Felipe Calderón

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Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
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President of Mexico
Incumbent
Assumed office  1 December 2006
Preceded by	Vicente Fox
Born	18 August 1962 Morelia, Michoacán
Political party	National Action Party
Spouse	Margarita Zavala

Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (b. 18 August 1962 in Morelia, Michoacán) is the President of Mexico. He is affiliated to the right-of-center National Action Party (PAN) and serves a single six-year-term that began on December 1, 2006 and expires on November 30, 2012.

Early years

Felipe Calderón Hinojosa is the son of Luis Calderón Vega and María del Carmen Hinojosa González. He received a bachelor's degree in law from the Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City, a master's degree in economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University ^[1].

He is married to Margarita Zavala (a former PAN Federal deputy in the LIX Legislature) and has three children: María, Luis Felipe and Juan Pablo.

Political career

Felipe Calderón (left) with Vicente Fox (right)

Calderón was president of the PAN's youth movement in his early twenties.

He was a local representative in the Legislative Assembly, and on two different occasions in the federal Chamber of Deputies. He ran for the governorship of Michoacán in 1995 and served as national president of the PAN from 1996 to 1999. During his tenure, his party maintained control of 14 state capitals but also lost presence in the federal Chamber of Deputies.

Soon after Vicente Fox took office as president, Calderón was appointed director of Banobras, a national development bank. Later on he joined the presidential cabinet as Secretary of Energy, substituting Ernesto Martens. He left the post in May 2004 as a protest against Vicente Fox's criticizing his presidential ambitions while supporting those of Santiago Creel.

2006 presidential campaign

Felipe Calderón was chosen as the PAN presidential candidate by members of his own party in a series of three primary elections at the end of 2005. In these elections, he defeated the former Secretary of the Interior, Santiago Creel, and the former Governor of Jalisco, Alberto Cárdenas, by a comfortable margin.

Calderón accepted his party's nomination on 4 December 2005, and began his campaign on 1 January 2006.

Calderón's campaign gained momentum after the first presidential debate. Subsequent poll numbers showed a steady increase in his popularity and put him ahead of López Obrador from March to May; some polls favored him by as much as nine percentage points. This trend ceased after the second presidential debate. Final poll numbers indicated a very close election; some gave López Obrador the lead, while others either favored Calderón or indicated a technical tie.

Political and social views

A devout, conservative Roman Catholic, Calderón opposes abortion, euthanasia, contraception and gay marriage ^[2]. His proposed fiscal policies are conservative as well; he supports a flat tax and free trade, particularly with the United States.

Criticism

Criticism of Calderón surfaced during the presidential campaign, some of it originating from the PRD, and also from columnists and editorialists. His performance as Banobras director, the Fobaproa rescue, the Hildebrando case have all been the subject of criticism.

Banobras

Felipe Calderón has been accused of illegally borrowing and later re-paying 3 million pesos (300,000 US$) from Banobras, a state owned development bank, during his tenure as the bank's director ^[3].

Fobaproa

Main article: Fobaproa

The Fobaproa was a government-sponsored financial rescue of the Mexican financial system, including many private banks, after the 1994-95 Mexican financial crisis, also known as "the December mistake". The Fobaproa is a controversial issue, in which supporters claim that it helped save the economy of Mexico and prevent a worsening of the crisis, while detractors claim that this rescue was used to commit corruption.

During the presidential campaign of 2006, the PRD accused Felipe Calderón of "being complicit" in the Fobaproa, implying that the alleged crimes committed in its execution were orchestrated by Calderón. However, the execution of the Fobaproa was done by the Executive Branch, headed by President Ernesto Zedillo, of the PRI, while Felipe Calderón merely participated from the legislative branch (congress) by proposing an alternate financial system rescue project than that presented by the PRI (FOBAPROA).

It is to be noted that during those times, the legislative branch of government did not have the power it has today. Calderón voted for the adoption of the Fobaproa rescue package at that time, but did not sign the actual document as his detractors once said.

The Fobaproa continues to be a heated issue.

