by the El Reportero’s news services
Francisco Blake Mora
The past week has produced one shock and two surprises. The shock was the helicopter crash on the morning of Nov. 11 which killed the interior minister, Francisco Blake Mora, and the other seven passengers flying with him (see page 3). Almost certainly the crash was an accident. The first surprise was the victory of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in the gubernatorial election in Michoacán on Nov. 13 This was the last major election before the presidential and congressional elections on 1 July 2012. The second surprise was Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s easy annexation, on Nov. 15, of the Left’s presidential nomination for 2012.
Even more of a haven?
The long drawn out saga of the Euro-debt crisis, which even prompted China to abandon its mask of inscrutability and express impatience with European policymakers, again underlines the attractions of Latin America as a place to invest. Latin America’s greatest economic asset is not its raw materials but its democratic approach to economic policymaking.
Mexican leaders air drug-war differences using U.S. forums to impress at home
The debate over solutions to the escalating violence associated with the wars between drug cartels and the government’s response has been taken once more to U.S. audiences. President Felipe Calderón has used an interview with the New York Times to portray at least a sizable sector of the opposition Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) as favouring an ‘understanding’ with the cartels, while his predecessor Vicente Fox (2000-2006) aired before a forum in Washington his proposals for a truce and eventual amnesty.
