Josefina Vazquez Mota Proposes "National Pact for Peace" EFE
go to original May 6, 2012

The presidential candidate for Mexico's ruling National Action Party, or PAN, Josefina Vazquez Mota, during her campaign activities in the runup to the July 1, 2012, election. (EFE)

MEXICO CITY - The presidential candidate of Mexico's ruling rightist PAN party, Josefina Vazquez Mota, said that if elected her first act would be to announce a "national pact for peace" to deal with organized crime.

"A pact that allows us to continue confronting organized crime with courage, with decision, with determination," she said upon being asked about her priorities for the first 100 days of a possible administration at a forum organized by CNN en Español.

Vazquez Mota reiterated her position that she will not make deals with criminal groups "because I'm not going to surrender Mexican families to those who kidnap, extort, murder."

She said that in her travels around the country "families are asking for the armed forces not to go because if they go they feel unprotected."

The soldiers were incorporated into the fight against organized crime by the current PAN government of President Felipe Calderon, who took power on Dec. 1, 2006, to make up for the lack of preparation and corruption in the state and municipal police forces.

Calderon's approach has been accompanied by a sharp escalation in violence and a death toll of more than 50,000.

In an apparent attempt to distance herself from current policy, Vazquez Mota on Wednesday said that her strategy would involve creating a national militarized police force that would have at least 150,000 officers.

That force, she explained, would support the Federal Police, "which has been doing great work, and also the local police, such that the states also assume their responsibility."

According to the weekly survey by Consulta Mitofsky released Tuesday, Vazquez Mota is in second place in the presidential race with the support of 22 percent of the public, compared with 38 percent for front-runner Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

Some 80 million Mexicans are eligible to vote in the July 1 election, when they will select Calderon's successor.

Mexican presidents are limited to a single six-year term.

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!