Washington Post has high praise for Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican congress

American legislators should take their cue from Mexico's, say editors


Guadalajara -
In a lead editorial published yesterday, The Washington Post praised the policies of Institutional Revolutionary Party president Enrique Peña Nieto, and suggested the U.S. Congress would benefit by emulating Mexico's pragmatic, task oriented federal legislature.

Mexico's Grand Bargaining, which appeared March 29, is being heavily reported in the national Spanish press this weekend.

"For more than a decade, Mexico’s congress was mired in three-way gridlock, making passage of desperately needed fiscal, economic and social reforms almost impossible. Now, under new president Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexicans are proving that political grand bargains can happen — and that democracies can tackle their toughest problems. Washington should be cheering Mexico’s gridlock busting — and taking it as an example," wrote the Post.

The paper attributes legislative progress here to the new PRI president's willingness to negotiate with both the political right and the left. Mexico's National Action Party (PAN), at least in theory, carries the banner for the former, while the voice of the left is the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the new Movimiento Progresista (MP) of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the firebrand socialist candidate who twice came up short in presidential contests in 2006 and 2012. López Obrador, who left PRD late last year to form the MP coalition, has indicated he may make a third run for president in 2018.

The Post had this to say about Mexico's 75 month old drug war:

"Mr. Peña Nieto’s foreign minister, José Antonio Meade, told us during a visit to Washington last week that the new administration plans to build on Mr. Calderón’s large expansion of police forces while aiming to combat trafficking by attacking its root causes, such as poverty and the lack of employment.

"Some in the Obama administration worry that the new president is diverting resources and focus from the drug war. Yet Mr. Peña Nieto is tackling problems that have held back Mexico for a generation, helping to create the economic misery that empowers the drug cartels."

MGR has reported the same themes, and predicted Enrique Peña Nieto’s steadfast commitment to Calderón’s National Security Strategy, since the informal presidential campaign opened in late 2011.

Apr. 10 - A comprehensive, integrated focus on Mexico's economic and security problems is the key to success, president Peña Nieto said during a visit to Hong Kong.
Apr. 6 - Britain's The Economist likes Peña Nieto, too.
Apr. 2 - Mexico's March drug war tally was 1,025 dead, with Jalisco state in fourth place nationwide

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New York Times finally figures it out: in Mexican drug war, Enrique Peña Nieto = Felipe Calderón
Peña Nieto: no option but to follow Calderón strategy
New York Times got Mexican presidential candidates' drug war strategies wrong
The L.A. Times just doesn't get it
U.S. freezes Mérida Initiative funds promised to Mexico, approved by Congress
Mexican officials dispute U.S. press on drug war disappearances: claims based on nonexistent data
Human Rights Watch's condemnation of Mexican drug war reveals how little it understands conflict

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