Daniel Aaron Lazar » AP Mexico

Can Mexico Fix Its Image Problem?

Dan Lazar — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:36:19 +0000

Ending the drug war is only half the battle for the candidates to replace Calderon in 2012; the second half will be convincing the rest of the world that Mexico’s not just a narco-state.

Read Malcolm Beath from FP Magazine

Vicente Fox: More a Caricature of an Effective Presidency than the Real Thing

Dan Lazar — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:31:39 +0000

Methinks COHA underplays Mexican history when they conclude that, “Fox will go down in Mexican history as little more than a “lame duck” throughout his entire presidency, who failed to accomplish anything approaching a string of concrete improvements for his country, even though he held on as the symbol of Mexico’s turn to democracy.” But you should really explore the COHA argument and judge for yourself.

Mexican Revolution Discussion

Dan Lazar — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:23:54 +0000

Perhaps because it was it was not as “revolutionary” as the revolutions in Russia, China or Iran, The Mexican Revolution gets short shrift in APCG. If you are curious to learn more, here is an engaging scholarly discussion from BBC4′s Melvyn Bragg.

Mexico’s presidential campaign: Can anyone stop Enrique Peña Nieto restoring the PRI to power next year?

Dan Lazar — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:09:57 +0000

THE election is not until July of next year, but the beating of a party activist into a coma on January 12th, apparently by a rival party’s mob, signalled the start of what will be a long, rough campaign for the presidency of Mexico. Candidates are jostling for party nominations, and lieutenants are preparing for the election of six governors this year, the first of them in Guerrero state on January 30th. Already the main question is whether anyone can prevent the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico as a one-party state for seven decades until 2000, from returning to Los Pinos, the presidential residence.

Read the Economist’s premature analysis of the 2012 election

Organised crime in Mexico

Dan Lazar — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:09:21 +0000

Under the volcano The drugs trade has spread corruption and violence across Mexico. Can the police ever catch up with them?

Check out this special briefing from The Economist

Mexico’s ruling party: The new old guard

Dan Lazar — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 06:31:37 +0000

These days, the PAN is part of the system. After 61 years in opposition, it wrested the presidency from the hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2000 and held it in 2006. Its strengths reflect its legacy as the protagonist of Mexico’s transition to multi-party democracy. Unlike the big-tent PRI, the conservative PAN knows what it stands for. “Whereas the PRI is driven by power, the PAN tends to be driven by ideology,” says Luis Rubio, the head of CIDAC, a think-tank. And unlike the fractious Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), its leftist counterpart, the PAN runs a slick operation.

More analysis from The Economist

Mexico’s state elections

Dan Lazar — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:40:36 +0000

DURING the campaign ahead of Mexico’s state elections on July 4th, many feared that the gruesome run-up to the vote would overshadow the results. Two candidates were murdered, and countless others were intimidated: one would-be mayor found a decapitated corpse deposited outside his home. The atrocities, including four dead bodies hung from bridges on election day, were attributed to drug gangs reminding the country who rules the roost.

Yet the vote itself, in 14 of Mexico’s 31 states, provided a surprise that could redraw the country’s political map. The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000, took over the lower house of Congress from Felipe Calderón’s conservative National Action Party (PAN) in 2009. It had been forecast to sweep all 12 of this year’s contests for governorships before winning the presidency after Mr Calderón steps down in 2012. Instead, it took just nine, the same number it held before the vote. Read on from The Economist

Interview with Subcomandante Marcos

Dan Lazar — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:54:45 +0000

Subcomandante Marcos is the spokesperson for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a Mexican rebel movement. In January 1994, he led an army of Mayan farmers into the eastern parts of the Mexican state of Chiapas in protest of the Mexican government’s treatment of indigenous peoples.

Marcos is an author, political poet, adroit humorist, and outspoken opponent of capitalism and neo-liberalism. Marcos has advocated having the Mexican constitution amended to recognize the rights of the country’s indigenous inhabitants. The internationally known guerrillero has been described as a “new” and “postmodern” Che Guevara.

Here is a two part interview 60 Minutes interview with Marcos from 1994:

1994 *-60 Minutes- SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS* part#1of2

1994 *-60 Minutes- SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS* part#2of2

Video: One Hour with Calderon

Dan Lazar — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:56:38 +0000

Mexican president Felipe Calderon speaks about his administration’s progress against drugs and organized crime, saying that his government has captured over 22,000 criminals and seized over “one billion personal doses” of drugs over the past year, his first of six in office. He also added that Mexico has re-planted 600,000 acres of forest in the past year, starting to reverse a national trend of de-forestation.

Calderon called illegal immigration from Mexico to the US a “textbook example” of a country with surplus capital needing a country with surplus labor. He expressed his support for more integrated North American markets, saying that “closing the border is a very, very big mistake.”

Watch it here

In Mexican Vote, Nostalgia for Past Corruption

Dan Lazar — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:14:26 +0000

MEXICO CITY – “The PRI comes back” shouted the front page headline of the daily newspaper El Universal on Monday, the day after the political party known as the PRI swept midterm elections.

But the story was all in the photograph, a shot of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari as he left a voting booth. He was not running for any office, but the photograph seemed to ask why Mexicans were returning to power the party identified with Mr. Salinas, who left office 15 years ago amid political scandal and economic chaos.

His party, the PRI, or Institutional Revolutionary Party, governed Mexico with a blend of patronage and corruption for more than 70 years before it was voted out in 2000. But on Sunday, the PRI won effective control of the lower house of Congress and a broad swath of the country’s largest cities, as well as five out of six gubernatorial races.

The results were a blow to President Felipe Calderón, whose conservative National Action Party, or the PAN, failed to hold on to even its traditional strongholds.

Read on from the Times

Is Calderon Swine?

Dan Lazar — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:18:02 +0000

The Mexican government’s initial reaction to the outbreak of swine flu does not inspire confidence. Practically speaking, its slow response has allowed the disease to spin out of control, leading to up to 100 deaths in Mexico and 20 cases of infection in the United States. From a political standpoint, Mexican President Felipe Calderón appears to be using the outbreak to consolidate his power.

Read on from Slate

Mexican Media Baron On Drug-Violence Epidemic

Dan Lazar — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:00:11 +0000

Alejandro Junco de la Vega runs daily newspapers in three of Mexico’s largest cities: Reforma in Mexico City, Mural in Guadalajara and El Norte in Monterrey.

Junco was born in Monterrey and earned his journalism degree from the University of Texas. He returned to Mexico to become the publisher of El Norte in 1973.

Even at the beginning of his newspaper empire-building, Junco fought for freedom of the press — he hired a UT journalism professor to teach journalistic ethics and techniques to the reporters of El Norte.

After El Norte became successful, Junco founded Reforma and Mural. Junco also owns the company Infosel, Mexico’s largest Internet provider and online finance and news service.

Junco joins Fresh Air to discuss the escalating violence in Mexico. The rising murder rate, especially at the U.S. border, is associated with drug-cartel activity.

I am truly impressed by Junco de la Vega. As the publisher of El Norte since 1973, he has his finger on the pulse of Mexico. If you listen closely, you will likewise be impressed.

To process your listening (and to prove that you have done so) you must submit 1 page of single-spaced notes on this interview.

Listen to Terri Gross’ interview with de la Vega (20 minutes)

Photo Essay: Spring Break Gone Wrong?

Dan Lazar — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:24:51 +0000

This time of year, many American college students head to Mexico’s beaches for spring break, but a recent State Department travel alert about violence south of the border might be giving some party animals second thoughts.

Peruse this photo essay from Foreign Policy Magazine