to energy, but that’s another topic. It’s a fundamental problem of, as we say in Mexico, “ni picha, ni cacha, ni deja batear.” The resources of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) are far too stretched to finance a wide range of innovative alternative generation projects, particularly at the micro level, but regulation has largely prevented anyone else from generating electricity, even for their own consumption. Some furtive steps toward modernization of the regulatory framework fortunately have been taken in recent years. One such step, introduced almost surreptitiously in 2007, was the Interconnection Contract for Small-Scale Solar Energy Sources, which permitted private generation of up to 10kw for residential use and 30kw for general low tension use. Although the practical impact of this regulatory innovation was virtually nonexistent, it is significant nonetheless in that it represents Mexico’s first toe-dip in the waters of net metering for private electricity generation. Now, however, the government has taken another important step forward toward clearing the way for wider use of net metering for private electricity generation. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: CFE, Net metering, Renewable energy

Secretary Clinton Visits Mexico

Mar 26

Posted by Tom in Politics, Uncategorized | No Comments

bienvenido-mister-marshall U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travelled to Mexico on March 23 to lead a high-level security team in meetings with top Mexican officials to discuss the country’s war against the drug cartels. The size and level of Clinton’s all-star team at the meetings, which included Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, is an indication of how much attention violence in Mexico is receiving in the Obama administration right now. The March 14 shooting deaths of three people connected to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juárez certainly helped to raise the profile of the situation.

In Mexico, Secretary Clinton’s meeting with President Felipe Calderón and his security team was surely welcomed by some and decried by others. Given the United States’ history of interventions in Mexico both military and political, many in Mexico discard out of hand any cooperation proposed by the neighbor to the north as a subterfuge to cover ill-defined but surely nefarious ulterior designs. While this perception emerged for good reason, we feel that under the current circumstances, the question of intent is now academic. While many political leaders in Mexico look for ways to spin the drug violence for partisan gain, the cartels continue to act with near impunity. With executions and home invasions related to drug trafficking taking place in Atlanta, Phoenix and other U.S. cities, the cartels are now a domestic security threat in the United States, not just someone else’s problem in one of those other countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Cartels, Drug Trafficking, Hillary Clinton, Juarez, Narcos