Felipe Calderón | |
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56th President of Mexico | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office December 1, 2006 |
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Preceded by | Vicente Fox |
Secretary of Energy | |
In office September 2003 – June 1, 2004 |
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President | Vicente Fox |
Preceded by | Ernesto Martens |
Succeeded by | Fernando Elizondo Barragán |
Leader of the National Action Party | |
In office 1996–1999 |
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Preceded by | Carlos Castillo Peraza |
Succeeded by | Luis Felipe Bravo Mena |
Personal details | |
Born | August 18, 1962 [1] Morelia, Mexico |
Political party | National Action Party |
Spouse(s) | Margarita Zavala |
Residence | Los Pinos (Official) |
Alma mater | Free School of Law Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology Harvard University |
Religion | Roman Catholicism[2] |
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (Spanish pronunciation: [feˈlipe kaldeˈɾon] ( listen); born August 18, 1962) is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012. He is a member of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), one of the three major Mexican political parties.
He served in the cabinet of the previous administration before resigning to run for the Presidency and eventually securing his party's nomination. The Federal Electoral Institute's official electoral results giving Felipe Calderón the largest vote total and the presidency were contested by Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Calderon's victory was confirmed on September 5, 2006 by the Federal Electoral Tribunal.
Prior to the presidency, Calderón served as National President of the party, Federal Deputy, and Secretary of Energy in Vicente Fox's cabinet. In addition, Felipe Calderón is the president who has created the most universities (96) in the history of Mexico.[3][4] He is also the only president in history that has granted full coverage and a secure spot in elementary schools to children from 6 to 11 years old.[5] The Office of Social Aid for Victims of Violence, (in Spanish: Procuraduría Social para Víctimas de la Violencia) was created by him in 2011.[6] During Calderón's administration, more than 1,000 hospitals have been created, and more than 2,000 have been reconstructed and amplified.[7] During Vicente Fox's administration, only 40 million people had access to a public health care system.[8] Currently, more than 100 million Mexicans have access to their country's health care system due to Calderón's effort on implementing a universal health care system.[9] Moreover, Calderón has created more than 16,500 kilometers of interstate highways.[10] Calderón also dispatched military forces all over Mexico since the beginning of his presidency to put down the drug cartels and the increasing violence generated by the criminal organizations, who fight with rival groups for territory.[11]
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Felipe Calderón was born in Michoacán. He is the youngest of five brothers and son of Carmen Hinojosa Calderón and the late Luis Calderón Vega.
His father was a co-founder of the National Action Party and an important political figure. He occupied state posts and served a term as federal deputy. Calderón spent most of his life working within the party and spent most of his free time promoting the PAN. The young Calderon was active in his father's campaigns. As a boy he distributed party pamphlets and flyers, rode PAN campaign vehicles and chanted slogans at rallies.[12]
After growing up in Morelia, Calderón moved to Mexico City, where he received a bachelor's degree in law from the Escuela Libre de Derecho. Later, he received a master's degree in economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and a Master of Public Administration in 2000 from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[13]
Following his father's example, he joined the PAN. His father had quit in 1981.
It was in the National Action Party where Calderón met his wife, Margarita Zavala, who served in Congress as a federal deputy. They have three children, María, Luis Felipe and Juan Pablo.
Calderón was president of the PAN's youth movement in his early twenties.
He was a local representative in the Legislative Assembly and, on two different occasions, in the federal Chamber of Deputies. He ran for the governorship of Michoacán in 1995 and served as national president of the PAN from 1996 to 1999. During his tenure, his party maintained control of 14 state capitals, but also faced a reduced presence in the federal Chamber of Deputies.
Soon after Vicente Fox took office as president, Calderón was appointed director of Banobras, a state-owned development bank. He was accused by political opponents of committing abuse, disputing use of certain legal procedures[14] to finance property valued between three and five million Mexican Pesos (between US$300,000 and $500,000),[15][16] however once political objections arose, he used other means to formalize his transaction.[15]
He joined the presidential cabinet as Secretary of Energy, replacing Ernesto Martens. He left the post in May 2004 in protest of Vicente Fox's criticism of his presidential ambitions while supporting those of Santiago Creel.
