Calderón sneaks into Mexican presidency

Felipe Calderón took power as Mexico's president on Dec. 1 in a chaotic ceremony rocked by fist fights in Congress and jeering protests from opponents who claim he stole a July election that sparked months of unrest. Surrounded by bodyguards, the conservative Calderón, of the National Action Party (PAN), slipped into Congress through a back door. In riotous scenes a suited phalanx of PAN activists held the stage long enough for Calderón to step out and receive the presidential sash from Vicente Fox, his predecessor, and declare the oath of office before being ushered out by security guards. Calderón's supporters had to occupy the stage in the National Assembly to prevent rivals from the left-leaning Party for Revolutionary Democracy (PRD), which claims that its candidate won the July elections, from blocking the ceremony. He spent only three minutes on the Assembly podium, facing PRD banners strung on the walls declaring "Mexico does not deserve a traitor to democracy as president." The lightning-fast ceremony lasted just four minutes, including the singing of the national anthem, and Calderón was unable to make his inaugural speech. Former US President George HW Bush, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Spain's Crown Prince Felipe were among the foreign dignitaries to see the chaos in Congress. Calderón had earlier been provisionally sworn in during an unprecedented private ceremony at midnight, uncertain that he would be able to take the stage for the traditional investiture. Members of the two rival parties had been camped out in the Assembly for days to prevent the other side from seizing more ground. Dozens of rival deputies threw punches and chairs at each other and opponents built barricades to block the main doors and try to prevent Calderon from entering the building. Opposition deputies argued Calderón could not become president without taking the oath of office–as outlined in the constitution–and tried to derail the official inauguration. Calderón had to bypass the barricaded doors to get into the building long enough to take the oath. Although Calderón's security team outwitted his opponents in Congress, the brawls underlined Mexico's deep political divide and cast doubt on how successfully Calderón can end the unrest that followed his razor-thin election victory. Calderón later met with party faithful and appealed to political foes to open talks to end five months of turmoil. "It is clear Mexico is going through times of tension.... I'm aware of the seriousness of the distance between us and I accept my part of the responsibility to resolve it," Calderón said in a speech at an elegant concert hall in the capital. Calderón, 44, wants to push pro-business reforms through Congress, where the PAN holds just 40 percent of seats and needs opposition support. After the inauguration opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the PRD led tens of thousands of supporters through the center of Mexico City and vowed to "defend democracy in our country." Some demonstrators hurled cans of red paint at riot police. "They imposed him with a coup, and we are living with the consequences," said Obrador, who has declared himself Mexico's "legitimate president." "We have not given up, we have not sold out, we will never accept his imposition," he said. In the six months since the election, Mexico has witnessed a succession of protests against Calderón over claims the poll was rigged–something he and the courts have rejected. Obrador lost the run-off by half a percentage point. Last month he held his own inauguration ceremony in the capital's main square, declaring himself legal president and promising to run a parallel administration. Both the PAN and the Fox administration have tried to dismiss Obrador as a fading phenomenon, but the Dec. 1 demonstration proved that the PRD does not intend to give up without a fight. Polls indicate that about 20 percent of Mexicans–20 million people–believe that Obrador was cheated. Obrador has a strong support base, particularly in Mexico City where he was mayor for several years. His party remains in power there and he won a strong showing in the national Congress. Calderón has tried to focus on the social and economic challenges but if the inauguration was anything to go by, he may be facing a difficult future. Mexico's financial markets were closed on the day of the inauguration but the peso currency zigzagged in volatile trading abroad on concerns about the protests and Calderón's ability to control an increasingly violent country. Calderón will be a key ally of the United States in Latin America, which has turned away from Washington in recent years with a string of left-wing gains in presidential elections. A career politician who has an iron will but little charisma, Calderón will also push for tax, energy and labor reforms and keep a tight rein on government spending even as he promises to cut the vast gap between rich and poor. He extended an olive branch to critics of government excess by promising to shrink his own $200,000-plus salary and that of other top officials, an idea borrowed from Lopez Obrador's campaign. He did not give details of the cuts. Calderón faces huge challenges, such as tackling a war with drug cartels that claimed 2,000 lives in the past year, joblessness that sends hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into the US every year, widespread corruption and what many critics refer to as Mexico's "crony capitalism." Compounding these problems is the popular social unrest and reactionary violence that has raged in the southern state of Oaxaca for six months and shows no sign of abating. While the PAN has tried to play down the significance of the upheaval in Oaxaca, many are afraid that the instability may shake Mexico's modest economic growth and many Mexicans worry that the optimism that accompanied the end of 70 years of authoritarian one-party rule in 2000 is evaporating into chaos. Just hours after Calderón was sworn in, four police officers were killed when gunmen opened fire on two patrol cars in the president's home state of Michoacan. While Obrador's protest movement has forced Calderón to address many social issues that his predecessor had ignored, early appointments in his cabinet indicate he may take a repressive line on dissent.