Sunday, October 16, 2011

Will PRI's 2012 pretty boy candidate be "in bed with the cartels?" - so says Calderón

Opinion and News Analysis

Enrique Peña Nieto is a PRI politician who will almost certainly be the party's 2012 presidential standard bearer. He was governor of the State of Mexico until a few weeks ago, when he resigned to prepare for the campaign ahead.

Peña Nieto is a Robert Redford-style "pretty boy" politician. He'd look great on the cover of GQ magazine, sporting the latest fall offerings from Brooks Bros. Last year he married a popular Mexican soap opera ("telenovela") star, in a splashy wedding attended by the rich and famous. As a political candidate, Peña Nieto is right out of central casting.

Problem is, that's where it all ends. The man has not a a coherent thought in his head. I watched him in a 20 minute interview with the Mexican Milenio network a couple of weeks ago. He never stopped talking. He spoke right over the questions which the interviewer was desperately trying to get out. Peña Nieto is a motor mouth, yet he never really says anything. Perhaps he picked up his style by watching some U.S. politicians. He's been quoted as saying that since he was a little boy, he knew he wanted to be president of Mexico. What could be a worse prognosis for the country?

Yesterday the New York Times published a wide raging interview with president Felipe Calderón (see my posts just below). Accompanying the interview was a sidebar article. The article contained a statement by Republican congressman Mike McCaul of Texas, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee. McCaul says that Calderón has already made it clear to U.S. officials that if Peña Nieto is elected, "he'll be weak on (anti-drug) matters and will sleep in the same bed as the cartels." In other words, a return to the "good ol' boy" days of so many previous PRI administrations.

What I like about Felipe Calderón is that he invariably tells it just like it is.

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