Mexico's New President's Anti-Corruption Focus Slows Overhaul of Economy Eric Martin and Nacha Cattan - Associated Press
go to original July 25, 2012

MEXICO CITY — Two weeks after Enrique Pena Nieto won Mexico's July 1 presidential election, he unveiled his most pressing priorities for action. The contrast with his pre- election agenda was unmistakable.

His first order of business when Congress convenes in September will be three bills to tackle corruption and increase transparency in government and media, Pena Nieto wrote in a July 16 column in Reforma newspaper. Proposals to revamp the economy will be offered "in their own time," he said, without specifying when that will be.

This marks a change in emphasis from the campaign, when Pena Nieto pledged to open the state-run oil industry to outside investment — a measure he called his "signature issue" — and overhaul tax and labor codes as soon as possible, said Jorge Chabat at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching.

"I don't think any of these economic reforms will be passed between now and December because the post-electoral atmosphere won't permit it," said Chabat, a political science professor at the Mexico City-based university. "It's important to pass these laws in the beginning, because it's when presidents have the most power."

Pena Nieto's decision to push first for an anti-corruption panel, transparency requirements for local authorities and a citizen watchdog to oversee government spending on the media came amid protests that have brought thousands onto the streets of Mexico City each weekend since the election. Many are supporters of runner-up Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 58, who has challenged the results, alleging that local officials of the winner's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, embezzled public funds to buy millions of votes.

Protesters against Pena Nieto, 46, the former governor of Mexico's biggest state, have sought to revive memories of the PRI's 71-year hold on power that ended in 2000 and which they say was marked by corruption, cronyism and repression.

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