Hildebrando

In the presidential candidate debate of June 6, 2006, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, presidential candidate for the PRD, accused Felipe Calderón of granting contracts to a software company named Hildebrando ^[4], which Calderón's brother-in-law, Diego Zavala, founded and in which he has minority stock, during Calderón's eight-month tenure as Secretary of Energy. López Obrador also accused the company of tax evasion. Investigations are still being conducted, without any outcome yet.^[5]

Post-election controversy

Felipe Calderón and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, president of Brazil.

Main article: Mexican general election 2006 controversies

On 2 July 2006, the day of the election, the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) announced that the race was too close to call and chose not to make public a large and well-designed exit poll However, as the preliminary results of the unofficial PREP database made clear the next morning, Felipe Calderón had a small lead with 1.04%. ^[6]

The IFE called the candidates to abstain from pronouncing themselves as winner, president-elect or president. Both candidates disobeyed this call. Just after López Obrador declared that he had won the election Calderón proclaimed victory as well stating that, according to the initial figures of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), he had won the election. ^[7]

On 6 July 2006 the Federal Electoral Institute announced the official vote count in the 2006 presidential election, resulting in a narrow margin of 0.58% for Calderón over his closest contender, PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. However, López Obrador and his coalition alleged irregularities in a large number of polling stations and demanded a national recount. Ultimately the Federal Electoral Tribunal, in a unanimous vote, declared such recount to be groundless and unfeasible, and ordered a recount of about 9.07% of the 130,477 polling stations. ^[8]

On September 5, 2006, Calderón was unanimously declared President-elect by the Tribunal with a lead of 233,831 votes or 0.56% over López Obrador. The electoral court concluded that there were minor irregularities before and during the election, but these were not enough to invalidate the election The ruling was mandatory, final, and could not be appealed.^[9]

Presidency

Transfer of Power at Midnight

Ten minutes to midnight, on the 30th of November, an unprecedented event took place.^[10] In national television, outgoing president Vicente Fox Quesada and President-Elect Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa stood side by side, as Mr. Fox turned the Presidential Band to a cadet. Afterwards, Mr. Fox read a short speech indicating that he had concluded his mandate by receiving the flag "that had accompanied him during the last six years which he had devoted himself completely to the service of Mexico and had the utmost honor of being the President of the Republic".^[11] Then Mr. Calderón read a speech to the people of Mexico, indicating that he would attend to the inauguration ceremony at the Chamber of Deputies; and making a call to unity, with words he often used during his presidential campaign.

Inauguration

Despite the PRD's plans to prevent Calderon from taking office, the inauguration was able to proceed.At 12:00am CST, Mr. Calderon took the oath at the Los Pinos presidential residence., though Calderon had to take his official oath at the Congress, Palacio San Lazaro. Hours before Calderon's arrival, lawmakers from the PRD and PAN parties, began a brawl ^[12] where some representatives threw punches and pushed while others shouted at each other. PRD representatives shouting "Fuera Fox" and blowing whistles, while PAN representatives responded back with "Mexico Mexico Felipe Felipe". At 9:45am CST, all Mexican media cut to the official National Broadcast, where commentators discussed the situation, and showed scenes inside Palacio San Lazaro. At 9:50am CST, Calderon approached the podium where he was sworn in and speaking the oath that the Constitution requires him to. After the anthem, the shouts continued with the PAN representatives shouting "sí se pudo" (it was possible).^[13] Calderon stood in Congress for less than five minutes and walked out. At 10:00am CST the official broadcast was over and all other stations resumed their programming.

References

External links

• 2006 Campaign website (in Spanish)
• Office of the President of Mexico site (in Spanish)

Mexican Post-Revolution Presidents

Carranza | Huerta | Obregón | Elías Calles | Portes Gil | Ortiz Rubio | Luján Rodríguez | Cárdenas | Ávila Camacho | Alemán | Ruiz Cortines | López Mateos | Díaz Ordaz | Echeverría | López Portillo | de la Madrid | Salinas | Zedillo | Fox | Calderón

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