Members of his party chose him as the PAN presidential candidate in a series of three primary elections, he defeated the favored former Secretary of the Interior under President Vicente Fox, and thus the election of Calderón as party candidate surprised many analysts. The PAN pointed to his competitive primary election as a sign of internal democracy. In other major parties, there was one candidate or they eliminated all srong candidates but one. Calderón's campaign gained momentum after the first presidential debate. Subsequent poll numbers put him ahead of López Obrador from March to May; some polls favored him by as much as nine percentage points. This trend in his favor was contained after the second presidential debate when Lopez Obrador decided to start joining the debates. Final poll numbers days ahead of the results indicated that his opponents prior lead had shrunk further; some polls gave López Obrador the lead, while others favored Calderón and still others indicated a technical tie.
Calderon is Roman Catholic,[2] and responded to demands for detailed revelation of his personal positions on abortion that he voted for life. He supports Mexican legislation guaranteeing abortion for rape victims, when pregnancy endangers a woman's life or in cases of severe fetal deformity;[17] has publicly advocated the legalization of small quantities of cocaine and other drugs for addicts who agree to undergo treatment;[18] and has approved a right-to-die law that allows terminally ill patients to refuse invasive treatment or extraordinary efforts to prolong their lives.[19] As for his economic policies, he supports balanced fiscal policies, flat taxes, lower taxes,[20][21][22] and free trade.
During his presidential campaign Calderón stated that the challenge was not between the political left or right, but a choice between the past and the future.[23]
On July 2, 2006, the day of the election, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) announced that the race was too close to call and chose not to make public a large and well-designed exit poll. However, as the preliminary results of the unofficial PREP database made clear the next morning, Felipe Calderón had a small lead of 1.04%.[24]
The IFE called the candidates to abstain from pronouncing themselves as winner, president-elect, or president. Both candidates disobeyed this call. First López Obrador declared that he had won the election, and soon thereafter Calderón proclaimed victory as well, pointing to the initial figures released by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE).[25]
On July 6, 2006, the Federal Electoral Institute announced the official vote count in the 2006 presidential election, resulting in a narrow margin of 0.58% for Calderón over his closest contender, PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. However, López Obrador and his coalition alleged irregularities in a number of polling stations and demanded a national recount. Ultimately, the Federal Electoral Tribunal, in a unanimous vote, declared such recount to be groundless and unfeasible and ordered a recount of those with supportable allegations, or about 9.07% of the 130,477 polling stations.[26]
On September 5, 2006, even when the Federal Electoral Tribunal acknowledged the existence of irregularities in the election, Calderón was, after the change of the votes of two of the magistrates,[27] unanimously declared president-elect by the tribunal with a lead of 233,831 votes, or 0.56%, over López Obrador. The electoral court concluded that minor irregularities were insufficient without proof, and they were not enough to invalidate the election. The ruling was mandatory, final, and could not be appealed.[28]
On December 1, 2006 despite the PRD's plans to prevent Calderón from taking office, the inauguration in front of Congress was able to proceed. Hours before Calderón's arrival, lawmakers from the PRD and PAN parties began a brawl,[29] where several representatives threw punches and pushed, while others shouted at each other. PRD representatives shouted "Fuera Fox" ("out with President Fox") and blew whistles, while PAN representatives responded back with "Mexico, Mexico." Minutes before Calderón and Fox walked into Congress, the president of the Chamber of Deputies announced legal quorum, thus enabling Calderón to legally take the oath of office. At 9:45 am CST, all Mexican media cut to the official national broadcast, where commentators discussed the situation, and showed scenes inside the Palace of the Chamber of Deputies, Palacio de San Lázaro. At 9:50 am CST, Calderón entered the chamber through the back door of the palace and approached the podium, where he took the oath as required by the Constitution.[30] After the anthem, opposition continued to yell in Spanish "Felipe will fall." PAN representatives shouted back, "Sí se pudo" (Yes it was possible to do).[31][32] At 10:00 am CST, the official broadcast ended, and most stations resumed their programming.
As the inaugural ceremony was transpiring in Congress, López Obrador led a rally of supporters in the Zócalo. Many supporters marched down Reforma Avenue toward the Auditorio Nacional, where Calderón would address an audience of supporters after his inauguration. The rally was stopped by a wall erected by the Federal Police.[33][34]
Presidential styles of Felipe Calderón |
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Reference style | Su Excelencia Señor Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos "His Excellency Mr. President of the United Mexican States" |
Spoken style | Presidente de Mexico "President of Mexico" |
Alternative style | Señor Presidente "Mr. President" |
The Mexican Constitution states that the President must be inaugurated by taking the oath of office before Congress in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. The PRD opposition had threatened to not allow Calderón to take the oath of office and be inaugurated as president. Ahead of claims that the PRD would disrupt the precedings, the PAN took control of Congress's main floor three days before the inauguration was scheduled.
