CALDERON'S 100 ACTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MEXICO 003609

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR WHA/MEX, WHA/EPC, EB/IED
TREASURY FOR IA MEXICO DESK: JASPER HOEK
COMMERCE FOR ITA/MAC/NAFTA: ANDREW RUDMAN
ENERGY FOR KDEUTSCH AND SLADISWAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2016
TAGS: ECON EFIN ENRG MX PGOV PINR PREL
SUBJECT: CALDERON'S 100 ACTIONS

REF: MEXICO 2577

Classified By: Acting Econ Chief Jonathan Kessler
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (SBU) Summary. Only a few days prior to the Presidential
election Felipe Calderon, candidate of the National Action
Party (PAN),presented 100 actions that he will take during
his first 100 days as president. These actions divide into
five main themes: public security, economics, equal
opportunity, development, and effective democracy and
responsible foreign policy. His proposals include energy,
fiscal and electoral reforms, yet he fails to address greatly
needed labor reform. Additionally, he offers to grant
autonomy to the Public Ministry, improve the justice system,
promote security, institute a life sentence for kidnappers,
work to eradicate addiction and piracy, and improve support
for abused women and children, among other proposals. End
Summary.

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Energy, Fiscal and Electoral Reforms
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2. (SBU) Calderon announced that he would negotiate with
Congress to allow Pemex to create technological associations
with businesses for exploration of deepwater oil fields and
to allow for complementary investment in the refinery and
petrochemical sectors. Additionally, he proposes to boost
natural gas production by thoroughly revising some existing
projects such as those in the Burgos Basin and provide
greater resources to those projects that are more likely to
increase production. He promises to install an independent
auditing company in both Pemex and CFE to clean up both state
companies and guarantee transparency.


3. (SBU) Without specifics, Calderon proposed to negotiate
with Congress a reduction in the tax rate applicable to rent
and simplify taxation.


4. (SBU) Calderon calls for an electoral reform to shorten
the length of political campaigns and lower the funding
destined for political parties.

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Employment and competitiveness persists as his main focus
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5. (C) As expected, most of his proposals fall under the
economic rubric with special emphasis on boosting employment
and competitiveness, while preserving macroeconomic
stability. He offers to reduce bureaucratic expenses by
revising the federal government's administrative structure to
eliminate redundancies. He intends to promote equal
employment opportunity through fiscal incentives to
businesses and to strengthen financial support for small and
medium-size businesses, though he fails to provide specifics
as to the amount of incentives slated for businesses or by
what percentage bureaucratic expense will be reduced.


6. (C) Telecommunications. Calderon promises to define the
technical and economic aspects that will allow local number
portability in the second semester of 2007. He will act on
the CFC's recommendations to eliminate regulatory barriers
and allow a complete convergence in all telecommunication
related services. Again, Calderon fails to address how he
will do this. Moreover whether he will promote competition
in this sector remains in doubt.


7. (SBU) Infrastructure and Agrarian Development. In
infrastructure he promises to continue highway and hospital
construction already in progress, specifically on highways in
the Southeast and seven hospitals throughout the country. A
plan to reduce agrarian production costs to U.S. and Canadian
levels would be articulated to prepare for the elimination of
tariffs in 2008. Calderon intends to reduce migration to the
U.S. through the promotion of agricultural programs that
guarantee earnings to farmers for their crops, increase
credit to young farmers to facilitate the acquisition of
parcels and provide technical assistance and education in
order to improve productivity and innovation.

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Health, education and poverty reduction
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MEXICO 00003609 002 OF 002




8. (SBU) Calderon offers to provide medical insurance to all
newborns after the first trimester of 2007, to send small
medical units to the rural communities in the states of
Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas, to endorse campaigns for
disease prevention and health education, and to increase the
supply of medicines in hospitals and clinics throughout the
country.


9. (SBU) Calderon stresses that education is an essential
area that needs to be improved. He proposes to increase the
budget destined for government scholarships to more than 7.5
million children, boost security in schools with the
participation of the entire community, and enhance education
at university level and for advanced degrees.


10. (SBU) To reduce poverty he intends to develop a support
program to facilitate and provide housing for poor families.
He intends to subsidize electricity destined to the poorest
families in the country and to promote the construction of
water plants in Mexico City.

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Comment
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11. (C) Attempting to obtain a majority of the undecided
votes and concerned about a slight drop in the polls, Felipe
Calderon presented his most detailed proposals with only a
few days remaining before the presidential election. The
timing of this release suggests his concern over the negative
impact created by Lopez Obrador's allegations that Calderon
had worked his influence while in office to divert state
contracts to his brother-in-law. Despite the detail presented
in the proposals, Calderon failed to explain from where or
how he intends to fund many of these initiatives, and thus,
their effectiveness remains questionable. Additionally, we
question Calderon's ability to accomplish these actions in
100 days since 31 of the 100 actions would require either
Congressional approval or negotiation with Municipal and
State governments.



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