We\u2019re entering the closing stretch of the first half of a politically charged 2013. A year ago, Mexico lied under the heat of Presidential campaigns and legislative federal elections. Nowadays, the first storm clouds are appearing on the horizon, thus announcing the end of the \u201cPe\u00f1a spring\u201d (though some call it \u201choneymoon\u201d but perhaps the Pact for Mexico wasn\u2019t as much as a marriage as it was a \u201cseasonal concubinage\u201d). With the weakening of the President\u2019s negotiating momentum, if \u201cless complex\u201d matters than the ambitious tax and energy reforms, such as the designation of a vacancy within the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), the agreements as to when to enact the secondary legislation regarding education and even the Presidential ratification of the telecommunications reform, proceed at a slow pace, what can we expect from an intense and wuthering second half of 2013? In the meantime, there is no shortage of controversial issues.<\/p>\n
1- What is \u201cignited\u201d with the analogue switch-off? On May 28, after Tijuana became \u2013 at least for a few hours \u2013 the first city to advance towards the digital terrestrial television (TDT) system, this issue began capturing attention of citizens all over the country that ignore that they will experience the same at the end of 2015, at the latest. Whether this action was determined before the recent telecommunications law (which still awaits the signature of President Pe\u00f1a), the switch-off effects are complemented with some dispositions of the reform. The most affected parties are not the about 14 thousand Tijuana homes without digital converters for their TV sets, but the two main concessionaries of analogue TV signals: Televisa and TV Azteca. What are the myths and realities behind the analogue switch-off? What will their benefits be in order to enhance competition within the sector?<\/p>\n
2- Miguel \u00c1ngel Mancera embraces the federal government\u2019s example: it\u2019s all about image. On June 3rd, the City Mayors Foundation announced that the Mexico City mayor was named \u201cMayor of the Month\u201d. On its website, City Mayors only highlights merits in his time as Mexico City\u2019s Attorney General, in which crime reduced by 12%. Undoubtedly, this distinction contrasts with unfortunate events that range from the raids against the \u201ckiller dogs\u201d in Iztapalapa to the alleged disappearance of Tepito youngsters in Zona Rosa. In short, the Mayor does seem to have a good PR strategy abroad, but perhaps it\u2019s not as successful when measured by the reality of the city as well as the citizens\u2019 perception. How is Mancera evaluated in the first six months of his administration?<\/p>\n
3- The key of remittances: first signs of exhaustion? According to the latest report of the Bank of Mexico, remittances of Mexican workers abroad, mainly from USA, have decreased for tenth month in a row in its annual figures (that is to say, comparing the amount of one month with the same month of the previous year). Even if the monthly figures are still a considerable amount (1.9018 billion dollars as of April 2013), the central bank acknowledges structural and cyclical faults that explain the downward trend. However, beyond factors such as the relative strength of peso against dollar, and U.S. unemployment rate, we have to reflect upon a potential regularization of most of Mexicans within U.S. territory. Would this be the beginning of a drastic decrease in the remittances flow towards Mexico?<\/p>\n
4- The bad habit of sustaining a \u201ccrippled\u201d IFE (and the even worse habit of taking away its civic nature). On May 29, the Federal Electoral Court (TEPJF) decided to urge the Congress\u2019s Permanent Commission to call the Chamber of Deputies to an extraordinary session, in order to choose who would fill the vacancy within the IFE\u2019s General Council which was left by Sergio Garc\u00eda Ram\u00edrez since last February. This determination came as a result of a complaint issued by PRI, given the refusal of opposition parties to take the voting for some of the final candidates to the Senate. Once again, just like it happened over a year ago, political issues would leave the Institute incomplete. This, not taking into account that, in the next months, up to four counselors would be finishing their period of service. Is it time to re-examine the current \u201ccivic partisanship\u201d of IFE counselors\u2019 election?<\/p>\n
5- Four years of impunity: the ABC childcare facilities. On June 5th, the fourth anniversary of the death of 49 infants inside the childcare facilities in Hermosillo will be commemorated. In its time, the incident influenced the local election process in Sonora, where PRI members who governed the state as well as the municipality handed over their role for PAN candidates. However, this seemed the only real consequence for any high-level officer who was directly or indirectly involved with the matter. From the owners of the establishment (one of them, a political relative of former President Calder\u00f3n) to those responsible for authorizing the subrogation of the childcare facilities, a media lynching was all the punishment they ever received. As it usually happens in this sort of cases, in a country where justice procurement is neither swift nor adequate, how profitable is it for authorities to \u201cplace a bet on time\u201d?<\/p>\n
Antonio De la Cuesta<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re entering the closing stretch of the first half of a politically
\ncharged 2013. A year ago, Mexico lied under the heat of Presidential
\ncampaigns and legislative federal elections. Nowadays, the first storm
\nclouds are appearing on the horizon, thus announcing the end of the
\n\u201cPe\u00f1a spring\u201d (though some call it \u201choneymoon\u201d but perhaps the Pact for
\nMexico wasn\u2019t as much as a marriage as it was a \u201cseasonal concubinage\u201d).
\n With the weakening of the President\u2019s negotiating momentum, if \u201cless
\ncomplex\u201d matters than the ambitious tax and energy reforms, such as the
\ndesignation of a vacancy within the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE),
\nthe agreements as to when to enact the secondary legislation regarding
\neducation and even the Presidential ratification of the
\ntelecommunications reform, proceed at a slow pace, what can we expect
\nfrom an intense and wuthering second half of 2013? In the meantime,
\nthere is no shortage of controversial issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-3194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-political-analysis","tag-week-ahead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3194"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4545,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions\/4545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cidacmx.org\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}