On November 30, 2006,[35] outgoing President Vicente Fox Quesada and still President-Elect Felipe Calderón Hinojosa stood side by side on national television as Fox turned over the presidential band to a cadet, who handed it to Calderón. Afterwards, Fox read a short speech indicating that he had concluded his mandate by receiving the flag "that had accompanied him during the last six years which he had devoted himself completely to the service of Mexico and had the utmost honor of being the president of the republic".[36] Calderón then made a speech to the Mexican public indicating that he would still attend the inauguration ceremony at the Chamber of Deputies. He made a call to unity.
Calderon is serving the 36th persidential term since the last mexican emperor.
It is expected that Calderón will continue with the foreign policy started during Fox's term,[37] known as the Castañeda Doctrine, in abandonment of the Estrada Doctrine. He has been expected to mediate with 'free market' Latin American countries.[38]
Calderón has been a proponent of the Meso-American Mesoamerican Integration and Development Project which is merged with another funding and infrastructure project, the Puebla-Panama Plan (PPP),[39] started during the Fox administration. Calderón has expanded the PPP, now including Colombia,[40] and an agreement of cooperation against organized crime.[41] Jorge G. Castañeda, Secretary of Foreign Affairs during the first half of Fox's administration and proponent of the "Castañeda Doctrine", has suggested that Calderón's leadership and the PPP should be used as a counter-part to Hugo Chávez's leadership of left-wing policies in Latin America.[42] Calderón has stated that "the challenge (of the PPP) is to foster democratic practices with solid foundation in the region".[43]
Another landmark has been the proposed Mérida Initiative, a security cooperation initiative between the United States and the government of Mexico and the countries of Central America, with the aim of combating the threats of drug trafficking and transnational crime.
Felipe Calderón made immigration reform one of his main priorities and in 2008 he and the Mexican Congress passed a bill decriminalizing undocumented immigration into Mexico.[44] He expressed his hopes that something be done to clear up the status of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the US.
Before meeting with President Bush in March 2007, Calderón openly expressed his disapproval of building a wall between the two nations.[45] After the U.S. Senate rejected the Comprehensive immigration bill, President Calderon called the decision a "grave error".
During the first months of government, President Calderón took several actions, such as introducing the Tortilla Price Stabilization Pact and a cap on the salaries of public servants, described politically as "seeking to fulfill a campaign promise to incorporate the agenda of election rival Andrés Manuel López Obrador into his government".[46]
The international price of corn rose dramatically throughout 2006, leading to the inflation of tortilla prices in the first month of Calderón's term. Because tortillas are the main food product consumed by the country's poorest,[47] national concerns over the rising prices immediately generated political pressure on Calderón's administration.
The president opted to use price ceilings on tortillas that protected local consumers of corn.[48] This price control came in the form of the Tortilla Price Stabilization Pact between the government and many of the main tortilla producing companies, including Grupo Maseca and Bimbo, to put a price ceiling at $8.50 pesos per kilogram of tortilla. The hope was that a ceiling on corn prices would provide incentive for the market to lower all prices nationally.
Critics argue that the pact was both nonbinding and a de facto acceptance of a 30% increase in the price of that product (from $5.95 pesos per kilogram to $8.50 pesos per kilogram).[49][50][51] Many tortillerias ignored the agreement, leading to price increases well in excess of the $8.50.[52] Government opposition sees this as an indication of the failure to protect the interests of its poor citizens.
However, several major supermarkets, such as Soriana and Comercial Mexicana, sell the tortillas at a lower price than the one in the agreement – as low as $5.10 pesos per kilogram[53] – which is interpreted by liberals as evidence that price controls and the Tortilla Price Stabilization Pact were unnecessary. Additionally, PROFECO, a consumer protection government organization, has also threatened with jail those tortilla producers who charge "excessive" prices.
