Mexico & Nafta - October 2010 (ISSN 1741-444X)

Stumbling on

Mexico can’t afford another six years of economic and political stagnation.  Both Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón Hinojosa failed to provide the transformational changes they promised. Even those Mexicans who were relieved that Felipe Calderón won the presidency in 2006 now realise that he is simply not up to job. To those who know him well, Calderón always had some significant character defects: he has always been quick to take offence and has been tactically, rather than strategically, minded. As president, these faults have become magnified and his government has failed to achieve anything much. Indeed he looks likely to hand the world’s fifth biggest democracy on to his successor in a much weaker state than it was when he took office in 2006. The big question facing Mexicans now is which of the current range of candidates to succeed him will be the best choice to take up the challenge of trying to rescue something from Calderón’s disastrous term.