Calderon leaves legacy of fiscal stability
But the departing president was unable to achieve many of his goals.
MEXICO CITY — When he came to power six years ago, President Felipe Calderon set goals to reduce poverty, create jobs and increase public safety. As he winds up his term at the end of this week, he leaves Mexico with fiscal stability that saved the country from collapse during the world’s economic crisis, but also with far greater violence, very little change in poverty levels and anemic job growth.
Calderon’s National Action Party, or PAN, was considered the hope for a new democracy when his predecessor, Vicente Fox, defeated the Institutional Revolutionary Party after 71 years in power. Now Calderon is handing the presidency back to the Old Guard party known as the PRI, and with it a country deeply divided about where Mexico is headed.
As one of his final acts, he proposed to drop the name “United States” from the United States of Mexico.
“After six years of exercising power and the country not changing for the better, he decided he could at least change the name,” columnist and historian Lorenzo Meyer chided in Thursday’s Reforma newspaper. “Nice going!”
A very formal man in public, Calderon was said to keep a tight circle of like-minded confidants and had little trust in outsiders. Although he operated under Mexico’s old presidential model of a quasi-monarch, Calderon didn’t have the power to order change under the country’s new democratic government.
He was commonly described as stubborn, with some even calling him a zealot, especially in his crusade against organized crime.
But he was known to loosen up when speaking about Mexico’s international triumphs in sports and about tourism, even spelunking and riding a zip line in the name of promoting his country as a great place to visit.
He is also widely lauded for keeping Mexico from crashing during one of the worst global economic crises in history.
“If there is something we can applaud about 12 years under the PAN, it’s the economic discipline that kept us on the margins of a major crisis,” pollster Roy Campos said. “We were shielded and we’re ready to grow.”
But some of Calderon’s own government statistics don’t make the outgoing leader look good. When he took office in December 2006, about 43 percent of the population lived in poverty, earning less than $100 month. In the most recent government measure, 2010, that had increased to 46 percent, a fall many blame on the economic crisis and rising food prices. No newer government figures are available.
In late 2006, Mexico had 13.6 million formal jobs. By last month, that had grown to more than 16 million, with more than 2.6 million new formal jobs added over six years. While an improvement, that’s nowhere near the estimated 6 million Calderon’s government needed to create to meet the demand of an expanding working-age population that grows by about 1.2 million people a year.
Meanwhile, homicides over the course of the sixyear term totaled 101,199, about 36 percent higher compared to those of the previous administration, according to research. Analysts estimate that 60,000 of those killings were linked to organized crime, though the government stopped counting at 47,500 more than a year ago. 1962 in Morelia, Mexico; his father helped form the National Action Party (PAN)
Law degree; master’s in economics from Autonomous Technical Institute of Mexico; master’s in public administration from Harvard University
Served twice in federal Chamber of Deputies; national president of PAN, 1996-1999; stateowned development bank director; energy minister
Elected in 2006; known for his war on Mexico’s drug cartels, which led to increased violence
Raised salaries for police and armed forces, but capped those for high-level civil servants
Has had friendly relationship with U.S.
Mexican presidents may only serve one sixyear term.