Three months after the pact was signed, the Secretariat of Economy informed the public that the price of tortillas was reduced in most of the 53 main cities of Mexico. However, in 27 cities and 15 states, the price remained above the agreed $8.50 pesos. In Tijuana, Morelia, San Luis Potosí, Ciudad Victoria, and Nuevo Laredo, the price of tortillas had risen despite the fact that the average price of corn has dropped from $3,500 pesos per ton to $2,500 pesos per ton. However, the director of the Maize Industry Council has defended the pact by minimizing the price increments in those cities, claiming that the pact was only intended for the Valley of Mexico, and not the whole country.[54]
Guillermo Ortiz, governor of the Bank of Mexico, labeled the agreement "a success" for consumers and urged for it to continue as means to combat rising inflation.[55]
Fulfilling an electoral promise, President Calderón launched the First Employment Program, which aims to create new opportunities for people entering the job market. The program will give cash incentives to companies for hiring first-time job holders, including young people graduating from higher education and millions of women who have never worked.[56]
The program has been interpreted as an effort to stop immigration into the United States.[57]
Reactions to this program have been mixed. The president of the Mexican Association of Directors in Human Relations, Luis García, has anticipated a positive effect and even showed Nextel's subsidiary in Mexico as an example for hiring 14% of its new workforce in 2006 as people in their "first employment".[58] Meanwhile, Secretary of Labor Javier Lozano Alarcón has admitted that the program will be insufficient to create as many new jobs as needed and has called for deeper reforms to allow for further investment.[59]
President Calderón announced, on his first day as president, a presidential decree limiting the president's salary and that of cabinet ministers. The measure only affects a few high-ranking officials, but excludes most of the bureaucracy and public servants in the legislative or judicial branches. According to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Reforma, the decree will affect 546 high-level government officials and save the government about US$13 million.[60] The opposition has stated that the 10% reduction in salary as not being comprehensive enough.[61][62]
Calderón later launched a proposal for a constitutional amendment that, if passed, would significantly lower salaries for all public servants in all three branches of government and impose a cap on compensation.[63] The proposal also includes measures to make the remuneration of public servants more transparent and subject to fiscalization.[64]
Despite imposing a cap on salaries of high-ranking public servants, Calderón ordered a raise on the salaries of the Federal Police and the Mexican armed forces on his first day as president.
Calderón's government also ordered massive raids on drug cartels upon assuming office in December 2006 in response to an increasingly deadly spate of violence in his home state of Michoacán. The decision to intensify drug enforcement operations has led to an ongoing conflict between the federal government and the Mexican drug cartels.
On January 19, 2007, Mexico captured the leader of one of its seven major drug cartels, the Diaz Parada gang, five weeks into an army crackdown on narco gangs. Mexican soldiers and federal police jointly arrested Pedro Diaz Parada, whose cartel has operated across southern Mexico, on Tuesday in the southern city of Oaxaca, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office said.[65]
The next day, in a controversial move, the government announced the extradition to the United States of several drug gang leaders.[66]
The Mexican government has also ordered Mexican soldiers and Federal Police into several cities, most notably, Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez. In Tijuana and also Ciudad Juárez, the army ordered that all local police officers surrender their weapons, as it is suspected that many officers have ties with drug cartels. Other states where actions have been taken include Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Tabasco, and Guerrero.
In a January 2007 interview with the Financial Times, Calderón said, "We have received very encouraging results. In the state of Michoacán, for example, the murder rate has fallen almost 40 percent compared with the average over the last six months. People's support in the regions where we are operating has grown, and that has been very important. Opinion polls have confirmed that, and I think we have made it clear to everyone that this issue is a priority for us".[67]
On April 9, 2007, the Secretariat of Defense announced in a report the results of the first four months of Calderón's presidency. These results include the capture of 1,102 drug dealers, the seizure of about $500 million pesos, 556 kilograms of marijuana, 1,419 military grade weapons, two airplanes, 630 automobiles, and 15 sea ships that transported drugs, and the destruction of 285 clandestine runways, 777 drug camps, 52,842 marijuana farms and 33,019 opium poppy farms. The report claims that these results stopped the distribution of 1,428,124 doses of marijuana, 17,728,000 doses of cocaine, 193,922,000 doses of heroin, and 6,996,000 toxic pills, stopping the intoxication of 647,771,000 people, a lot of them with irreversible damage to their health.[68]
On December 16, 2009, the Mexican Navy killed Arturo Beltran-Leyva, a once important drug trafficker.[69]
The government is relatively successful in detaining drug lords; however, drug-related violence remains high in contested area along the US border such as Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, and Matamoros. Some analysts, like US Ambassador in Mexico Carlos Pascual argue that this raise in violence may be a direct result of Felipe Calderón's military measures.[70] Although homicide rates in Mexico from 2000–2007 showed a general decline,[71] now Mexico is considered to be among the top ten countries with the highest homicide rates.[72] Since Calderón launched his military strategy against organized crime in 2006, there has been an alarming increase in violent deaths related to organized crime, "more than 15,000 people have died in suspected drug attacks since it was launched at the end of 2006."[70] More than 5,000 people were murdered in Mexico in 2008,[73] followed by 9600 murders in 2009, 2010 was the most violent year so far, with over 15,000 homicides across the country and the estimate for 2011 stands at a similar figure.[74]
According to a poll by Grupo Reforma taken from February 16 to February 18, 2007, Calderón's approval rating was 58%. In this poll, Mexicans interviewed give President Calderón and his actions a score of 6.6 out of 10. He is best rated in his actions on issues related to health and reducing drug trafficking (60% and 59% approval respectively), and worst rated on domestic and foreign policy (33% approval each).[75]
A poll by Ipsos-Bimsa shows a change in Calderon's approval rating at 57% in November 2007.[76]
In June 2008, Calderon's approval rating jumped to 64% before slipping to 62% in September.[77]
According to a March 2010 poll by GEA-ISA. 45% of respondents approved of their president's performance, down seven points since November 2009 polling at 52%.
