Mexico's Pena Nieto, a New Face Pledging to Break With Old Ways Pablo Perez - Agence France-Presse | |
go to original August 31, 2012 |
MEXICO CITY — Enrique Pena Nieto was the suave candidate with slicked-back hair who vowed to break with his PRI party's authoritarian past and quell the drug violence plaguing Mexico.
Now that the federal electoral tribunal has finally sealed his July 1 presidential election victory, Pena Nieto will get his chance to prove to Mexicans he will indeed be a man of change when he takes office on December 1.
The dapper 46-year-old politician is the fresh new face of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for 71 years with a mix of patronage, repression and corruption before losing the presidency in 2000.
Gone is the PRI of the "dinosaurs," the tough old bosses who imposed their will through a vast, well-oiled party machine -- at least that was the image that Pena Nieto projected.
Although he was mentored by his party's old guard, the former Mexico state governor convinced Mexicans to give the PRI a new shot at the presidency after 12 years of conservative National Action Party (PAN) governments.
"There will be no return to the past. This PRI has shown its commitment to democracy," Pena Nieto told journalists in July.
But Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the election's leftist runner-up, charged that the PRI returned to its old ways by buying millions of votes and exceeding spending limits to ensure Pena Nieto's victory.
The elections tribunal, however, declared Pena Nieto the rightful winner on Friday after rejecting the left-wing coalition's claims as unfounded.
Pena Nieto will take over from outgoing President Felipe Calderon, whose six-year term was overshadowed by drug-related violence that has left more than 50,000 people dead since troops were deployed against cartels in 2006.
Pena Nieto has vowed to press on with the offensive against cocaine and meth traffickers, but he insists his priority will be to reduce daily violence terrorizing Mexicans.
"It is clear to me that people want immediate, short-term results ... with a reduction of the crime and kidnapping rates," he said.
A lawyer with an MBA degree, Pena Nieto worked in state-level PRI administrations, was elected to the state congress in 2003 and became Mexico state governor in 2005.
Early in his career he also learned the benefits of working with the media -- especially television, and if necessary paying for good coverage.
Biographer Jenaro Villamil derides Pena Nieto as "the candidate of Televisa," the largest broadcaster in the Spanish-speaking world.
Pena Nieto often paid Televisa soap opera actresses to join him in inaugurating public works in a relentless effort to promote himself and his administration.
His name spread to entertainment magazines when he began dating, and later married, Angelica Rivera, one of the Televisa actresses hired to promote his good works and the star of the hit telenovela "Distilled Love."
"This was about transforming a governor and his work into a reality show, perfectly produced, calculated to the most minimum details, mixing his public and private life, creating a ... continuous spectacle," Villamil wrote in his book "If I Were President."
Pena Nieto struggled when he went off-script during the election. In one memorable gaffe, a reporter asked him to name three books that influenced him -- and the candidate struggled for nearly five minutes to come up with an answer.
Pena Nieto has three children from his first marriage, which dates back to 1993. He was widowed 13 years later after his first wife died from an epileptic seizure.
Pena Nieto later admitted fathering two other children with different women, one of whom died of cancer.
We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!
From activities like hiking, swimming, bike riding and yoga, to restaurants offering healthy menus, Vallarta-Nayarit is the ideal place to continue - or start - your healthy lifestyle routine.