New president(s) in Mexico...

On December 1st, Vicente Fox stepped down from Mexico's presidency, while Felipe Calderón started his six year period. Since Calderón "won" the elections using electoral fraud plus other dirty manouvers, the civil unrest surrounding all of his events is noticeable.

Usually, the exchange of presidential powers is made before the Congress. Everybody says speeches, promise everything will be better, and so on. However, there had been a strong militarization around the Congress building in Mexico City fearing civil demonstrations, especially after Vicente Fox was unable to give his last presidential report (to my mind for the first time in our history), and when he had to move the celebrations of the Independence day and "cancel" those of the Revolution, knowing how many people would reming him of his mother if he shows himself in public. (Not to worry, the government of the City took care of both celebrations).

So, how things went: Exactly at midnight of December 1st, the powers were transfered
at a private ceremony inside the presidential residency of Los Pinos. However, this was televised, since it seems that TV has more weight and power in Mexico than the Congress...
An off voice declared Calderón president... should we interpret it as a metaphor of God? Of dark figures behind power? Salinas de Gortari? In any case, not the people, for sure.

Now, it is a constitutional requirement for a new president to be at the Congress. Three days before a fight broke out, where congressmen supporting or rejecting Calderón fought for the control of the tribune, where the change of powers should take place. There was no winner, and both camps stayed sleeping in the Congress Hall until Calderón showed up through the back door, in the middle of insults from socialist congressmen and applauses by his supporters, and in 5 minutes he was gone...

The members of the PRI (centerwing party) supported Calderón, in exchange of his support of Gov. Ulises Ruiz of Oaxaca, who has been facing trouble with people demanding his removal for several months now. Calderón's way of saying thank you: he arrested the leaders of the Oaxacan movement when they were in Mexico trying to reach an agreement with the federal government... So things don't look prosperous at all for freedom of speech and human rights...

But in parallel, Andres Manuel López Obrador, the "legitimate" president, will be organizing demonstrations to prevent neoliberal dreams from proliferating...

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