Mexico & Nafta - November 2006 ( ISSN 1741-444X)

TEPJF: Senators from the PRI and the PRD are trying to prevent Maria Carmen Alaní­s Figueroa becoming a member of the Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación. They said that she should rule herself out because of her friendship with Margarita Zavala, the wife of the president elect, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. Alaní­s said that she did not see how a personal friendship should disqualify her. "I believe in principles, and one of these principles is friendship. I do not deny my friendships, but I also believe in the principles of impartiality; objectivity and professionalism_ and I have always been guided by these principles." 

The TEPJF is the final arbiter of elections in Mexico. Six of the seven magistrates complete their 10-year term on 4 November. The senate will appoint the new magistrates from a short list of 18, including Alaní­s, drawn up by the supreme court. The senate began interviewing the candidates on 24 October and finished on 25 October. The senate denied that there will be any party-political appointments. Initially 160 people applied for the six places. This was whittled down to 32 and now 18. Essentially there are three candidates for each seat. For each seat, there is at least one candidate who was a judge in the federal courts and one who was a judge in the electoral courts.

The senate is disappointed with the list, saying that all the candidates are lawyers or officials in the current electoral machinery. Each candidate gets 10 minutes before the members of the senate justice committee. The PRD is pushing for the complete replacement of the TEPJF even though one of the seven magistrates, Alejandro Luna Ramos, has a term that does not expire until after the next presidential elections. The PRD is deeply unsure about the way Alejandro Luna Ramos was appointed to the TEPJF a year ago. The PRD argues that he should have been disbarred because his sister had already been involved with TEPJF. 

Carlos Fuentes: Mexico's Nobel laureate made some interesting points about historical parallels for President-elect Felipe Calderón. He suggested that Calderón could imitate Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico's greatest president, who did radical things (such as nationalising the foreign-owned oil industry in 1938) while running a highly orthodox economic policy (rather like President Lula has done in Brazil, Fuentes points out). 

Fuentes argued that no government since Cárdenas's successor, Manuel Avila Camacho, has taken the trouble Avila Camacho did over the composition of the cabinet. Fuentes quotes Federico Reyes Heroles, scion of one of the most influential families in Mexican political life, accusing President Fox of putting personal friendships above ability when choosing the cabinet. This is a bit unfair: Fox's problem was not the appointments but his refusal to ginger things up by sacking cabinet ministers. Only the most egregious failures were fired. 

In Fuentes's view the Calderón government's biggest headache is its relations with the US. The decision by the US to build the walls along the border risks cooping up 500,000 Mexicans who would otherwise find work in the US. Fuentes argues that Calderón should focus on getting through the next couple of (President Bush) years and then hope that someone more sensible, such as John McCain, a Republican but border senator (from Arizona), becomes president. Then Fuentes advises Calderón to deal toughly with the US. The problem Fuentes claims is that relations with the US now involve what Mexicans do in Mexico as well as what "gringos" do in the US. Fuentes concluded his article in Reforma on 12 October by saying "The fundamental lesson from our history is that [Mexico] should only negotiate with Washington, standing on its feet and looking them in the eyes. Genuflecting [before the US] only merits contempt and failure."