PRESIDENT CALDERON DELIVERS HIS "STATE OF THE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MEXICO 002753 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KCRM SNAR ECON EFIN ETRD EINV ELAB ENRG, EPET, KJUS, SENV, SOCI, MX SUBJECT: PRESIDENT CALDERON DELIVERS HIS "STATE OF THE UNION" IN WRITING ¶1. Summary. President Calderon presented the written version of an annual report on the &state of the union8 to Congress on September 1. Over prior decades, Mexico's president would deliver this report orally to Congress. Over the summer recess, however, Congress passed legislation that amended the Constitution dispensing with this tradition and calling on the President instead to present the report in writing. Calderon used the report to present a laundry list of his administrations accomplishments in the areas of Rule of Law and Public Security, Economic Competitiveness and Employment Generation, Equal Opportunity, Protection of the Environment, and Democratic Effectiveness and Responsible Foreign Policy. Separately, he has produced a series of television spot ads to present the case for his achievements directly to the public. Congress preserves for itself the right to call on the government to address outstanding questions emerging from the report. Ironically, however, while the Congress eliminated oral delivery of the report to Congress with the intention of diminishing the president's stature, as an unintended consequence, it has spared the president an uncomfortable confrontation with Congress. End Summary. ¶2. Interior Secretary Juan Camilio Mourino delivered a written copy of President Calderon's annual report to Congressional leaders on September 1. The report of over 500 pages included an executive summary that provided the equivalent of a laundry list of the administration's achievements over the last year in five different areas including Rule of Law and Public Security, Economic Competitiveness and Employment Generation, Equal Opportunity, Protection of the Environment, and Democratic Effectiveness and Responsible Foreign Policy . Rule of Law and Public Security ¶3. Calderon stressed that security remains his top priority. Describing it as a shared responsibility, he noted the importance he attached to joint cooperation amongst the different enforcement agencies. He pledged to clean the police forces and eliminate corruption through the implementation of psychological and drug tests and polygraph exams, the latter of which different USG agencies support. In his report, he identifies the following as his administration's most important initiatives and achievements. 
 -- Deployed joint operations in the Mexican states of Sinoloa, Durango, Chihuahua, Michoacan, Guerrero, Nuevo Laredo and Tamaulipas to combat organized crime. -- Detained several major organized crime leaders including Jesus Raul Beltran Uriarte, Alfredo Beltran, and Sandra Avila. -- Captured over 200 kidnappers and the broke up more than 30 kidnapping rings. -- Raised the salaries of army officials by over 40 percent and of naval officials by over 57 percent. -- Provided over 198,000 SEDENA officials human rights training. -- Recruited into SEDENA 723 women in the first half of 2008 ) four times more over the same period in 2007. -- Created a telecommunications network to link public security institutions from all 32 federal entities with a centralized criminal information system. -- Won adoption of judicial reform legislation that will strengthen the investigation of organized crime. -- Forged the Merida Initiative with the U.S. founded on the principle of shared responsibility with a view to bilateral cooperation in the form of equipment transfer and training. Economic Competitiveness and Employment Generation ¶4. Calderon asserted that Mexico's economy remains reasonably strong despite the adverse global outlook. He maintained that during his two years in power 800,000 formal jobs have been created. Mexico's 3 percent GDP growth, while not sufficient to make a significant dent in poverty, was not bad for a global environment characterized by recession and high inflation. Calderon highlighted that, outside of Canada, Mexico had the lowest inflation in the Americas. Speaking to energy prices, Calderon noted that despite recent increases in gasoline and fuel prices, gasoline in Mexico is MEXICO 00002753 002 OF 004 still forty percent cheaper than in the United States. ¶5. Calderon's report to Congress maintains that the government seeks to create opportunities and improve the economic welfare of all Mexicans but in particular the most impoverished. To that end, it has sought to generate greater economic growth and more employment. The government has focused its efforts in three areas: 1) maintain and consolidate macroeconomic stability through sound public finance policies; 2) implement structural economic reforms that will transform the production apparatus with a long term vision; and 3) diversify the basis for economic growth, stimulate greater competition, and promote investment in different sectors of the economy, including infrastructure, tourism, rural regions, housing, and telecommunications. It cited the following initiatives and achievements. -- Maintained low inflation levels on a par with the continent's best performers. -- Won passage of fiscal reform legislation which has helped generate a record level of funds dedicated to social development ) over $112.5 billion. -- Sent Congress energy reform legislation. -- Seek to invest over 5 pct of the country's GDP in infrastructure; a record amount of over $48 billion was invested in infrastructure in 2007. -- Seek to transform Mexico into one of the world's principal logistic platforms. -- Constructed and modernized highways with public-private investment exceeding $8.1 billion over the administration's first two years ) three times what was spent over the first two years of the last administration. -- Extended electric service to over 97.3 percent of the population. -- Extended potable water service to 90.8 percent of the population and sewage service to over 86.6 percent of the country's population. -- Attracted $2.5 billion in direct foreign investment with the amount coming from the European Union growing from 18 percent of the total in 2000 to 45 percent in 2007. -- Registered a 17 percent growth in exports in the first six months of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007 and, whereas in 2000 only 88.7 percent of Mexico's exports went to the U.S., in the first six months of 2008, that number had declined to 80 percent. This is attributed to an increase of 49 and 42 percent respectively in exports to Europe and Latin America. -- Generated the creation of over 800,000 new jobs from the end of 2006 through mid-2008. -- Helped