Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Wednesday that the future of democracy was at stake in the government’s fight against official corruption and organized crime, and he criticized politicians who he said want to return to the era when gangs were tolerated.
Calderon also called for making legislators more accountable to the public, including reducing the number of Congress members, while allowing them to serve more than one term and face voters’ judgment in re-election bids.
Speaking at a conference on security, the president gave a scathing appraisal on how far corruption has reached into Mexican government circles ahead of the July 5 midterm elections.
“What is at stake today is not just the result of an election, but rather the future of democracy, of representative institutions,” Calderon said. “For years ... crime was allowed to grow, expand and penetrate. Perhaps people thought it was a manageable thing.”
Calderon said the country, which has seen more than 10,800 deaths in organized crime violence since he took office in December 2006, “is at a historical crossroads.”
“To turn one’s head, to act as if you don’t see the crime in front of you, as some politicians want to do, is no option for Mexico,” he said.
He painted a grim picture of the security situation in some of the most violent parts of the country, noting that crime gangs and drug cartels were carrying out “an interminable recruitment of young people without hope, family, opportunities, future, beliefs or convictions.”
“They turn up dead in some morgue and nobody claims their bodies, as happens with more than 30 percent of the bodies in the most violent cities, like Ciudad Juarez [across the border from El Paso, Texas],” he said.
In Ciudad Juarez, authorities said on Wednesday that gunmen in a passing car killed an American teenager and his Mexican cousin as they stood at a corner. Officials didn’t release any information about a possible motive and no arrests were made.
The victims were identified by a relative as Raymundo Perez, 15, a student at El Dorado High School in Socorro, Texas, southeast of El Paso, and his cousin Alan Perez, 18, of Ciudad Juarez. Raymundo Perez lived in Socorro with his grandmother and aunt, but spent his vacation in Ciudad Juarez, where his parents live.
Earlier in the day, unidentified assailants in Ciudad Juarez tossed gasoline bombs into a billiard hall and a money exchange office. Last year, more than 30 businesses were burned in the city, where threats of arson are often used by extortionists linked to drug gangs.
In the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, investigators on Wednesday found the bodies of two local police officers who had been shot to death, the state’s public safety department said in a statement. It said the officers were kidnapped earlier on Wednesday a block away from city hall in the town of La Union.
Calderon repeated calls he made earlier in his political career as a congressman for reducing the number of federal legislators, now 500 seats in the Congress and 128 in the Senate. He didn’t offer any specific numbers, but argues that having fewer lawmakers would make it easier to hold them accountable for how well they work.
He also said letting legislators run for re-election would make them accountable to their constituents. In the current system, politicians from president to congressmen to town officials can serve in a specific post for only a single term, generally three or six years.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese