Agenda-Setting in Mexico's Presidential Race Jose de la Isla - Hispanic Link News Service
go to original April 8, 2012

Lopez Obrador, former Mexico City governor

MEXICO CITY — Candidates for Mexico's July 1 presidential election are laying out their economic agendas for the country.

Presidential candidate Manuel Lopez Obrador, if elected, has said he will pick Monterrey businessman Fernando Turner for commerce secretary.

In Turner's mind, investment isn't stronger in Mexico because government spending is high and wasteful.

This could sound strange coming from the so-called left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD in Spanish. But not anymore.

But Turner says he doesn't believe the country needs a major policy reorientation, even after 12 years of the right-of-center Political Action Party, or PAN.

Setting an agenda like this has been taking place since the Federal Elections Institute required a timeout through March 30 while each party selected its nominee.

Now, the campaigns begin full force again. The election is set for July 1.

Enrique Pena Neto is the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, its Spanish initials).

He is the former governor of Mexico state, representing the party that held power for 71 years. It was defeated in 2000 by the PAN's Vicente Fox. Pena Nieto is currently ahead in most polls.

Josefina Vasquez Mota, former secretary of education and of the social development department, is the candidate of the incumbent PAN. She tends to run second but has made gains.

Lopez Obrador, the former Mexico City governor, came within a hair of defeating the now-incumbent Felipe Calderon in 2006. Lopez Obrador is running again.

During the lull, other influentials have come into play.

The Mexican private sector, which looks to the next administration to build on the successes of Calderon, encourages investment climate improvements and opening up of the energy sector to them. A consensus paper, "Program for Government, 2012-18," by the Entrepreneurial Coordinating Council was prepared to presented to the candidates.

Although the country was hit hard by the Great Recession, its exports have largely recovered, poverty rates are sloping downward and the economic growth rate could exceed 4 percent this year.

The drug war and the pursuit of drug cartels and associated criminals — with U.S. drug dealing, money laundering and firearms sellers as associates — have dampened in some places but not regressed the country's economic development.

In some ways, that has actually forged a new kind of solidarity. Business is said to be committed to creating jobs as a poverty-reducing measure.

They look to energy price reductions, reduced public spending and eliminating anti-competitive practices as an expanded government role to help increase productivity.

Recently, a more active business role has been envisioned in public school reform and perhaps even new models of universal learning.

The policy paper, "For a Sustainable Growth Policy and Universal Social Protection," was presented to the PRD, the so-called "left-leaning" party (not to be taken literally the way such terms are often used in the U.S. to accuse or frighten).

It contains an economic strategy with 103 proposals aimed at reducing economic and social inequality. The measures were proposed by a group including the former PRD candidate Cuautemoc Cardenas, himself the son of a former president.

Economic development, accelerated growth and social programs (health and housing, infrastructure building and education) resonate with the public — and the parties — whether right, left or center.

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!