those affected by food price increases by eliminating taxes on grains, reducing tariffs on basic products, generating greater domestic productivity, and providing direct financial assistance to families in need. -- Launched a new program to promote the creation of jobs in rural areas. Equal Opportunity ¶6. The report stresses the administration's commitment to improving access to education, health care, decent housing, good jobs, and a strong social network. It identified eliminating extreme poverty and closing huge wealth disparities as the government's highest priorities in this field. It listed the following as its most important initiatives and achievements -- Combat extreme poverty by strengthening the government's &Programa Oportunidades8 which is helping over 5 million families. -- Guarantee access for newborns that don't belong to the social security system to doctors, medicine, and clinics. -- Approved over 266,000 projects to assist impoverish families to purchase their own home. MEXICO 00002753 003 OF 004 Protection of the Environment ¶7. The report describes the government's efforts to harmonize its development strategies with policies to conserve and protect the environment. Calderon's efforts have not attracted much media attention but, by all appearances, he is genuinely committed to doing more to protect the environment. His report touted the following initiatives and achievements. -- Planted 9.4 million trees on one day ) July 5, 2008 ) with the aid of private citizens and organizations and which the government maintains is a record in Latin America. -- Eliminated the import of gases that damage the ozone layer. -- Planted more than 253 million trees in 2007 ) one fourth of the total established by the UN for the entire world ) covering 580,000 hectares or twice the amount of the prior year. -- Invested four times more money in the conservation of forests in 2007 than the prior year. Democratic Effectiveness and Responsible Foreign Policy ¶8. In seeking to strengthen the country's democratic character, the government discusses its efforts to promote constructive dialogue with the government's other branches, all political parties and civil society. It proudly notes it collaborative efforts with Congress helped produce legislation on fiscal, pension and judicial reform. It also boasts of efforts to promote greater transparency and accountability through the expansion of access to government information. ¶9. In speaking to its foreign policy, the administration has sought to develop strategies to take advantage of globalization in a manner consistent with Mexico's interests and respectful of its international obligations. -- It describes Mexico's efforts to consolidate its status as an &indispensable actor8 in Latin America allowing it to promote regional stability and integration. -- In March, Mexico assumed the lead of the Rio Group which it describes as the &most important organization for dialogue in the region.8 -- Mexico also sought to place a discussion of efforts to combat organized crime on the agendas of regional meetings. -- Proyecto Mesoamerica ) formally known as Plan Puebla Panama ) represents Mexico's efforts to promote greater integration in the fields of electricity, health, the environment, and housing in Central America and Colombia. -- In 2008, the government forged a Strategic Association between Mexico and the European Union aimed at promoting greater trade and investment between the two. -- As coordinator of the Group of Five made up of Brazil, China, India, South Africa, and Mexico, Mexico promoted more meaningful dialogue with the Group of Eight. -- Mexico has won the support of countries within Latin America and the Caribbean for its election in October to the UN Security Council for the period 2009-2010. -- The Merida Initiative provides a framework of cooperation for both the U.S. and Mexico to tackle shared challenges in combating organized crime. -- Mexico remains committed to respect for its citizens living in the U.S. Be Careful What You Wish For( ¶10. In decades past, Mexico's president would deliver this report to Congress to much fanfare on a day celebrated as the &President's Day.8 A subservient Congress dominated by the PRI would applaud the president's list of accomplishments and the press would faithfully and uncritically report them in a tradition that served only to embellish the president's authority. Of course, that tradition has weakened over recent years. In 2006, protesting the July 2006 election of Felipe Calderon, opposition Congressmen blocked outgoing President Vicente Fox from entering the Congress to give his MEXICO 00002753 004 OF 004 last report. Last year, Calderon agreed to present a written version of his report but not present it orally so as to avoid a similar experience. ¶11. Seeking to dispel what it perceived as a vestige of an era when Mexican politics were dominated by the Mexican President who always hailed from the PRI, Congress passed a bill this past summer that dispensed with this tradition. Under this bill that reforms Mexico's Constitution, the President no longer delivers his address orally to the Congress. Instead, he must deliver a copy of the written report to Congress on September 1. The Congress reserves for itself the right to request the administration through its key cabinet members to address specific concerns either in writing or at a Congressional hearing. If it remains unsatisfied, the Congress also reserves the right to call upon the President to respond. ¶12. Comment. While the opposition introduced this reform as a way to diminish the power of the president ) and, in the case of the PRD, to deprive Calderon of some measure of his legitimacy ) it has also served to spare him what had become an unpleasantly confrontational exercise. Few actually read this 500 page tome. However, nothing prevents Calderon from going on television to deliver five minute advertisements touting his government's accomplishments as outlined in the report. In this manner, he gets his message out without having to face the controversy and criticism which in the past overshadowed the report. No doubt, upon reviewing the report, the opposition parties may avail themselves of their right to criticize the report and call on him to address their concerns. Or they may be too caught up in debates over the budget to give it the time they would like. Either way, their response is not likely to generate the kind of publicity as would a response at the time the president delivers his report, prompting some to suggest that it is only a matter of time before the Congress once again requires the President to present his report orally to Congress. . Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / GARZA