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  1. #1
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    Mexico Swears in President Amid Violent Protests

    Mexico Swears in President Amid Violent Protests

    By By MARK STEVENSON and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press
    MEXICO CITY December 1, 2012 (AP)

    Enrique Pena Nieto took the oath of office as Mexico's new president on Saturday, bringing the old ruling party back to power after a 12-year hiatus amid protests inside and outside the congressional chamber where he swore to protect the constitution and laws of the land.

    The chamber erupted in cheers after a morning of violent protests, with congress members chanting "President!" and "Mexico!"

    Outside, protesters opposed to the new president clashed with tear gas-wielding police, but had mostly dispersed before he arrived. At least two were injured, one gravely, police said, and a police officer who was bleeding from the face was taken for medical treatment.

    Leftist congress members inside the chamber gave protest speeches and hung banners, including a giant one reading, "Imposition consummated. Mexico mourns."

    "One word sums up Dec. 1: The restoration. The return to the past," said Congressman Ricardo Monreal of the Citizens Movement party.

    Pena Nieto had taken over at midnight in a symbolic ceremony after campaigning as the new face of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, repentant and reconstructed after being voted out of the presidency in 2000. The PRI ruled for 71 years with a mix of populist handouts, graft and rigged elections.

    Before Pena Nieto's motorcade arrived later that morning, hundreds banged on the tall steel security barriers around Congress, threw rocks, bottle rockets and firecrackers at police and yelled "Mexico without PRI!" Police responded by spraying tear gas from a truck and used fire extinguishers on flames from Molotov cocktails. One group of protesters rammed and dented the barrier with a large garbage-style truck before being driven off by police water cannons.

    "We're against the oppression, the imposition of a person," said Alejandro, 25, a student and protester who didn't want to give his last name for fear of reprisals. "He gave groceries, money and a lot more so people would vote for him."

    Before the swearing in, leftist congressmen inside the chambers demanded to know what was going on in the crowds and urged police to use restraint. Congressman Rafael Huerta of the Labor Party urged the new government to protect the people.

    Another banner read: "You're giving up a seat bathed in blood," referring to outgoing President Felipe Calderon's attack on organized crime and the deaths of 60,000 people in that offensive by some counts.

    Despite the protests, the swearing-in atmosphere at Congress was far less chaotic than six years ago, when Calderon security unit literally had to muscle him past blockades and protesters to get him into Congress so he could take the oath of office after a razor-thin, disputed victory over a leftist candidate.

    Calderon had worked hard for a smooth transition after his experience.

    After the oath-taking, the new president headed to deliver an inaugural speech at the historic National Palace in the city's downtown. Pena Nieto also planned a luncheon for invited guests, including U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Prince Felipe of Spain and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

    Pena Nieto has promised to govern democratically with transparency. But his first moves even before the inauguration showed a solid link to the past. In announcing his Cabinet on Friday, he turned to the old guard as well as new technocrats to run his administration.

    "I don't think there is any such thing as a 'new PRI,'" said Rodrigo Aguilera, the Mexico analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit. "There is a new generation of PRI members, but they don't represent any fundamentally different outlook."

    Pena Nieto has pledged to make economic growth and job creation the centerpiece of his administration, with campaign manager and long-time confidant Luis Videgaray the point person. Videgaray, a 44-year-old economist with a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will lead the treasury department.

    Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, a 48-year-old former state governor who is known as a political operator and deal maker, has been named secretary of the interior, a post that will play a key role in security matters.

    Pena Nieto has also promised to push for reforms that could bring major new private investment into Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, the crucial but struggling state-owned oil industry. Such changes that have been blocked for decades by nationalist suspicion of foreign meddling in the oil business.

    Mexico Swears in President Amid Violent Protests - ABC News
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  2. #2
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    The more murder, corruption, violence, poverty, and mayhem in Mexico, the more Mexicans will flee to the refuge of Obamacare, Dream Act Amnesty, welfare, and stealing millions of more American jobs.

    Prepared for another Mexican Human Tsunami ..
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  3. #3
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Protests Raged as Enrique Peña Nieto was Sworn in as Mexico's President

    By Lauren Villagran
    Published December 01, 2012


























    Mexico City – Federal police arrested more than 60 people, reportedly identifying themselves as “anarchists,” for bashing in windows of hotels, restaurants and banks in the capital city’s historic center.

    The violence marred otherwise peaceful protests around centro histórico, where the newly inaugurated President Enrique Peña Nieto was delivering a speech inside the National Palace.

    Broken glass littered Avenida Juárez where protestors destroyed the façade of the Hilton and Fiesta Inn hotels. The plush purple chairs of a corner Starbucks sat in the open air, covered in shards of glass.

    We’ve never had a provocation like this in the city.
    - Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard

    Across the street in the newly rehabilitated Alameda Park—part of a popular tourist corridor that leads toward the famous Zocalo plaza and National Palace—protestors sprayed graffiti on statues and monuments.

    The damage was done despite there being several hundred city and federal police on guard in the area. Sixty-five people have been arrested so far, according to Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. Police are investigating.

