Mexico City – President- elect Felipe Calderon vowed Thursday to be sworn in before Congress, despite leftist lawmakers’ attempts to block his inauguration, and said he would have little patience for the political protests and drug violence that have tarnished Mexico’s image.
Calderon insisted today’s swearing-in ceremony must be held in Congress, where opposition legislators have been camped out for three days.
“This is what the constitution calls for,” he said. “I’m not ignoring the complexity of the political moment or our differences, but I’m convinced that tomorrow we should put an end to our disagreements and begin a new era.”
Calderon named military and security veterans as his top law-enforcement aides. In a departure from the hands-off approach of President Vicente Fox, he said he would crack down on criminals who “challenge the authority of the state.”
He appointed Public Safety Secretary Eduardo Medina Mora as federal attorney general; Genaro Garcia Luna, director of the Federal Agency of Investigation, as public safety secretary, and two top military officials, Guillermo Galvan and Mariano Francisco Saynez, as defense secretary and navy secretary.
A wave of drug-related violence has claimed more than 2,000 lives this year, many in execution-style killings and decapitations, and at least nine people have died in Oaxaca in demonstrations calling for the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
Along with security, the Harvard-educated Calderon has said that creating jobs and reducing poverty are his top priorities.
But on the eve of the inauguration, it still wasn’t clear where he would receive the presidential sash.
Legislators from the Democratic Revolution Party claim their candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was the true winner of the July 2 elections, despite the Federal Electoral Tribunal’s ruling that Calderon beat the leftist by less than a percentage point. Lopez Obrador has declared himself Mexico’s “legitimate” president, and set up a parallel government designed to undermine Calderon.