Polling firm Buendia & Laredo released a survey showing President Calderón's approval rating at 54% on May 9, 2011.[78]
The Calderon Cabinet | ||
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Office | Name | Term |
President | Felipe Calderón | 2006–present |
Secretary of Interior | Francisco Ramírez Acuña | 2006–2008 |
Juan Camilo Mouriño* | 2008–2008 | |
Fernando Gómez-Mont | 2008–2010 | |
Francisco Blake Mora* | 2010–2011 | |
Chancellor | Patricia Espinosa | 2006–present |
Secretary of Finance | Agustín Carstens | 2006–2009 |
Ernesto Cordero | 2009–2011 | |
José Antonio Meade | 2011–present | |
Secretary of Defense | Guillermo Galván Galván | 2006–present |
Secretary of the Navy | Mariano Saynez | 2006–present |
Secretary of Economy | Eduardo Sojo | 2006–2008 |
Gerardo Ruiz Mateos | 2008–2010 | |
Bruno Ferrari | 2010–present | |
Secretary of Social Development |
Beatriz Zavala | 2006–2008 |
Ernesto Cordero | 2008–2009 | |
Heriberto Félix Guerra | 2009–present | |
Attorney General | Eduardo Medina-Mora | 2006–2009 |
Arturo Chávez | 2009–2011 | |
Marisela Morales | 2011–present | |
Secretary of Public Security | Genaro García Luna | 2006–present |
Secretary of Civil Service | Germán Martínez | 2006–2007 |
Salvador Vega Casillas | 2007–present | |
Secretary of Communications and Transportation |
Luis Téllez | 2007–2009 |
Juan Molinar Horcasitas | 2009–2011 | |
Dionisio Pérez-Jácome | 2011–present | |
Secretary of Labor | Javier Lozano | 2006–present |
Secretary of Environment | Rafael Elvira Quesada | 2006–present |
Secretary of Energy | Georgina Kessel | 2006–2011 |
José Antonio Meade | 2011–2011 | |
Jordy Herrera Flores | 2011–present | |
Secretary of Agriculture | Alberto Cárdenas | 2006–2009 |
Francisco Mayorga | 2009–present | |
Secretary of Education | Josefina Vázquez Mota | 2006–2009 |
Alonso Lujambio | 2009–present | |
Secretary of Health | José Ángel Córdova | 2006–2011 |
Salomón Chertorivski | 2011–present | |
Secretary of Tourism | Rodolfo Elizondo | 2006–2010 |
Gloria Guevara | 2010–present | |
Secretary of Agrarian Reform | Abelardo Escobar Prieto** | 2006–present |
Legal Counsellor | Daniel Cabeza de Vaca | 2006–2008 |
Miguel Alessio | 2008–present | |
*Died in office **Retained from previous administration |
By Mexican Law, any title of nobility in Mexico is legally banned. However, Calderón has accepted them as a courtesy to the foreign governments.
Party political offices | ||
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Preceded by Carlos Castillo Peraza |
Leader of the National Action Party 1996–1999 |
Succeeded by Luis Felipe Bravo Mena |
Preceded by Vicente Fox |
National Action Party nominee for President of Mexico 2006 |
Most recent |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by Vicente Fox |
President of Mexico 2006–present |
Incumbent |
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