    “We’ve never had a provocation like this in the city,” Ebrard said in a press conference. “We reject totally and absolutely these barbarous acts.”

    In several skirmishes, protestors also hurled rocks and other objects at police, who responded with tear gas. There were reports of damages to businesses along two other important thoroughfares, Reforma and Insurgentes avenues.

    The youth movement known for its hashtag #YoSoy132 and its disdain for Peña Nieto wrote from its official Twitter account that the movement isn’t in agreement “with the imposition” of Peña Nieto “nor with the violence.” The movement repeated its commitment to pacific demonstrations.

    Read more: Protests Raged as Enrique Peña Nieto was Sworn in as Mexico's President | Fox News Latino


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  4. #4
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    New President of Mexico Vows to Focus on Economy

    Josh Haner/The New York Times
    Enrique Peña Nieto, center, meeting with lawmakers at the national palace of Mexico on Saturday.

    By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and KARLA ZABLUDOVSKY

    Published: December 1, 2012

    MEXICO CITY — With protests and little pomp, Enrique Peña Nietoon Saturday began his six-year term as president of Mexico, promising big spending and sweeping changes to bring peace and prosperity to a country troubled by drug violence and uneven economic growth.

    “This is Mexico’s moment,” Mr. Peña Nieto declared in his inaugural address before a gathering of domestic and foreign leaders at the national palace, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., seated in the front row, while demonstrators kept far from the scene vandalized buildings outside.

    Mr. Peña Nieto, 46, a lawyer who had been governor of Mexico State, has pledged to work closely with the United States to strengthen security and economic ties, which he believes would bring Mexico closer to a middle-class society and reduce the kind of drug war violence that has left tens of thousands dead in the past several years.

    He made no promise to dismantle the drug-trafficking organizations, a focus of his immediate predecessor, Felipe Calderón. Instead, he unveiled a sweeping 13-point agenda focused more on domestic goals for crime prevention that would revise the penal code to attack impunity, give more attention to victims of violence, lessen poverty and hunger, improve schooling and even build new passenger train lines and expand Internet access.

    “We are a nation that is growing at two speeds; some live behind and in poverty and others live in the developing part,” he said, alluding to new manufacturing plants and investments but also grinding poverty that affects half the population.

    “There are a great number of Mexicans who live every day worried about the lack of employment and opportunities,” he added. “Those conditions also damage the image of Mexico abroad, and that is the Mexico that must be transformed.”

    Still, his administration will be watched to see if it is propelling Mexico forward or backward.

    Mr. Peña Nieto ushers in a new era for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which ruled Mexico for more than 70 years before the more conservative National Action Party toppled it in 2000 and again in 2006.
    Mr. Peña Nieto and his associates say they represent a new, chastened party bent on promoting efficiency and economic change — there were no public inaugural celebrations — and promising to fight the kind of corruption long associated with it.

    “It’s a very common misconception to think that the PRI’s return to power means the return of something that is already in history,” Luis Videgaray, who led the president’s transition team and is now finance minister, said in a recent interview.

    “The PRI of today is like any other party: a party that competes in a democracy, that accepts results and understands that only through good government would it be able to compete again in elections,” he said.

    But Mr. Peña Nieto hardly begins with a mandate; he won 38 percent of the vote and faces a divided Congress. He recited the oath of office before Congress amid cheers and jeers, mostly from leftist legislators, and left the congressional chamber quickly.

    Later, outside the national palace, scores of mostly young masked people clashed with the police, set fires, threw rocks and vandalized hotels and stores along several blocks. More than 60 were arrested and several were injured.

    “The corruption and mockery are going to keep getting worse in Mexico,” said one protester. “The cabinet is a bunch of thieves.”

    When Mr. Peña Nieto announced his cabinet on Friday, it was clear that he had relied largely on PRI stalwarts, including five former governors. But he also placed several foreign-educated technocrats from his inner circle, including Mr. Videgaray, in prominent positions.

    Andrew Selee, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute in Washington, said Mr. Peña Nieto seemed intent on reaffirming the power of the state, a hallmark of his party, while also hinting at taking on interest groups. He specifically promised an end to entrenched employment in the education system, seen as a jab at the powerful teachers’ union, which has long backed his party and has stymied changes.

    “After several years of decentralized government in Mexico, Peña Nieto seems intent on showing that the Mexican state is back and that all of the interest groups in the country will need to respect his authority,” Mr. Selee said. “How significant these efforts are in reality depends on what he does next, but symbolically Peña Nieto reasserted the power of the presidency after years
    of what many Mexicans feel has been fragmented and ineffective government.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/world/americas/enrique-pena-nieto-takes-office-as-mexicos-president.html?_r=0

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  5. #5
    Senior Member HAPPY2BME's Avatar
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    Nieto's inauguration honeymoon lasted less that 30 minutes. Really less than that if you count the time he swore in and his exit from the building he swore it in.

    Our nightmare with Mexico will last another hundred years ..
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